Ivica_Pusticki’s review published on Letterboxd:
Shane Black - master of witty and humorous dialogues, entertaining verbal wits, author of numerous fucked-up, cynical and sarcastic (and yet bad ass) characters, and "father" of many unusual partners and fantastic (cult) action buddy-buddy movies - finally has a new AWESOME movie that proves that he (still) ain't to old for this shit, and that he still very much knows how to write (and direct) good old-fashioned entertaining buddy-buddy action comedy type of movie that are almost non existing today!
OK, its not that Hollywood doesn't make buddy-buddy movies anymore...it does! And some of them where big box office hits...even critically acclaimed! But they are far from all those awesome classics like 48 HRS, ANOTHER 48 HRS, BUTCH CASSIDY & SUNDANCE KID, LETHAL WEAPON (franchise), THE LAST BOY SCOUTS, or even BAD BOYS, TANGO & CASH and RUSH HOUR (1 & 2)! Instead, last couple of years we got bunch of stupid half-parodies like 21 JUMP STREET, 22 JUMP STREET, THE HEAT, and RIDE ALONG 1 & 2, with unfunny jokes and annoying characters without any charm. Sure, I know some people love some of those movies and think highly of them, but still, if you ask me, those movies are nothing more then pale wanna be copies of old buddy-buddy classics.
But thankfully, there are THE NICE GUYS!! One of my most anticipated movies this year!
OK, its not like Shane Black think of something new here, or offered something we didn't see before! On the contrary, his formula is basically the same as before, and he even kind of "recycling" himself here. Fans of his work will surly notice similarities with THE LAST BOYS SCOUT or KISS KISS BANG BANG (and some other movies he wrote). But you know what...it doesn't matter, because Shane does it so good!
Story itself is interesting and fun (although maybe a bit to complicated for its own good), but the main reason why THE NICE GUYS are so fucking awesome are, of course, fantastically written characters, fun and witty dialogues, and especially superb and entertaining performances from Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe! They are simply fantastic together, and they work perfectly like some kind of well tuned Swish watch! Its really hard for me to say which of them two was better, because both of them have perfect sense and timing for humor, and their dynamic onscreen relationship is bursting with energy! Plus, although THE NICE GUYS isn't exactly action packed movie, and its more of a story driven noir-mystery thriller, there is still some cool old school action here to enjoy! The only problem I could find with THE NICE GUYS was slightly inconsistent pacing...but that's such a minor "problem" that I don't even care about it. Forget that I even mentioned that...
Look, Black didn't surpassed his greatest hits (LETHAL WEAPON and THE LAST BOY SCOUT) with THE NICE GUYS...but he has convincingly made one of the best buddy-buddy movies in the last 10 or more years! I know, some will say that I exaggerate and that I'm wrong, which is fine, because we cant all agree just about everything. But anyway, THE NICE GUYS are one of the best movies I saw this year, and I highly recommend it! Go watch it!
![Boy Roarbison [fka Nag Champion]](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/avatar/upload/2/6/5/9/8/shard/avtr-0-80-0-80-crop.jpg?v=9374058d24){kind=small}
