The Nice Guys (2016)

Saturday, 10.45pm UTV

“So you’re telling me you made a porno where the plot is the point?” If you tuned into The Nice Guys unsure of the lm-maker involved, it wouldn’t take you long to gure out that Shane Black was the writer/ director in question. Mismatched buddies à la Lethal Weapon or

The Last Boy Scout? Check. Noir detective à la Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? Check. Explosive action sequences à la The Long Kiss Goodnight or Iron Man 3? Check.

In this case, the nourish milieu is 1970s LA (cue wah-wah pedals and ares) and the mismatched buddies are played by Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. Both are gumshoes with di erent approaches to their craft. Gosling approaches his cases with a good deal of thought; Crowe approaches his with a knuckleduster and a size 11 boot. Their diverse talents are called into action for a case involving a missing teenager and a dead porn star. Plot-wise, The Nice Guys follows in the tradition of The Big Sleep, Chinatown and The Long Goodbye in that much of what takes place is contrived and frankly irrelevant. This is particularly true of a sub-plot involving smog and air pollution over LA. The real heart of the movie is the chemistry between the leads and the absurdist/pop culture references in Shane Black’s script. As a double act, Crowe and Gosling are called upon to become Freebie and the Bean in some sequences, and Abbott and Costello in others, with Gosling taking on goofball duties and Crowe in straight man mode. It doesn’t always work, and the movie is sometimes not as funny as it thinks, but the gags and the action sequences come thick and fast. Watch out for the scene where Gosling stumbles upon a dead body and immediately channels his inner Lou Costello. Watch out, too, for the real star of the lm. Gosling and Crowe may be the A-listers involved, but Aussie actress Angourie Rice steals the movie from both of them.