Weekend Plans Post: The Fall Guy (2024)

Last weekend was supposed to be a gaming weekend. But one guy cancelled, Maribou flew out of town, and then another guy cancelled and I said “We’re not going to play with 3. Let’s see a movie. Let’s see… THE FALL GUY.”

Those of us who remained all agreed enthusiastically.

And then I cancelled. Mother’s Day. You know how it is.

Well, both of the remainers said “Well, fine. We’ll cancel too!” but we agreed to reschedule and we all looked at our schedules and it turns out that Wednesday night had a 7:30 showing of the film right next to a nice Mexican restaurant. Meet up at 6, finish by 7, be at the theater in time for previews.

Well, as it turns out, Wednesday night is burrito night for a lot of families in Colorado Springs. We got out of there at 7:22. Luckily for us, Wednesday night isn’t a particularly big movie night. We got to the theater and walked down to the front door. I mentioned to my buddy, a guy who has been my buddy since 1990, that this reminded me of when we used to do this when we went to Academy Station Six. (Academy Station Six was the *BEST* movie theater in town. Six movie screens, one of which was *ALWAYS* worth watching and, across the parking lot, the second best arcade in Colorado Springs.)

Well, Academy Station Six is a church now and the arcade was a karate dojo for a few years before becoming a cell phone accessory store.

Bummer.

Well, we hurried to the new and improved theater with the reclining seats and sat down just in time for Maria Menounos to thank us for watching Firstlook or whatever it is. We sat through a handful of trailers and commercials and, right when the movie started, I looked down at my (muted) phone: 8:03. Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that.

Anyway, I sat down and watched a really, really fun movie. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The movie is a love letter to movies. At the same time, it’s a Penn and Teller magic trick. They tell you that they’re going to do a magic trick, then they tell you *HOW* they’re going to do the magic trick, then they do the magic trick… and you’re just smiling and shaking your head because, dang… they got ya.

You see actors, producers, stunt coordinators, FX guys, extras, personal assistants, and… yeah. Stuntmen.

At the same time that it’s a movie, it’s a meta-movie. What is most surprising about this is that both movies manage to be good. The meta-movie is a love letter to the genre and the object level movie is just silly and stupid fun with something for everybody.

As we all walked out, I mentioned how I felt like we had just seen 4 or 5 movies.

Lemme rattle them off, a Mission Impossible flick, a cowboy movie, a space opera, a love movie, a fast/furious variant, Get Shorty, The Big Lebowski, and a pinch of Tropic Thunder. At the same time, there are tributes to many of your favorite network television shows. The ones that specialized in showing boat chases, the ones that specialized in showing helicopter scenes, and, of course, ABC’s “The Fall Guy”.

You’re probably not going to be arguing a whole lot about “theme” or whatever the “deep thinker” kinda thing is in this week. But you will be remembering back to the 90’s when you saw movies in the theater all the time (maybe even in the middle of the week) and it was not only fun, it was *EASY* to see them.

I will console myself with the thought that if there were more movies like this one, I’d see more movies.

Anyway, Maribou is out of town so I’m probably a slug/couch potation this weekend.

So… what’s on your docket?

(Featured image is “LEGO Stuntman” by jpshannon44 is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .).