Coming from the same writer as the original Lethal Weapon movie, one has to wonder if that same magic has been captured again in this recent “buddy movie”? Now that The Nice Guys is about to drop on DVD & Blu Ray release, it is time to revisit this movie to see if it’s worth the purchase or rent out for a night.
The 1970’s Captured & Recreated
Set in 1970’s Los Angeles, The Nice Guys sees a pair of detectives hunting down information in relation to a missing porn star, who’s disappeared from the public eye in what appears to be a suicide. Sounds pretty standard, right? Like any good plot, there’s a massive conspiracy going on underneath the surface.
When they first meet on screen, Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) assaults his (soon to be) partner, Holland March (Ryan Gosling). This important scene sets the tone for what is to come later, as the two, who both exude a strong screen presence, have a natural chemistry with one another.
The Classic Odd Couple
Gosling and Crowe, while you might not first think so, really do click together to create some real laugh out loud moments in this movie.
And to answer the question asked at the beginning of this article, Shane Black, famed for another buddy cop movie in Lethal Weapon, has managed to recreate some magic in terms of entertainment and straight out fun. Perhaps his re-pairing with Lethal Weapon producer, Joel Silver, helps here somewhat.
Despite its hilarious moments, there are also some serious sides to this movie. For example, there is one particular scene that takes place at a party that’s thrown by a pornography producer, and Holland March is very drunk.
There is a hit and run, and a major character in the movie is left fighting for his life, having chased March’s daughter. While Holland sends his daughter for medical help, he strangles the injured man with his bare hands to prevent him from chasing them down. It’s a tense scene, to say the least.
A scene like this seems to be even more hard-hitting nowadays, considering the amount of hit and runs that take place on our roads. One just has to look at articles like this one on everything you need to know about drink and drug driving to realize that solicitors are inundated with road traffic cases.
Is The Nice Guys Worth a Watch?
Coming in at 116 minutes long, The Nice Guys will have you thinking you are back in the 90’s watching a buddy movie of that era. And this is a good thing. Shane Black has managed to capture that Buddy Movie feeling again, that “Chalk and Cheese” dynamic that, when done right, works so well.
Both Crowe and Gosling play their roles well, and believably so at that. Russell Crowe has always been believable as a hard man in movies, and he is well cast here. Gosling, on the other hand, has a wide variety of roles behind him that are memorable, and this is another that can be added to that long list.
Score: 80 out of 100
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