With The Fall Guy, Ryan Gosling steps from the high of Barbie for another high. This one won’t get him another Oscar nomination – it’s more of an amuse-bouche rather than a full meal – but it’s fun if overlong. Stuntman-turned-director David Leitch’s valentine to his former profession leans into Gosling’s charm and comic chops to deliver an amiable blend of rock’-em-sock-‘em action, comedy, and romance.

The film credits its inspiration to Glen A. Larson, creator of the Lee Majors-starring 1980s series of the same name, but in that show, the stunt man spent his off hours as a bounty hunter. There is none of that in Drew Pearce’s screenplay. Instead, Colt Seavers (Gosling) is simply one of the best at his profession and has become the go-to stunt double for superstar Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Or he was, anyway, until a horrific accident on one of Ryder’s sets sends Seaver into a tailspin, causing him to step away not just from his job but also from the woman he loves, camera operator and wannabe director Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt).

Jody’s big break directing a Ryder film is what pulls Colt back when producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) insists Ryder and Jody both want him and, in fact, need him. So, he joins the location in Sydney, only to discover Gail lied – particularly about Jody wanting him anywhere around her after he so abruptly severed their relationship. Not that Colt has much time to consider this since he soon finds himself chased by bad guys and wanted for murder. What’s a stuntman to do but apply his talents to his new role as wanted man?

Gosling and Blunt are beguiling, Taylor-Johnson’s negative space of a personality works well in the context of a raging egomaniacal movie star – are they seriously considering this guy for Bond? – and Waddingham, Winston Duke as stunt coordinator Dan Tucker, and Stephanie Hsu as a striver wangling her way to a producer credit add invaluable support. But, honestly, the actors and the rickety plot are mere window dressing for the real stars of this production: the stunts and their performers.

The action rarely stops for plot as every scene is a set up for stunts. Some of them are part of Jody’s movie, a space alien/cowboy mishmash that looks truly awful but offers a canvas for stunts as small as setting someone on fire to big set pieces involving cars and helicopters. These scenes are a peek behind the curtain that give the audience a look at the mechanics of what stunt people do. Then there are the others in which Colt finds himself fighting for his life in a variety of dire situations, capped off by an homage to Miami Vice that is worth the price of a movie ticket all by itself.

This is not the first time Ryan Gosling has played a stunt man. He was a movie stunt driver who moonlighted as a getaway driver in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive and a carnival motorcycle stunt performer in Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines. But The Fall Guy has far more in common with another stuntman-turned-director’s work, Hal Needham’s raucous comedy Hooper, than it does with either of those dramas. Maybe it’s not as silly but it is still essentially a diversion. The phrase “escapist entertainment” applies. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Grab some popcorn and enjoy the mayhem. —Pam Grady