Episode 52

The Nice Guys

Published on: 23rd July, 2020

The Nice Guys, upon its release in May 2016, found itself facing off against a comedy sequel, an animated movie of a million-selling mobile game and two separate superhero franchise sequels. It's really no wonder it suffered at the U.S. box office. An original idea, from the always brilliant mind of Shane Black, needed room to breathe and find its feet. Sadly, it never got to do that. Had it been released in June, like it was supposed to, it might have made the $217 million that the other comedy buddy movie it swapped release dates with did. Can you tell I'm bitter about that?

The Nice Guys had two big name stars (Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling), several up-and-comers (Margaret Qualley and the terrific Angourie Rice) and a Hollywood icon (Kim Basinger) in its cast. It followed Shane Black's other directorial efforts; his debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and the 20th highest grossing movie of all time, Iron Man 3. It's really quite brilliant, actually.

For the titular (and ironic) "nice guys who aren't actually nice guys"; as Private Investigator Holland March, Ryan Gosling excels at physical comedy, with Russell Crowe's Jackson Healy as the grumpy tough-guy straight man. As casting decisions for a comedy go, you'd never suspect they'd be this perfect together, but they are.

The script is witty, dark and hilarious. The setting, 1977 Los Angeles, centred around the adult movie industry, feels seedy yet exuberant.

Seriously - this movie should have made buckets of cash!!

Although The Nice Guys failed commercially, critically it passed with flying colours. The few who did see it raved about it and arguably it's well on its way to cult classic status. It deserves to be talked about on a podcast, and most importantly it deserves to be watched and enjoyed. I really do think it's one of Shane Black's best.

I would love to hear your thoughts on The Nice Guys!

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