The Nice Guys (2016)
★★★ — The Nice Guys (2016)
Shane Black wrote the screenplay for Lethal Weapon back in 1987 and spent much of his career as one of Hollywood's highest-paid script doctors, before making his directorial debut with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005, a film that did modest box office but earned a devoted following for its wisecracking neo-noir style. The Nice Guys is very much a spiritual successor to that earlier picture, transplanting the buddy-comedy crime formula into 1970s Los Angeles, a setting Black uses partly as a playground for period detail and partly as a comment on Nixon-era corruption and the pornography industry's uneasy proximity to mainstream entertainment. Ryan Gosling was coming off a quieter run of prestige pictures, and the comedic role here was a notable gear-change for him. The film was a mid-budget studio production (around $50 million) that performed respectably but not spectacularly at the box office, leaving a planned sequel perpetually in development limbo.
Good but not great. Soundtrack was good. Nice to see the classic 70s cars. Russell Crowe was great in this. Reminded me alot of his role in LA Confidential. Occasionally funny. Often entertaining. Story is your typical neo-noir mystery film but it is quite convoluted.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2016 | Watched: 2025-06-13
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Related on Movies With Macca
More from Shane Black: Iron Man 3 (2013) · The Predator (2018)
More with Russell Crowe: A Beautiful Mind (2001) · Gladiator (2000) · Virtuosity (1995) · L.A. Confidential (1997)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More comedy: The Eagle (1925) · The General (1926) · Americana (2023) · The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)
