The Nice Guys

I got what I wanted. But it's worth remembering that Shane Black, who wrote The Last Boy Scout, was twenty-five years younger, so The Nice Guys is closer to his directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang than to the rampage of Joe Hallenbeck and Jimmy Dix. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are a bit off as the detectives most of the time and usually don't really know who's shooting at them and why, but Black is understandably in complete control of the whole situation and lays his cards on the table at the right time. The whole thing is endearingly goofy though, so not only do the protagonists have no idea what's going on around them at times, but Black is able to afford some very campy (and great) action scenes full of ideas, bizarre jokes and punchlines you wouldn't expect. The Nice Guys is a smart crime drama, but one that wants to do things a little differently and isn't afraid to rely on mostly pretty gritty and cynical humour alongside the honest battles and shootouts, playing with audience expectations and making it entertaining to the last minute. You'll never know what Black will pull on you in the next scene. You just know it's going to be great. (15/05/2017)

Starsky & Hutch by Shane Black. What's not to love? Perhaps only the disparity between the silly buddy comedy storyline loaded with one-liners (I haven't laughed so loud in the movie theater for a long time) and the regular gritty crime storyline, which is clearly only a makeweight, but for a long time is much more refined than it turned out to be eventually and in the final scene it is clearly too slow. In other words, both in terms of the story in a style like"nothing is going on" and in terms of comedy, it´s absolutely flawless. And I look forward to a sequel, the two of them get together in terms of mutual chemistry so unusually and in a unique way (after all, see for yourself. It would be terribly unfortunate not to give them proper space. However, the best movie in this department is still Zootropolis. (24/05/2016)

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)

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)

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% (12/06/2016)