A Shane Black comedy n'stuff

Rating: 8/10 (5 June 2016)

What do you get when you cross Cutris Hanson's LA Confidential with Shane Black's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? The answer is this entertaining crime comedy centred around a porn film in 1977. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe make an unlikely pairing as together they investigate a missing persons case which escalates quickly into insanity and hilarity.
Russell Crowe portrays Jakson Heely, a character who shares similarities with his LA Confidental character Bud White. Crowe plays the brute with a softer side fairly well, making a mini comeback after some less than stellar performances in films such as Les Miserables. As good as Crowe is, he isn't the stand out star of this show, the would go to Ryan Goslings brilliant performance as the alcoholic buffoon Holland March. Gosling embodies the clown role of the film, perfectly executing the many, many gags he's faced with delivering. Goslings performance plays a big part in my enjoyment of this film and finally shows that the actor isn't just a pretty face.
The film is a funny film, thanks to Crowe and Gostling for their delivery is definitely in order for the films humour working, but their delivery would have been for nothing if the script wasn't funny to start with. Also the direction and editing are also great in pulling off some of the physical comedy of the film. Long story short the team behind this film work brilliantly together to compliment one another and create a genuinely amusing movie.
The only issue I had with this film was the crime story itself. As the film progresses it seems to shift from a mysteriously cursed porn film to yet another government conspiracy to which I am still confused as to how that was resolved. The films climax centres around our protagonists retrieving a porn film to which the story is evidence against the department of justice for illegal activity... But everyone involved in the films making is dead and its a PORN film, so I'm struggling to see how this singular piece of pornographic evidence is enough to take down someone high up in the ranks of the police force. Sure Chet is alive to testify but that is never specified and is that really enough?
Overall The Nice Guys is a really nice film. Although the overall story gets a bit sh*t the characters and the humour will compensate for this to the end. Ryan Gosling gives the performance of his career so far and deserves a special mention for his work on this film. This is a cool movie filled with porn, murder n'stuff.