The Nice Guys

Starsky & Hutch by Shane Black. What's not to love? Perhaps only the disparity between the silly buddy comedy storyline loaded with one-liners (I haven't laughed so loud in the movie theater for a long time) and the regular gritty crime storyline, which is clearly only a makeweight, but for a long time is much more refined than it turned out to be eventually and in the final scene it is clearly too slow. In other words, both in terms of the story in a style like"nothing is going on" and in terms of comedy, it´s absolutely flawless. And I look forward to a sequel, the two of them get together in terms of mutual chemistry so unusually and in a unique way (after all, see for yourself. It would be terribly unfortunate not to give them proper space. However, the best movie in this department is still Zootropolis. (2016-05-24)

Black is back on form. And although it’s more Kiss Kiss Bang Bang than Last Scout, in view of what we are offered in the way of movies today, this is a breath of fresh air for a smelly, sequel-reliant Hollywood. Nice Guys score highly mainly due to their complex screenplay which, even though it leads toward a certain goal, dropping clues to solve the case along the way, it works excellently in individual scenes, too. These scenes are usually either comedy (almost always with an ingenious punchline) or action-based. The plot revolving around the lost porn film/actress offers a good portion of Black’s inventiveness (beware - unlike other creators, he repeats himself a little in his films, but always very refreshingly) and again first-class work with child characters. He hit the jackpot in his choice of actors. Gosling is awesome. In the role of a kind-hearted, chubby guy, Crowe gives an excellent performance (he’s beginning to look a bit like Goodman), it’s just Kim who simply looks somehow old, even under tons of makeup and she her acting just isn’t good enough. Drugged up bees, naked mermaids and a villain with a blue face. a wonderful comedy which I’ll watch again soon. - What was that noise? - Pardon? Oh, I was just throwing a girl out of the window. (2016-06-02)

Laurel, Hardy and the mystery of the lost porn film. Gosling has never been so funny and so irresistible at the same time. Though his nihilistic private detective is a bit of an imbecile and very much an alcoholic who confuses dream with reality and “eunuch” with “Munich,” every once in a while, when the muse enlightens him, he is capable of leaving those around him momentarily speechless. In a film driven mainly by verbal shootouts between two or three characters, something like this logically does not happen often, but the wordless (splatter) slapstick scenes put Black’s growing directorial mastery on full display. There are some very funny situations (e.g. the opening scene with the speeding car) that don’t grab our attention, but instead leave us to find them in the shot on our own. Black also shows the same confidence in the viewer’s intellect in the unexpected conclusions of expected scenes. People die without any warning, characters often behave with more recklessness or brutality than is normal in Hollywood genre films (there is even violence against children) and they make a wrong or even utterly stupid decisions and have to bear the consequences. Essential revelations are made thanks to chance or the incompetence of the characters rather than through focused data collection and analysis. The sudden yet convincing changes in tone will also make you care about Gosling and the other characters. Black knows when it is appropriate to put on a serious face and thus reinforce our sympathy for the protagonists, yet he hardly ever moralises while snuffing out any inclination toward pathos or subordination to the demands of the individual characters’ backstory (during a serious dialogue about heroism, for example, one of the characters unashamedly cracks up), and offers only the line “At least you’re drinking again” as a band-aid on a disillusioning (and thus properly noirish) climax. I am not at all bothered by the fact that Black has been writing basically the same thing since Lethal Weapon, which is to say comedic noir detective stories about a duo of cynical cowboys whose lives are in shambles and they are forced to get their shit together, as long as it continues to be as entertaining and distinctly different from whatever else Hollywood is churning out, which – with a few honourable exceptions (e.g. Deadpool) –  has yet to attain a similarly mature capacity for self-reflection that doesn’t draw interest away from the characters. From a commercial perspective, The Nice Guys will probably be a negligible intermezzo for Black before the Predator reboot. From the perspective of the pleasure that it brings to cinephiles, however, it is the film of the year so far. 90% (2016-05-25)

Black is a wisecracker and he knows how to write characters, fully humanize them, and then let them sprinkle (not only) verbal humor in dialogue exchanges that make the audience squirm. Yet the entire film is covered by such a terribly lame and in many moments transparent crime plot that it wouldn't even hold up as a retro episode of CSI. If the investigative aspects hadn't been taken so seriously (a take on so many strong social themes) and had settled for more self-deprecating silliness, it would be a genre perennial. [It dissipated quickly the day after I watched it.] 3 ½. (2016-05-25)

Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling were born for roles like these. They make fun of themselves, but not in a very obvious way. That’s what the movie itself is like. It is funny, but at the same time isn’t primarily about the humor, it is rather a typical detective story from the 1970s. However, when there is a hilarious scene it has such an impact that you will want to rewatch it a couple of times after the first viewing. During the remainder of the time, you hope for something mindblowing to come any minute now and so you are observing, lurking, and you appreciate every moment that makes you laugh. Every joke is actually filmed so originally that the ending will make you sad. Even though I wasn’t that impressed with the first half of the crime story, the second half was a lot better. But the humor reigned for the whole 2 hours. I even have a feeling that you will not find a funnier movie from the year 2016. (2016-12-21)