The pair bounce so successfully off one another that this feels like a double act for the ages, in a film that actually deserves to spawn a sequel.
Quick on its wits and fast with its fists, this is Black firmly back doing what he does best. And nobody out there does it better.
Should be called ‘The Funny Guys’. The Crowe/Gosling partnership drives Black’s lurid comedy at top speed. Enormously entertaining.
As buddy movies go, it has enough irreverence and originality never just to seem like a cynical rehash of a kind of film that has been made countless times before.
It isn’t always pretty but The Nice Guys is an unashamedly absurd, self-mocking, guilty pleasure of a film.
Smart-dumb fun for grown-ups.
Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe do chalk and cheese in Lethal Weapon writer Shane Black’s old-school buddy pic.
Like Chandler, Black knows that, in noir, it’s not the play that people remember, it’s the players – and if there’s one thing these nice guys aren’t, it’s forgettable.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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