'The Nice Guys' Review

Image from Latino Review

By Diego Coya

The Nice Guys stars Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, and Matt Bomer. It is also written and directed by Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3). The Nice Guys takes place in Los Angeles in 1977, and focuses on a licensed Private Investigator, Holland March (Gosling) who is hired to investigate the suicide of a pornography actress named Misty Mountains. The investigation leads him to meet an unlicensed Private Investigator Jackson Healey (Crowe), who is looking for Amelia, who in some way is involved with the death of Misty Mountains. The disappearance of Amelia leads to the investigation to take a turn for the worst, and we get a different take on the buddy cop comedy movie genre.

I was really excited for The Nice Guys because I found Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to be an underrated movie that was fantastic. In addition, the trailers for The Nice Guys were hilarious and ended up being one of my most anticipated movies of the year. After seeing the movie yesterday, I cannot stop thinking about it. The Nice Guys is a consistently entertaining movie that is a work of art in terms of cinema. Not only did The Nice Guys exceed my expectations, it’s a movie that reminded me why I love movies so much.

The chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe is absolutely amazing. They play off each other so well, and both actors were on the top of their game. The humor between these two characters was top notch, and it was great to see how well they worked together as PI’s. In most buddy cop movies, the two leading actors play characters that contrast with each other, but the leading actors in The Nice Guys are very similar to each other in regards to their troubled past and drinking problems. These two actors consistently had great dialogue and hilarious moments throughout the movie.

Angourie Rice, who plays Holland’s daughter, was so terrific. Her character was great and she was pretty much a sidekick to the private investigators. This is undoubtedly her breakthrough performance, and I am genuinely excited to see her in upcoming movies in the future. Shane Black did a brilliant job with the script; there are so many lines of dialogue that are so memorable, and they really hit home. The dialogue between the characters were so witty and clever. Not only was the comedy, writing, performances, and direction great, but the action scenes were surprisingly really well done. The shootout scenes were great and even though Matt Bomer is in the film briefly, he did a decent job in the action scenes.

The investigation was enthralling, I was really into the case and I wanted to know what was going to happen with these characters. The Nice Guys could have easily been a clichéd buddy cop comedy that would have been average at best. In reality, it’s one of the most fresh, original, and unconventional movies I’ve seen in years. It honestly felt like I was watching a movie from the 1970’s. I have no flaws with the movie, and if you are someone who appreciates movies as an art form, then please see The Nice Guys as soon as possible.

Rating: 10/10