Russell Crowe (Man Of Steel) and Ryan Gosling (The Big Short) team up in this 1970s comedy action crime misadventure. The Nice Guys packs a lot of heavyweight punch and as you can see in the trailer below it’s a whirlwind of thrills, spills and the glitz of LA during the disco fever of the 70s with a crazy missing girl plot behind it.
The video makes a lot of director Shane Black’s previous work on Iron Man 3, but if we’re honest there’s more of his only other directing credit, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, although his action experience is a big part of the film, taking its cue from his previous duo movies – the Lethal Weapon series, The Last Boy Scout, and Last Action Hero. Stylistically, it’s somewhere between Boogie Nights, Casino and American Hustle, with a little Inherent Vice thrown in for good measure. It may not have smashed the box office, but it’s still one of the must-see comedies of the year.
Release date
Cinema:
The Nice Guys UK release date was Friday the 3rd June 2016, following the US release on the 20th May. It was a 2D screening release and it went up against the big budget, CGI over-stuffing that was Warcraft on the same weekend in the UK, although it was also preceded by Alice Through The Looking Glass on the previous weekend, so it was’t without its competition.
DVD, Blu-ray and digital download:
The DVD, Blu-ray and digital download rental arrived in the UK on the 26th September 2016 with the digital download purchase coming out a week earlier.
Story
The film takes place in 1970s Los Angeles and sees struggling private investigator Holland March (Gosling) bumping shoulders with local hired muscle Jackson Healy (Crowe) in a case to track down a missing girl. They get off to a rocky start before the case comes about with Healy breaking March’s arm as part of his enforcer role. However, the sheer magnitude of the investigation eventually throws them together as they dodge bullets, hurl guts and party like it’s 1975 as all hell breaks loose around them and the case becomes bigger and scarier by the second.
Cast
In addition to Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, the film also stars Kim Basinger (Nocturnal Animals), who worked with Crowe back in 1997 for L.A. Confidential. She stars as the mum of the missing girl, Amelia, played by Margaret Qualley. The cast also includes newcomer, Angourie Rice, who takes on the role of March’s daughter Holly, along with Matt Bomer as the mystery gunman in the trailer, Keith David (Cloud Atlas), Beau Knapp (Super 8), Ty Simpkins (Jurassic World) and Val Kilmer’s son Jack.
Production
Shane black also takes one half of the writing credits for The Nice Guys as well as his director’s chair posterior placement, penning the screenplay with Anthony Bagarozzi. The legend that is Joel Silver (Brewster’s Millions, Weird Science, Commando, Lethal Weapon, Predator, Die Hard) has taken care of the production side of the film through his company Silver Pictures with Warner Bros. distributing it.
Ken Kao, Hal Sadoff, Alex Walton and Michael J. Malone are the executive producers, and Oscar-winning director of photography, Philippe Rousselot (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), has been in charge of the cinematography. Richard Bridgland (Serena) is the production designer, Joel Negrón (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) editor, and Kym Barrett (The Amazing Spider-Man) costume designer. The musical score has been composed by John Ottman (X-Men: Days of Future Past) and David Buckley (Grimsby).
Review
The Nice Guys turned out to be the real deal with a whole lot of action, comedy and 70s style, along with a very cool looking LA as its playground. You’ve only got to look at how many superhero credits there are for the production team to see why the high-octane intensity of the film is so effective and when you add to that the comedy interplay between Crowe and Gosling you’ve got a lot to impress.
Shane Black may not have too many films in his directorial back catalogue, but when it comes to his writing credits there’s everything from Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout to The Long Kiss Goodnight and Last Action Hero, so so it’s easy to see why the film works so well. Read our full review of The Nice Guys for more details.
