“A friend of mine posted on Facebook “”If you liked Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, you’ll like The Nice Guys. And if you don’t like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I don’t entirely understand you””. Pretty much. Well complete agreement on the former. I’d tweak the later to “”I probably don’t relate to you very well””.
Anytime I’m thinking of favorite writer/directors, I always forget Shane Black. Well, he’s a favorite simply for having brought a movie like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang into the world (which just keeps missing the cut when I’m picking blog movies, but I need to get to is soon). I keep feeling like it if I watch it another time or two, it’ll rank highly on my top 100 list, and then I forget, until the next time its mentioned.
But I digress. We’re here to talk about Shane Black’s latest offering, The Nice Guys starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, in a fantastic display of bromantic chemistry. Set in the 70’s, the two are a couple of private investigators with very different styles and client bases. The universe collides in a way that they end up teaming up on a big investigation, involving murder and a missing person and the adult film industry, and a rabbit hole that keeps spiraling deeper and deeper.
I’m just going to come right out and admit that I couldn’t quite follow the investigation too well. I’m still not entirely sure how these guys came together or what the ultimate conspiracy was or any of those details. And it absolutely did not matter to me because I would have watched these two boys do anything together for two hours. They were that great together. Gosling in particular exhibited a knack for the comedic that we don’t typically see from him. I would now like to see more. Crowe, I’ve flipped back and forth over the course of his career as to whether or not I like him, but his turn here puts him firmly in the like column. I even forgot that I often dislike him, because the all of the promo banter between the boys had me excited to see it on the big screen (props to the publicity team for a job well done).
Oh and a big welcome to bright young newcomer Angourie Rice, as Gosling’s daughter, and the biggest brain in the organization. Not only held her own against the big boys, but often put them in their place. With the likes of her and Oona Lawrence in Southpaw last year and some of the other young’uns stepping up, I am very much excited for the next generation of actresses. Who run the world?
Back to the movie, if there’s anything really left to say other than gushing (I don’t really think there is). I had a blast and it was very much up my alley: dark, funny, violent, all perfectly balanced and expertly acted. Yeah so to echo my buddy from earlier, if you liked Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, then you’ll certainly enjoy The Nice Guys. If you didnt, then explain yourself before I question our friendship
The Nice Guys – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/”