The Nice Guys

By: John Delia

The film noir madcap adventure The Nice Guys opens this weekend and it’s a doozy. The cast makes the film work with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in the leads and a feisty 13-year-old Angourie Rice backing them up. It’s a lot of fun with this throwback to 1979 that has the feel of a Chinatown, but with a lot of comedy. It’s actually more like Lethal Weapon because the writer and director Shane Black scripted that series featuring two buddy cops getting into the same kind of awkward and dangerous situations.

Holland March (Ryan Gosling) has been working as a private eye for some time, but has still to land a big case. He’s a single father with a pip of a teenage daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice), who’s really the smart one of the household. Then, there’s Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) who is a thug for hire and he’ll beat up most anyone for money. He’s about to sock Holland in the nose because he’s getting paid to do it. It’s a bizarre way to meet, but the two end up working together on a strange murder case involving a porn star named Misty Mountain.

The film goes on from there with the two becoming friends and using tagalong Holly to track down Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley), a witness who may know something about the murder. Writer and Director Shane Black pulls off a good show with his take on comedic film noir. Much like his classic buddy film Lethal Weapon starring Mel Gibson as the tough cop and Danny Glover as the good cop, he puts Crowe and Gosling through similar paces. Some scenes are very gutsy, but most have a lot of wacky situation humor.

Gosling and Crowe are excellent together as the dimwitted pair of investigators who take on more than they can chew. In most cases, they bumble along almost getting killed as they look for the elusive Amelia. They are a lot of fun to watch together and are most likely to pair up again in a sequel to this laugh-a-thon. I’m for it and those that like this kind of madness should be in line for another episode.

I really enjoyed the acting of Angourie Rice as the daughter that feels obligated to help her dad get out of the rut he’s in. She finds herself getting him out of one mess after another and looks like she’s having fun doing it. And her sidekick Jessica (played by Daisy Tahan) makes the perfect pair to help Holland and Jackson out of some tight situations. While Daisy has had a good career, up and coming Angourie should find herself in the position much like Chloë Grace Moretz who got her start in Kick-Ass.

The Nice Guys have been rated R by the MPAA for violence, sexuality, nudity, language and brief drug use. The nudity is full frontal female and the violence gets quite gory and vicious. Abusive words are used with sexual connotations and there’s a scene of obvious sexuality. Be cautious when deciding to allow immature children see the movie.

FINAL ANALYSIS: A good actioner with a lot of sight gags and situation comedy. (B)