The Nice Guys

Black is a wisecracker and he knows how to write characters, fully humanize them, and then let them sprinkle (not only) verbal humor in dialogue exchanges that make the audience squirm. Yet the entire film is covered by such a terribly lame and in many moments transparent crime plot that it wouldn't even hold up as a retro episode of CSI. If the investigative aspects hadn't been taken so seriously (a take on so many strong social themes) and had settled for more self-deprecating silliness, it would be a genre perennial. [It dissipated quickly the day after I watched it.] 3 ½. (05/25/2016)

I feel sorry for not giving this nice chill-out movie four stars, but if you’ve seen the best of Shane Black, you’d know he didn’t hit the bull’s eye with this one. The Crowe/Gosling duo is great, their catchphrases are cool and the atmosphere of 1980s L.A. might be the best since L.A. Confidential. But the plot the guys are dealing with is watery and uninteresting, barely even there. (08/09/2016)

Slight disappointment. The Nice Guys is carried in a lovely retro style with a solid leading duo, though Ryan Gosling whines a bit too much like a little girl here, which bothered me at times, but thankfully Russel Crowe is properly tough and uncompromising. The action is very good, but it was unfortunately lacking, resulted in frequent deaf passages, and the film runs out of breath in the last 20 minutes. I found the film hardly funny at all and the dialogues between the leading couple hardly worked, lacking the right chemistry. I liked the light R-rated stuff and a couple of original scenes, but it could have been better. Add more action, a more interesting twist, speed up the pace and I would have been more satisfied. 65% (06/12/2016)

It's a decent retro one-off, whose atmosphere and frilly 1980s LA visuals are far more engaging than the story around which the two well-acted main characters revolve. By the way, this is the kind of daughter I wanted in the new Jack Reacher and didn't get. Brilliant one-liners and great action. A bit better Starsky & Hutch, but very similar. (11/06/2016)

Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling were born for roles like these. They make fun of themselves, but not in a very obvious way. That’s what the movie itself is like. It is funny, but at the same time isn’t primarily about the humor, it is rather a typical detective story from the 1970s. However, when there is a hilarious scene it has such an impact that you will want to rewatch it a couple of times after the first viewing. During the remainder of the time, you hope for something mindblowing to come any minute now and so you are observing, lurking, and you appreciate every moment that makes you laugh. Every joke is actually filmed so originally that the ending will make you sad. Even though I wasn’t that impressed with the first half of the crime story, the second half was a lot better. But the humor reigned for the whole 2 hours. I even have a feeling that you will not find a funnier movie from the year 2016. (12/21/2016)