The Nice Guys

Writer/director Shane Black made his name in the buddy movie genre with the likes of Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout, and this fllm marked a rollicking return to his roots. Los Angeles in 1977 is the setting and the demise of porn star Misty Mountains the catalyst that brings louche gumshoe Holland March (Ryan Gosling) into (painful) contact with sourpuss leg-breaker Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), drawing them into a missing-person mystery involving the adult entertainment industry, colourful Mob killers and municipal corruption. "You're the world's worst detectives", declares March's astute 13-year-old daughter Holly (a poised Angourie Rice) but that is what produces the side-splitting goods in a cracking romp. And with Black's gold-plated wordsmithery (in a script co-written with Anthony Bagarozzi), you are never far away from quipfire badinage, knockabout nonsense or a shoot-'em-up, typified by the shambolic duo's attendance at a suspect's swinging pool party, where March mooches about in an increasing state of intoxication while Healy and Holly do the private-eye stuff. Breezy, beautifully shot (by Philippe Rousselot, subtly capturing the 70s milieu), it combines action, danger and comedy to exhilarating effect. Perfect star chemistry (Gosling has a ball playing the fool, Crowe proves a fabulous straight man), snappy dialogue and laugh-out-loud moments ensure this is entertainment that just keeps on giving.