Welcome back to another issue of Your Movie Mage, where I discuss underrated movies across genres. Last issue, we discussed the directorial debut of Alex Wolff, “The Cat and the Moon” and this week we’ll be talking about the underrated but star-studded cast in, “The Nice Guys.”
“The Nice Guys” should have been a big hit as a clever buddy cop movie starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in the 1970s. The failure of “The Nice Guys” can mostly be attributed to its release date and its marketing. Competing in the theaters during 2016, with bigger films such as “Captain America: Civil War” and “X-Men Apocalypse” in the month of May, this film never stood a chance.
Likewise, the movie’s humor is arguably not for everybody, with jokes that aren’t spelled out for the audience and not laugh-out-loud funny—for some; personally, I did laugh a lot. Along with that, it doesn’t seem to have been made clear in its abysmal marketing that the movie was a comedy. The leading two men are not known as comedic actors, although Gosling’s post-Barbie phase has transitioned into the genre. For those who were looking for a comedy, the film was competing with “Neighbors 2,” which was a more popular choice.
This film has been compared to the better-known “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” as both films were directed and written by Shane Black. They both feature a similar style, though I hold the unpopular opinion that “The Nice Guys” is better. The humor of this film is unlike others, with our two leading characters starting off on bad terms when Healy (Crowe), breaks March’s (Gosling) arm. They quickly team up and all is forgiven, as it turns out they work great together.
The best part of the film is the dynamic between our two protagonists. They balance each other well with March as the irresponsible yet intelligent private investigator, and Healy as the intimidating but calm investigator. Both characters are comedic in the best way—they aren’t trying to be funny. March as a father is good and bad, teaching his daughter important lessons such as not saying “and stuff” after everything, but also putting her life in danger on numerous occasions. This nuance in his character is interesting and we don’t often see fatherhood in buddy cop movies explored past the desire to save your kidnapped daughter.
The acting by Gosling and Crowe was phenomenal. However, there were characters whose acting took me out of the film a bit, which is unfortunate given the production value and stand-out acting from the majority of the cast.
I also enjoyed the inclusion of random tidbits to the characters, such as March’s strong feelings about ventriloquism. This added to the film being very character-driven, despite movies like this generally being more story and action-driven. The story is strong enough, but it’s not why I enjoy the film.
Robert Downey Jr., the star of Shane Black’s film previously mentioned “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” had a small cameo in “The Nice Guys” as the dead body of Sid Shattuck. This has a minor impact on the film as a whole, but is an interesting bit of information.
The realism of the dialogue and characters stood out in a world of relatively unrealistic situations. The dialogue between Healy and March was very strong and I appreciated their civilian solutions to movie problems. We have a pair with nuanced and varying intelligence, not just between one another, but within themselves as well. We often see characters in movies in similar settings with a character who’s always level-headed and intelligent, and another who is immature and unprofessional. This film doesn’t seem to do that, with neither character being stagnant. The typical cool and calm tough guy, at points, is not able to keep composure.
“The Nice Guys” is a strong film and is one of my favorites of Gosling—which is saying a lot. It’s also probably my favorite Crowe movie, too. I give “The Nice Guys” an underratedness score of 3.5/5. The aesthetic is fun as most ‘70s movies are, and I like the style of humor a lot. I still hold onto hope that a sequel will appear eventually, as I’d love to see more of these characters and this style of film. I highly recommend watching this movie. Those who hadn’t seen it before often tell me they’re surprised they hadn’t heard of it because it’s so good.