“The Fall Guy”, which is incidentally released as “The Stuntman” in South Korean theaters (I hope that local audiences will not mistake it for the remake of Richard Rush’s “The Stunt Man” (1979), by the way), has a lot of fun with its cheerful mix of comedy, action, and a bit of romance. Loosely based on the popular American TV series of the same name in the 1980s, the movie provides enough entertainment as its titular hero tumble into one risky moment after another, and the overall result is good enough to compensate for some glaring flaws including its occasionally uneven narrative.

Ryan Gosling, who demonstrated his considerable talent and presence again via his recent Oscar-nominated turn in Greta Gerwig’s enormous hit film “Barbie” (2023), plays Colt Seavers, a professional movie stuntman whose promising career was suddenly halted due to one unfortunate incident. At that time, he was participating in the shooting of a movie as the stunt double of its star lead actor Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), and everything looked fine as Seavers was about to do another take as requested by Ryder, but that regrettably led to a serious physical injury of his.

Several months later, Seavers is now working as a parking lot valet, and he is mostly fine with being away from his former career, but there comes a sudden call from Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham), the executive producer of that movie. Gail is making another movie starring Ryder in Australia, and she wants to hire Seavers as a new stunt double for Ryder. Although he is reluctant at first, Seavers eventually accepts the request mainly because this new movie happens to be the directorial debut work of Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), who was his girlfriend around the time of that unlucky incident.

When Seavers arrives at a location where Moreno and her crew members including a bunch of stuntmen led by Seavers’ old friend Dan Tucker (Winston Duke), the situation turns out to be a bit more complicated than he expected. Because Gail did not tell anything about him to Moreno, Moreno is not so pleased about encountering him again. While she keeps working as usual, she eventually comes to let out her feelings about him when they and others are making one brief but important shot, and it seems they can actually restart their relationship once his job is done.

However, there is another problem. Gail subsequently reveals to Seavers that Ryder, who is your typical spoiled movie star, was gone missing a few days ago, and she asks Seavers to find and bring back Ryder as soon as possible. Although he does not like Gail or Ryder that much, Seavers cannot say no again because he knows Ryder’s inexplicable disappearance can seriously jeopardize the production of his ex-girlfriend, so he quickly embarks on his little private investigation.

Of course, the situation turns out to be far less simple than it looks on the surface, and the screenplay by co-executive producer Drew Pearce, who previously wrote and directed “Hotel Artemis” (2018), naturally provides a series of plot turns and twists while maintaining a lightweight sense of humor throughout the story. In addition to having enough intrigue and suspense to hold our attention, it frequently throws some witty moments associated with filmmaking and stunt work, and you will be more amused if you are seasoned movie fans like me.

While he does more stunt work on the set, Seavers also goes through a series of perilous moments while doing the investigation, and his particular set of skills surely come handy whenever he gets cornered in one way or another. There are several big action scenes in the film as expected, and director/co-producer David Leitch, who has steadily built his action movie director career since he made “John Wick” (2014) with Chad Stahelski, does not disappoint us at all, though I must point out that the editing by Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir is a bit too choppy in case of one particular action sequence intercut with Moreno’s soulful karaoke moment.

Gosling and several other cast members willingly dive into their respective comic roles with gusto. Gosling, who was surely (and ironically) assisted a lot by his stunt doubles as reflected by what is shown during the end credits, balances his character well between humor and gravitas, and he and Emily Blunt effortlessly generate enough romantic heat during their several key scenes in the film. While Aaron Taylor-Johnson delightfully chews his every moment as demanded by his stereotype character, Hannah Waddingham deliberately goes much further than that, and Winston Duke, Teresa Palmer, and Stephanie Hsu are also solid in their crucial supporting parts.

On the whole, “The Fall Guy” is an entertaining product which is also a bit better than Leitch’s previous film “Bullet Train” (2022), and it is clear that Leitch, who incidentally worked as a stunt performer and coordinator before moving onto his directorial career, and his cast and crew members enjoyed making their film together. Considering how stunt work has been rather overlooked for many years in Hollywood (Will there ever be the Oscar category for that?), the movie may draw more attention to all those efforts of many hard-working stuntman out there, and I will certainly welcome that.