The Fall Guy - 4K UHD Theater at Home Review

Like a great stuntman, you just can’t keep a good intellectual property down… 

After speeding his way through five action-packed seasons of The Six Million Dollar Man, you’d think Lee Majors would have taken a break. But shortly after that show wrapped up, he strapped himself in for the Stuntman/Bounty Hunter classic series The Fall Guy. Shockingly, it’s taken almost 40 years since that show went off the air for a big budget full-throated Hollywood feature film to come along. And who better to handle a big explosive stunt show than former stuntman-turned-action-movie-director David Leitch. Action, romance, and comedy explode in abundance in this wildly entertaining if still a little uneven loose revival of The Fall Guy. 

There was a time when Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) was the best stuntman in the world for the biggest star in the world Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). That is until a backbreaking stunt went wrong and Colt retreated to parking cars. 18 months later, Tom’s latest movie needs the best to do the impossible and producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) convinces Colt to ride back into action. It doesn’t hurt that his former flame Jodey (Emily Blunt) is the film’s director! But when Tom goes MIA, Colt finds himself caught in a deadly conspiracy where the bad guys fire real bullets and the explosions can actually kill a guy! 

David Leitch is something of a cottage industry given his Hollywood background. The former stuntman and coordinator has gone on to build himself a heck of a career behind the camera. After his breakout with Deadpool 2, he’s become the go-to guy for big explosive action sequences while also maintaining a sense of lighthearted humor. This makes him a prime candidate for reviving a fan-favorite 80s television show like The Fall Guy into a rock’em sock’em action-packed stunt show. And for the most part, this update delivers the goods. 

With Ryan Gosling stepping in for Lee Majors, we have one of the biggest stars of our time giving all of his natural charm while being blown to bits. We also have Emily Blunt as our beautiful romantic interest who isn’t there to just stand and be pretty or be saved by our hero. And after that, unfortunately, that’s about it. While the film is a ton of fun, the villains are nonstarters. Part of this is because they’re just not very interesting threats but also the main plot doesn’t really even get going until most of an hour into the flick. For villains, their wants, needs, and motivations are pretty thin. Especially compared to the original show that saw Lee Majors working as a stuntman and part-time bounty hunter going on all sorts of dangerous missions without missing his call time. 

The biggest issue I had with our modern-day The Fall Guy is its pace and editing. For an action film looking to build momentum and excitement, it really likes to slip into neutral for characters to enjoy painfully long conversations. Again. And again. And then again, focusing way too much time trying to convince the audience of the obvious - Gosling and Blunt make a cute on-screen couple. Then there’s a needless sidequest where Colt is chasing someone high out of his gourd hallucinating unicorns. And that's all before the plot really gets going. We're still in setup mode at that point! Thankfully the film’s final hour steps on the gas and holds steady for a rousing conclusion. Clunky, yes, but not unredeemable. It’s a big-budget popcorn flick and seeing it in theaters my extra large bucket of corn with no butter didn’t last long! Overall I’d give this version of the film a respectable 3.5/5 - A great way to check out, go to the show, soak in some free air conditioning, eat terribly unhealthy snacks, and have fun.

Sadly, audiences didn’t turn out in droves on opening weekend and the film’s box office draw didn’t live up to the very modest expectations. Now, after two following weekends, The Fall Guy is now out to purchase for Theater at Home on your favorite digital retailers. (you can pre-order the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray discs now - we just don't have a release date) We’re not just getting the theatrical version of the film in Dolby Vision and Atmos, we’re not getting an Extended Cut bonus feature running a full twenty minutes longer! But is it a better movie now? 

Overall I’d say yes! From the jump, fans are going to notice that the opening voiceover of Colt’s life 18 months prior to the events of the film has been greatly scaled back. It stops dead once we see him eating a burrito and parking cars. It’s also linearly edited, no jump forwards and backward in time, making the opening credits sequence actually more rewarding and funny. And the rest of the film moves on like that. We see more time with Winston Duke’s Dan Tucker helping build that into a meaningful friendship. Likewise, we get a little more valuable time with Stephanie Hsu’s Alma Milan. And a lot of the clunky editing and pace issues I felt hindered the theatrical experience evened out for an overall better film. But it still has its drawbacks. Those romantically focused conversations are still far too long. I love Teresa Palmer and her turn as Tom’s girlfriend co-star Iggy Star is fun but she’s not needed and her unnecessary fight scene with Gosling's Colt is even longer. And that sidequest of Colt getting drugged up is also longer and even more manically over-the-top when ultimately it could be cut entirely and speed the film up drastically and probably not even miss anything. 

