Have you ever seen "Lethal Weapon" "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" or "Iron Man 3"? Maybe it's corny to start a review by pointing at writer / director Shane Black's previous outings (not to mention his credits as one or the other). Maybe. Whatever. If you have seen any of Black's work, you know precisely what to expect with "The Nice Guys." If you haven't seen any of his movies, go out and do so.
Heck, start with this one, which plays as a refinement of his special action-comedy blend. It's a consistently surprising slapstick mystery featuring standout performances by Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, as well as a lot of ultra-violence and ultra-silliness. To be honest, "The Nice Guys" is an early contender for "best film of the summer," pure moviegoing pleasure from start to finish.
1977 Los Angeles: porn starlet Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) is killed in a horrible car accident. Two days later, her aging old auntie ( Lois Smith) sees her in the window of a house down the street. Auntie hires Holland March (Ryan Gosling), a private detective who is a lot better at milking money from desperate people than actually finding missing people. His investigation puts him on the tail of Amelia (Margaret Qualley), a young rich runaway, who has hired private enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) to beat up the people tailing her. Healy and March are soon forced to work together to figure out where Amelia has gone, who is after her and just what the hell all of this has to do with a dead porn star, the District Attorney and the smog death of L.A.'s avian population.
"The Nice Guys" moves breezily from absurdity to absurdity, propelled by two great performances. March, in particular, is a breakout role for Gosling, whose turn as an emotionally unstable, broken dingus gives is something new from him. Gosling has always been talented, but his roles usually remain brooding, sexy or both. Here he is mostly a physical comedian, and he works for it. Crowe as Healy is a joy as well, though his role is not quite off of his usual type. He puts the heart in the movie, a tough guy trying to find his place in the world.
It wouldn't be fair to mention the cast without noting the performance of Angourie Rice as Holly March, March's tough and resourceful daughter. It's a grounding role for the two leads, whose men are generally not "nice" at all. She balances them, and plays a consequential-without-being-corny role in the story. Inserting a smart-talking kid into a movie about two violent dorks is a rough job, but Black uses it well here.
Most admirably, the humor of "The Nice Guys" never feels tonally dissonant with its hyper-violent, loving throwback-to-'70s-mystery element. Make no mistake: This movie is as violent as it is funny, and its action sequences are as inventive and unexpected as the comedy beats. A fight with a hot tub and a handgun sticks out. There are, of course, a few nasty bad-guy enforcers chasing Amelia as well; John Boy (Matt Bomer) and, um, Keith David make for worthy adversaries of their respective genre-defined types.
Go see "The Nice Guys." You'll be glad you did. It's a good old-fashioned mystery, mixed in with some fine, fine comedy. In short, it's pretty nice.