An Excellent Celebrity Pairing in a Slightly Above-Average Comedy

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2020)

A buddy cop throwback in more ways than one, The Nice Guys follows a pair of mismatched private eyes in pursuit of a grand conspiracy that connects everything from porno to the auto industry. It revels in the late-70s setting, poking fun at the fashion, décor, celebrity and personal habits of the era, but at heart it feels a touch more modern.
I was struck, repeatedly, at the tonal similarities to the Lethal Weapon franchise, so it was with no great shock that I discovered Nice Guys' director, Shane Black, made his first bucks as a screenwriter for those Mel Gibson action/comedies. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are the new Gibson and Glover, an odd couple whose pursuit of the truth (and the accompanying payoff, naturally) only barely supersedes their grumbling dislike for one another. Crowe is the anchor, your typical gruff exterior with a warm, chewy center, but Gosling steals the show as his loopy, desperate, unpredictable counterpart. They both get some strong one-liners (and one spectacular silent team-up gag in an elevator), but for my money, Gosling does more with his.
The plot never fully recovers from a risky swerve at the end of the second act, and it plays the pesky kid tagalong card way too often, but it's not trying to be fine art and such missteps sometimes go with the territory. It is what it sets out to be, for better or worse. I enjoyed myself.