entertaining even though it never really gels

Rating: 7/10 (14 January 2019)

The Nice Guys begins with a puerile joke of a death scene that represents everything that is wrong with the movie and with Shane Black in general. But while these sorts of problematic moments crop up from time to time in this buddy-detective movie, it manages enough entertaining moments to keep it interesting.
The story, involving a sleazy detective and a a thug who join forces to find a missing girl, is fairly engaging, especially in the first half, even though the seams begin to show in the second. Gosling and Crowe are both amusing characters even if they're chemistry is only so-so. The movie is often funny although the humor can sometimes be juvenile and cheap. The 70s period seems random, but occasionally is used for a good joke. The action is decent.
It's not by any means a great movie, and it hits a number of sour notes (including the odd speechifying of a bad guy at the end), but overall I did enjoy it.