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. (25/05/2016)

Shane Black appeals to me just by the way he still bets on his overdubbed, voiceover-guided format even after years, but this time he just made it by a hair's breadth. The storyline scissors are very wide open and it takes almost twelve minutes to really cut with them. He unnecessarily complicates the different threads and it takes quite a few dozen minutes before it becomes clear to us who, with whom, and how. Fortunately, one weapon is hiding in this arsenal that kicks strongly as expected. It's Ryan Gosling, who again does everything to not be categorized in any way and thanks to the anti-intelligence displayed here, he reliably sent me to my knees several times. His March is so genuinely passionate and yet completely useless that it even overshadows the reliable bulldog next to him. 70% and a fourth star if I look the other way, and for how obvious it is that the central trio enjoyed this nonsense seriously and with taste. (10/06/2016)

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% (13/06/2016)

Black is back on form. And although it’s more Kiss Kiss Bang Bang than Last Scout, in view of what we are offered in the way of movies today, this is a breath of fresh air for a smelly, sequel-reliant Hollywood. Nice Guys score highly mainly due to their complex screenplay which, even though it leads toward a certain goal, dropping clues to solve the case along the way, it works excellently in individual scenes, too. These scenes are usually either comedy (almost always with an ingenious punchline) or action-based. The plot revolving around the lost porn film/actress offers a good portion of Black’s inventiveness (beware - unlike other creators, he repeats himself a little in his films, but always very refreshingly) and again first-class work with child characters. He hit the jackpot in his choice of actors. Gosling is awesome. In the role of a kind-hearted, chubby guy, Crowe gives an excellent performance (he’s beginning to look a bit like Goodman), it’s just Kim who simply looks somehow old, even under tons of makeup and she her acting just isn’t good enough. Drugged up bees, naked mermaids and a villain with a blue face. a wonderful comedy which I’ll watch again soon. - What was that noise? - Pardon? Oh, I was just throwing a girl out of the window. (03/06/2016)

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. (09/08/2016)