The Nice Guys
Directed by:
Shane BlackCinematography:
Philippe RousselotCast:
Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Beau Knapp, Lois Smith, Murielle Telio, Gil Gerard (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
After becoming involved with the Mob, Amelia (Margaret Qualley) mysteriously disappears. Enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and down-on-his-luck private investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling) are recruited to find her and set out on a complex and high-profile investigation which leads them all over 1970s Los Angeles. With media interest increasing and their own personal safety called into doubt, the duo come across the seemingly unconnected death of a porn star, a discovery which sheds new light on a conspiracy that leads right to the highest echelons of power. (Icon Home Entertainment)
(more)Videos (11)
Reviews (13)
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.
()
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.
()
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.
()
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.
()
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.
()
Ads