So yes, at twenty minutes longer, The Fall Guy Extended Edition is in my opinion a better experience. If this comes to disc, I hope it’s included on the 4K UHD Disc in full HDR and not limited as a digital HD extra. To that, I’ll say a better edit likely exists that finds the middle ground between the better scenes and pace of the Extended Cut but cuts out a lot of the redundancy and trims things up or outright deletes entire sequences. I mean, it’s cool to see Colt Seavers defenestrate and then refenestrate a commuter train, but the gag of doing it whilst high is obnoxiously dull. For every two great ideas, there’s one that plugs it up. But as I said before, that last hour redeems itself beautifully for a big explosive action-packed hold-onto-your-seat smashing popcorn-in-your-face entertainment. Not necessarily an amazing film but a damn fun one well worth enjoying on the biggest screen you can find, even if it is at home. Extended Edition - 4/5

Vital Stats: The 4K Theater at Streaming Streaming
As The Fall Guy sadly underperformed at theaters, Universal moves it to Theater at Home in almost record time (inside of only three weekend frames). Redeemable via Movies Anywhere, you score the film for digital streaming from your favorite online retailers connected to your account. You get the Theatrical Cut in 4K Dolby Vision with Atmos audio. The Extended Edition is a bonus feature that as of this review only plays in HD with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 Audio.

Presented in Dolby Vision HDR, the 4K stream of this was pretty great. Most of the film is brightly lit, bold, and colorful; this streaming presentation shines brightest. Where I had a bit of a tift with the streaming 4K was low lights and some shadows. The most notable offender to me was when we see Colt about to go pick up the schmuck’s car and the red light that’s cast on him just looked hard and flat without much character or lighting nuance. Likewise some hard black shadows could look quite blocky - but that’s my standard complaint for streaming 4K HDR. Nine times out of ten, once the film comes to 4K disc and enjoys a higher bitrate, that issues is resolved. Details are sharp and clear letting those various beards and interesting character faces come through beautifully. 4.5/5

On the audio side I had a bit of an interesting ride. Fandango At Home (RIP the easier to say VUDU), said I should be getting Dolby Atmos with my screening, but that never triggered. Only Dolby Digital Plus, which sounds okay, but, not earth-shattering. For a movie with that many explosions and big loud stunt-filled action sequences, you want earth shattering. Flipping over to iTunes, I got the Atmos and it sounded pretty damn good. Again, with all of the compression added to streaming editions, I’m betting the disc will perform better but this version had great channel spread, and plenty of pin-point overhead activity with sides and rears firing nicely. A big active mix for a big fun flick.

Technically the Extended Edition is listed as a “Bonus Feature.” Running at twenty minutes longer, I do stand that it’s the better version of the film, even if it still could be much shorter. I was only able to see this in HD with Dolby Digital Plus audio. Since there aren’t any other extras included (yet) I’m leaving the star-score blank for now. 

• Extended Cut (HD 2:26:23)

While I wouldn’t call The Fall Guy an amazing film, it is a damned fun flick. It deserved a better theatrical run. Outside of the trailers overselling the romance angle, I can’t figure why this one was a box office non-starter beyond just some bad timing. Sure, It’s a loose adaptation of the show, but the spirit is the same. We have a guy going outside of his normal job description and getting involved in a bigger scheme where the only way out is a fiery cannon roll with perfectly-timed pyrotechnics. It’s big, loud, popcorn-munching fun. See it in theaters while you can, but if you can’t make it to the big screen, this streaming Theater at Home experience is a worthwhile one - and you can see the better Extended Cut. Hopefully, the 4K disc currently up for preorder will offer both cuts with full atmos, Dolby Vision,  and piles of extra features. So until then, I’m calling this Recommended