I had been itching to see The Nice Guys since I saw the trailer in front of The Hateful Eight, so at 5 months, it's been a long time coming. While I've been aware of Writer/Director Shane Black for a long time, having written 80's Action Comedy staples Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Last Action Hero, I really came to know him for his directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie I absolutely adore. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang really pulled back the curtain on Black as a creative mind, showing us a lot of what he likes to write and direct, which amounts to Noir-styled buddy-cop detective movies with a dark and irreverent sense of humor. He followed it up with an entry into the Marvel universe, Iron Man 3, a film that Disney-fy's Black's sensibilities, but keeps them true at the core of the film. With The Nice Guys, Black has put out another foray into the Noir-styled buddy-cop detective movie with a streak of irreverent humor, this time with the style twist of it being set in the late 70's in L.A.
So without mincing words, I totally loved this movie. I'm sure some people will find flaws with it, but as a creative entity, Shane Black is a man who I share many similarities with. I'm inherently drawn to what this guy likes to make. The Nice Guys does an excellent job of matching and inter-playing beats. What I mean by that is that generally the action and comedy go very well hand in hand, without overpowering each other, as well as putting comedy in the action scenes, and putting action in the comedic scenes. You never go too long in the movie without getting an action beat or a comedy beat without getting the other, which really helps keep you invested.
Crowe and Gosling do a great job and have fantastic chemistry together, and both of them play common trope detectives that you would find in a typical Noir. I think a special shout-out has to go to Angourie Rice, who plays Gosling's daughter. She does an excellent job of not only acting her age, but also acting like someone stuck in the situation she is in. She doesn't steal the show, I think Gosling is doing that throughout the movie, but she keeps up with adults and has fun interplay with both of them.
I think the only real gripe I had with the film is that it runs a little long, clocking in at just under two hours. It feels like our detectives start just two-threads too far behind where they need to go, meaning I think they have to connect just one or two clues too many to piece everything together. This means that when it comes time to wrap-up the movie, they still have a couple things they have to tie up before the story can resolve itself. Like I said before, I absolutely loved the movie and it is incredibly watchable, but if they had just somehow got the jump on the first couple clues and cut the run time by about 15 minutes it would have been just the amount of tightness needed to take this from a good movie to a great movie.
The Nice Guys is a movie I will buy when it comes out, and I would turn on whenever I'm not sure what to watch when I don't know what else to watch. Not every movie has to be Citizen Kane, but it doesn't have to be mindless drivel either. The Nice Guys is a movie that is an excellent exercise in genre work that delivers a fun and interesting story with characters you just want to spend time watching, which is why I really hope this movie ends up doing well enough to warrant a sequel. I would be there on opening night for a sequel, that's for damn sure.
Check out the trailer below, and if that seems like a fun time, that's because it is. Go see it.
No comments:
Post a Comment