The Nice Guys (Review)

The Nice Guys (Film Review) 2016

Directed by Shane Black

Starring Ryan Gosling and Russel Crowe

The Nice Guys is a 2016 buddy-cop, action-comedy. Action-comedy, a genre I always must be cautious of. The Nice Guys falls short of my approval.

Neither of the genre's points work or flow. The action/thriller aspect of the film failed, due to the fact that the film is simply not thrilling. The characters cannot be described as engaging, and I therefore felt no empathy towards them, or their fate. The ''comedy'' was generally slapstick humour, mostly consisting of feminine shrieks from Ryan Gosling.

Russell Crowe's performance was wooden and constricted by his masculine character. The child actress (Angourie Rice) was unimpressive, and at times, irritating. Though, overall, I found the performances to be quite weak, there were some above-average performances from some side-characters.

The plot wasn't entirely flawed, although the movie did not benefit from withholding the amount of information that it did until the finale. It's introductory scene did utilise withholding of information well, infusing the film with mystery. I felt that the film took a dip following the first act or so.

Overall, The Nice Guys is a buddy-cop film littered with flaws and unimpressive performances. 

5.5/10.

Rated 15a, runtime 116 minutes.