‘The Stunt Driver’ Review: Jay Baruchel Takes a Leap into Tepid Biopic Territory

Baruchel takes the lead for a period comedy about a hapless stunt driver that isn’t as funny as the documentary it’s based on.

By Vadim Rizov

Vadim Rizov

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In “The Stunt Driver,” Jay Baruchel reteams with his “Goon” director Michael Dowse and takes on a showy lead part as stunt driver Ken Carter, who’s best remembered for a jump he didn’t make: a proposed mile-long leap over the St. Lawrence River in a rocket-powered car. The five years spent on that ill-fated project were captured in the 1981 documentary “The Devil At Your Heels,” which “The Stunt Driver” credits as source material but doesn’t improve on. While the technical aspects of the period recreation are impressive, this remake never finds its own reason to exist.

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