This week our films choice was the action/buddy movie The Nice Guys. A film we were very much looking forward to as from writer/director Shane Black whose last outing, Iron Man 3 was disappointing, his last film of this genre was Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang which was fantastic.
In fact ignoring Iron Man 3, Shane has also written screenplays for epic action/buddy movies such as the original (and best) Lethal Weapon; The Last Boy Scout & The Long Kiss Goodnight so our anticipation was high for the Nice Guys, especially including a cast of Russell Crowe; Ryan Gosling; Kim Basinger & Matt Bomer.
The film opens up with a car crash involving the death of an adult film star, Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) which P.I. Holland March (Gosling) is hired to investigate. His trail leads him to a lead involving a girl named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) who is also on the radar of another P.I. Jackson Healy (Crowe).
The cast of Misty’s last adult film are starting to be killed off and when Amelia goes missing, March and Healy team up to find out what is really going on. As they investigate further all things lead to a major government conspiracy, heading right to the top with Judith Kuttner ( Basinger).
In a year yet again dominated with reboots, remakes and sequels, this film is a joy for being something new and original, especially with its retro feel and Seventies setting, yet be aware this at times, is quite a violent film.
That is not to say that film is not without its flaws. It’s certainly not as good as Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. We felt it could have been slightly shorter. Also not a real fault, but we in the BMAF household are big fans of TV show, White Collar, so we would love to have seen more of John Boy, the crazy hitman, played by the show’s Bomer, who is sent to kill March and Healy.
The film certainly though has more positives going for it, Crowe and Gosling, probably better known for their serious roles, deliver great laughs to in this action comedy; Angourie Rice is excellent as Holland’s young daughter, and will surely be one to watch for the future; The action sequences are great with a fun array of characters out to get our 2 leads, we’ve already mentioned Bomer as John Boy but we should also mention Beau Knapp, who gets known as Blueface for reasons you will find if seeing the film; the seventies feel, especially the soundtrack also help this film stand out too (Bonus BMAF points for including a Jaws 2 billboard) and also adding to this nostalgia is the casting of Gil Gerard, best known to us as TV’s Buck Rogers.
This really is a great year for original films, as we include The Nice Guys in our favourites of the year with other titles such as Zootropolis and Deadpool.
Not that we are anti-franchise in fact as much as we loved the Nice Guys, we are possibly more excited about Shane’s next project, The Predator, the latest sequel to Predator. This will also be a return to the Predator franchise for Shane who acted in the 1987 original opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing Hawkins.
Have you seen the Nice Guys? What is your favourite Buddy Action film? We would love to hear from you hear at Barking Mad About Films
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