The Nice Guys

The Nice Guys was a movie that I saw the trailers for a while ago and I was really interested in. I like Russell Crowe, I like Ryan Gosling, and I thought the humor in the trailer was really funny. On top of that, like The Lobster, The Nice Guys is a totally original script written by Shane Black.

However, like Popstar, The Nice Guys debuted at a time when I was swamped with work and wasn’t able to go out and watch this film in the theaters. But when it came to RedBox, I decided it was time to check it out and see what all the fuss was about.

The Nice Guys follows the story of a Private Investigator by the name of Holland March (played by Ryan Gosling). March is basically a con man because the work field for PIs is not great. He basically
takes work from senile old ladies who ask him to find their husband who’s urn is on the mantle. On the other end of things, you have an Enforcer by the name of Jackson Healy (played by Russell Crowe). And Russell Crowe’s character is basically Deadpool if he never got his powers and turned into an older, larger Russell Crowe type. Seriously, you know how in Deadpool when he is hired by a teenager to beat up her stalker, that is the kind of work that Jackson Healy does in this film.

Well March takes on a case to find a missing girl by the name of Amelia (played by Margaret Qualley). Healy is hired by Amelia to scare March off the case. That’s the first time these two meet and it’s a hilarious exchange. Healy’s job is to scare March off the case and he ends up beating the shit out of him and breaking his arm. But when Healy is attacked and wants to know the location of Amelia, he teams up with the very same man he beat the crap out of and the two search for Amelia before the people who want her dead because of the conspiracy she’s apart of find her and kill her.

Their investigations into this mystery brings them into the depths of 70’s Los Angeles, into the world of porn, environmental manipulation, and government corruption. Along the way March can’t seem to shake his precocious daughter, Holly (played by Angourie Rice), who just wants to contribute to the investigation. If you’re trying to visualize this girl, she basically epitomizes any daughter character from any 90’s cartoon show, Inspector Gadget, Darkwing Duck, you get the idea. Which I thought was a really great throw back because you don’t really see that anymore. Yeah it’s wildly inappropriate that she follows them to a party where there are porn actors and hitmen, but at the same time it’s a breath of fresh air for the kind of detective mystery this is. She is actually a really great character even though I thought she was going to be annoying. She plays well with Gosling and Crowe and you actually feel the tension Gosling has with her being involved.

The movie is clearly a rated R movie with the violence and the sexual nature of the investigation but this is the kind of movie that utilizes that R rating really well. Nothing seems in excess unless its doing it on purpose and the humor in the movie works really well with an R Rating.

My biggest issue with the film is that it does drag a little bit. It is a little bit of a hard-boiled detective mystery so you’re going to have your twists and turns. But at a certain point the humor wasn’t drawing me in like it used to and I was starting to lose interest. Now to be fair I have been falling asleep during a lot of movies recently. I’m trying to figure out if that’s because I’ve been tired, or if I just haven’t found very good movies.

I think in the case of The Nice Guys, it is an above average movie. I don’t know if I would put it down as my favorite movie of 2016 but I think in a year with a summer that gave us a lot of below average films, its good to see some higher quality material.

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling work really well together and they’re a really funny mash up. Ryan Gosling actually plays a character who is very much a coward and a con man which is a little bit

different of a role than I’ve seen him in in the past. It was good to see him be more of a weasel rather than a fox. And Russell Crowe plays just a brutal guy but at the same time he’s got a heart of gold. Again, I can’t help but compare Jackson Healy to Wade Wilson from Deadpool. He’s a merc that will beat the crap out of the bad guys and even do it for teenage girls. But he does it in such a hilarious way that you can’t help but really enjoy him. These two put together make for a really good team that I actually wouldn’t mind seeing again. The Nice Guys doesn’t really seem like the kind of movie that would have a sequel and Shane Black doesn’t seem like the kind of director that would bring a property like this back for a sequel, but hey, worse things have become sequels.

My overall though it that this was a good movie. It had its slow moments and I can’t say it’s the kind of movie that I’ll purchase, but I am interested in watching it again. I get the feeling that the movie will only get better with multiple viewings and maybe it might become a favorite. But for now, The Nice Guys goes down as a Nice Film, nothing show boat-y or over the top, just a good film. If you’ve got a list of movies you absolutely need to check out this year, I would put The Nice Guys on that list.

But what did you think of The Nice Guys? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I’ll leave you with this. Maybe its the easy choice but here's a Jimmy Fallon clip with Russell Crowe. Enjoy!