Review #1,074: 'The Nice Guys' (2016)

Long before the term 'bromance' was coined, 80's and 90's action cinema was treating audiences to buddy movies, stories centred around a crime that would pull two opposite side of the spectrum together, causing them to disagree and bicker before finally learning that team-work is key. While desperate TV stations are attempting to re-boot various famous titles from this era with usually awful results, writer/director Shane Black is still around to remind us what made these movies so great to begin with. After all, he was behind some of the best of them - Lethal Weapon (1987) and The Last Boy Scout (1991) - and he's proving there's still plenty of life in the genre yet with The Nice Guys, one of the funniest films so far this year.

Naturally, a convoluted plot brings together the two heroes of the 70s-set story. One is a grizzled fists-for-hire, Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), who pays his bills by warning grown men who should know better to stay away from underage girls, traditionally with a knuckle-duster to the face. The other is Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a terrible private investigator who takes jobs from dementia-ridden old ladies who pay him to find the missing husband often resting behind them in an urn above the fireplace. His precocious daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) may also be a lot brighter than him. Despite their flaws, Healy and March are 'nice guys', and when their paths cross searching for a missing porn star, they decide to get to the bottom of a strange sequence of events because it's simply the right thing to do.

There's a conspiracy-laden plot to keep things ticking along, and Black has fun trying to unravel it along with our heroes. The film begins with a young boy finding his father's porn stash and sneaking a peak at centrefold Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio), before a car crashes off the road and into his backyard. Lo and behold, the driver is Misty, and the kid covers up her naked body as she dies. March is put on the case by the actress's aunt, and is soon on the tail of young runaway Amelia Kuttner (The Leftovers' Margaret Qualley), who is somehow caught up in all this mess. Only Amelia doesn't want to be found, so she pays Healy to get March off her back. Of course, the deliberately implausible story that brings our two heroes together - and what comes after - is simply an excuse for Crowe and Gosling to exercise their sparkling chemistry.

I've never seen Russell Crowe appear to be having so much fun as he does here, and he shows off some impressive comedy chops as the lovable lug who will always put himself in harms way to protect the vulnerable. Even more surprising is Gosling, an actor who hasn't really capitalised on the promise of his iconic role in Drive (2011), but who embraces the goofy scumbag-ness of his inept but endearingly well-meaning single father, a man we first meet inadvertently slashing his own wrist open while trying to routinely break in through a window. Yet the biggest plaudits go to Shane Black himself who, after a blip with Iron Man 3 (2013), is back to his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) best. He delivers a fast-paced, intelligent and laugh-out-loud comedy thriller, with one or two genuine shocks thrown in for good measure.


Directed by: Shane Black
Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Kim Basinger, Yaya DaCosta
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie