Buddy Cop Movie Without The Cops

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2016)

I saw "The Nice Guys", starring Russell Crowe-The Man With The Iron Fists, L.A. Confidential; Ryan Gosling-Gangster Squad, Young Hercules_tv; Kim Basinger-L.A. Confidential, Wayne's World 2; Margaret Qualley-The Leftovers_tv, Palo Alto and Matt Bomer-White Collar_tv, Chuck_tv.
This is a nice throwback to the old buddy/cop movies, only these are not cops. It's directed by Shane Black and if you don't know his name, you should. He had his influential hand in some great action movies; he wrote Iron Man 3, Long Kiss Goodnight, The Last Boy Scout and the Lethal Weapon movies, and he directed Iron Man 3 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That is a nice little resume. The movie takes place in 1977 Los Angeles. Russell plays a guy that is hired by people, just to beat up people-that is actually how he makes a living. Margaret hires Russell to scare off some people that are looking for her. Ryan is a private detective-the world's worst, according to his own daughter-that is hired to find Margaret by Kim, who also happens to be Margaret's mother. Matt plays a dangerous hit man that is after Margaret, and his name is John Boy- anyone remember the Walton's? It has both action and comedy. I don't want to give too much away but other plot elements involve a dead porn star named Misty Mountains and a film that exposes a government conspiracy involving the Detroit automakers and their polluting of the environment. Ryan even gets to do his best impression of Bud Abbott. It's rated "R" for violence, language, drug use and sexual content- including nudity-and has a running time of 1 hour & 56 minutes. I really liked this one and I would buy it on Blu-Ray.