The Nice Guys proves to already be one of the summer’s strongest surprises and unlike the supposed persona of a nice guy, this movie won’t finish last.
Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling star as a couple of private eyes in 1977 Los Angeles who team up to solve the murder of a female adult film star. With this being a buddy cop movie, you can expect a lot of wise-guy dialogue and action, but most of it becomes rather witty and clever.
Crowe’s character is something of a loner while Gosling is a father to his young daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice). Her character adds a surprising amount of weight and depth and for the most part, she’s not exactly always in jeopardy. She’s a smart cookie and that comes into play during some of the movie’s best moments.
Characters in buddy cop movies are very rarely compelling and memorable. They almost always have to be idiotic in order to set up the story. Thankfully, that’s not the case with The Nice Guys. Yes, Crowe is the more intelligent and Gosling does tend to be a little bit of nuisance from time to time, but his character always has a hint of something better around the corner.
The Nice Guys does lose a bit of its smarts during some scenes involving a couple of left-field complications. However, other than that, this is one extremely funny, exciting movie. Much of the credit goes to director/co-writer Shane Black for his solid, witty script. He perfectly recreates the mood, style, and trends of the ’70s and he evokes a tone similar to Lethal Weapon. Incidentally, he also wrote that film as well, so he knows his stuff.
The other obvious reason this film works so well is because of the terrific chemistry between Crowe and Gosling. Their pairing provides the type of humor and chemistry that was sorely lacking in other duds like Get Hard and Hot Pursuit. Later this summer, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart will be in Central Intelligence. Here’s hoping they take some pointers on how to make an effective buddy cop movie.
Grade: A-
(Rated R for violence, sexuality, nudity, language, and brief drug use.)
