Great fun!

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 2016)

I had a laughing-out loud ball watching this. Everything was "1977" starting even with the main title design. Then, like throughout the movie, something HORRIBLE happens that caused me a belly laugh!
Crowe & Gosling were terrific as a couple of noodnik PIs, Gosling being the "dumb and dumber" sillier of the two. There's one point in the movie when I swear he was doing a Stan Laurel. Come to think of it,"fat & skinny" are their style as a duo.
Don't get me wrong, this was not a "stupid" movie (sorry, I don't want to be politically incorrect to any stupids), it was damned smart. I've wasted too many tickets on so-called "comedies" that were boring and laughless. This one, with a really high-action, at times scary- violent narrative, is also simultaneously hilarious.
The Gosling character's daughter in the movie (Angourie Rice) was AMAZING, almost stole the movie from the two leads. She has a great future as an actress. Plus you've got a Coen Bros-like assortment of weird characters.
It's all set in Hollywood and the hills, and that in itself is a touch of tribute to things like "Mulholland Drive," "Bosch," "The Long Goodbye," and (check it out!) "The Big Fix" (w/Richard Dreyfuss). There's a stereotypically "Hollywood" decadent party that reminded me of Peter Sellers' "The Party" - including that Gosling's character may have had as many pratfalls, though at far greater altitudes!
This movie is A-class fun! I don't think it's getting much theater showtime, so I guess we're gonna have to get it around by word of mouth. If ever a movie deserved a sequel, it's this one.