The Nice Guys
Misty Mountains, Bloom, Lipsync Productions, Nice Guys, Silver Pictures, Waypoint Entertainment, USA, 2016. 

Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) is a bruiser for hire and Holland March (Ryan Gosling) is a jaded private detective in the 1970s Los Angeles. Adult film star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) crashes her car and dies. Girl named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) knows something about Misty's death. Holland is hired by Misty's aunt do find Amelia. Jackson is fooled by Amelia to motivate Holland to leave her alone. But it does not get easy for Jackson either as some crooks also search for Amelia and beat him up. They even kill his gold fish. Unacceptable! So Jackson realizes that Amelia is in danger and hires Holland to find her. 

Unsolved murders seem to pop around every corner. The investigations of the duo get dangerous and soon a feared hitman John Boy (Matt Bomer) steps in. Also politician Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger) and her assistant Tally (Yaya DaCosta) have an offer to the Nice Guys.

"Lethal Weapon" and "The Last Boy Scout" writer Shane Black wrote and directed a neo-noir comedy set in the 1970s. The popular culture then had innocent entertainment as "The Waltons" and porn flicks like "Deep Throat" and some humour is found from the conflict of the two worlds. Crowe/Gosling duo works well. Jackson is the heavy, taking care of fighting. Holland is the brains, well brains and brains. Holland thinks he is a smart detective, but he is constantly misquoting, accident-prone and rather stumbles upon clues than finds them. He is quite different from the cool characters Gosling usually plays. Holland's daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) brings the moral spine to the misadventures of the cynical men in corrupt world. Still the ending feels pointless, and there is a feeling of origin story.  It would not be a wonder if some sequel for the duo was made some day.

Rating: Good

Starring: Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Yaya DaCosta, Keith David, Beau Knapp, Lois Smith, Murielle Telio, Gil Gerard, Daisy Tahan, Kim Basinger, Jack Kilmer, Lance Valentine Butler, Ty Simpkins, Cayla Brady, Tammi Arender, Rebecca Dalton Rusk, Terence Rosemore, John L. Morris, Michelle Rivera, Nathaniel 'Nate' Scott, Amy Goddard, Frank Mottek, Joanne Spracklen, Greg Lindsay, Maddie Compton, J. Todd Anderson, Meredith Berg, Lauren Marini, Ward Roberts, Ryan Powers, Lauren Bair, Zarah Kulczycki, Hana Yuka Sano, Marvin Ross, Rachele Brooke Smith, Adriana Karras, Milo Wesley, Marilyn Chen, Matthew Warzel, Jordan Hairston, Angela Everhart, Joshua Hoover, Yvonne Zima, Lexi Johnson, Chloe Hurst, Gary Weeks, Charles Green, Gary Wolf, Hannibal Buress, Steve Wilder, Garrett Carpenter, Hank Quillen, Michael Beasley, Dominic Bagarozzi, Karrueche Tran, Carson Meyer

Director: Shane Black