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Summary
- Shane Black revolutionized the buddy cop genre with dynamic characters and unique humor in The Nice Guys.
- Despite financial underperformance, the terrific banter and dark humor of the film point toward a potential sequel.
- Stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling express interest in revisiting their characters in a follow-up to the cult classic comedy.
It’s safe to say that writer/director Shane Black is responsible for creating the template for which a majority of modern buddy cop action comedies are based. When crafting the premise of the 1987 classic Lethal Weapon, Black came up with the perfect scenario for a dynamic crowd-pleaser; the film paired two radically different protagonists together in an adventure that forced them to recognize how much they had in common. While he would return to the subgenre with his 2005 directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black perfected the buddy cop narrative with his 2016 comedy caper The Nice Guys.
A throwback to 1970s genre thrillers with an acerbic sense of humor, The Nice Guys is an amalgamation of everything Black does well. The film interweaves a clever crime mystery storyline, but the narrative never supersedes the importance of the characters; the best aspect of the film is the terrific banter between Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe. Despite strong reviews that signified it was a future cult classic, The Nice Guys underperformed financially, ending all hopes for Warner Bros. to start a franchise. However, recent comments by the cast and crew indicate that it's the perfect time for a sequel to The Nice Guys.
- Release Date
- May 20, 2016
- Runtime
- 116minutes
- Director
- Shane Black
- Writers
- Anthony Bagarozzi, Shane Black
WHERE TO WATCH
In 1970s Los Angeles, a mismatched pair of private eyes investigate a missing girl and the mysterious death of a porn star.
‘The Nice Guys’ Is a Modern Comedy Classic
Set in Los Angeles in 1977, The Nice Guys is a satirical neo-noir that explores the seedy underbelly of Hollywood’s adult entertainment industry. After the adult film star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio) is killed under mysterious circumstances, her aunt Mrs. Glenn (Lois Smith) hires the alcoholic private detective Holland March (Gosling) to start an investigation. While Holland was once a detective of some notoriety, his enthusiasm for solving crimes has declined in the aftermath of his wife’s death, leaving him to care for his daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) on his own. Holland initially approaches the case with no real intention of earning anything but a profit; however, he becomes entangled in a larger conspiracy when the disgruntled enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) also begins looking into the case.
While the conspiracy storyline allows Black to construct an amusing comedy of errors, The Nice Guys works because of its dynamic leading performances. The role of Holland served as a very different one than the morose anti-heroes that Gosling had portrayed in films like Drive and The Place Beyond the Pines; he gives a widely eccentric performance that achieves levels of physicality reminiscent of silent film stars like Buster Keaton. Comparatively, Crowe gives one of his most underrated and subdued performances. The comical bluntness of Healy’s personality makes Holland’s sharp reactions even more over-the-top in comparison.
The buddy cop genre tends to be rather commercial, but The Nice Guys is quite subversive with its dark sense of humor. Black has no issue in mining Holland’s tragic story for comic effect; the nature of his wife’s death is even a punchline at one point. With graphic death sequences and a dour message about Hollywood’s greedy intentions, The Nice Guys lacks the superficiality that is present in many mainstream Hollywood crowdpleasers. These darker qualities would have been more disturbing if the film wasn’t able to constantly keep topping itself with more amusing one-liners and physical gags.
‘The Nice Guys’ Sets up a Potential Franchise
While it didn’t include a cheesy post-credit sequence that led to nothing, The Nice Guys ends with a tease for future installments. After the mystery is solved and the corrupt Justice Department official Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger) is arrested, Holland and Healy meet for a drink and create a newspaper advertisement for their new business. Black doesn’t indicate what case they will take on next, but he does suggest that the two characters will continue to work together. The Nice Guys may have told a self-contained story, but the attention that Healy and March earned from their heroism would have been enough for them to gain attention for their new detective agency.
The Nice Guys concludes each character’s story arc perfectly; Holland learns to become a better father to Holly, and Healy finally finds a way to put his blunt strength to good use. However, both characters have room to grow in potential sequels to The Nice Guys. This is something that Black has already shown he can do; the relationship between Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) only deepened throughout the Lethal Weapon sequels. While Black’s recent efforts on The Predator were underwhelming, it suggests he’s best suited to handle a franchise that he has creative ownership of.
‘The Nice Guys’ Stars Want a Sequel
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Image via Warner Bros.
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures
Image via Warner Brothers
Black had plans for multiple sequels to The Nice Guys, and expressed interest in continuing the series “if someone would pay for it.” He wasn’t alone in his enthusiasm, as Crowe also teased that he and Gosling had discussed the idea of revisiting the characters. Interest in the project seemed to decline, as the initial plans for a female-led spinoff series were canceled after Black admitted that “no one wanted to buy it.” However, Black also stated that the potential series “wouldn’t have been good,” as he had concerns that network executives would start “sanding off the edges,” thus removing his stylistic idiosyncrasies.
In the years since The Nice Guys’ release, Gosling has become even more established as a comedy star thanks to his Academy Award-nominated, scene-stealing performance in Barbie. While he admitted in a promotional appearance for The Fall Guy that the film had been crushed by The Angry Birds Movie on its opening weekend, his co-star Emily Blunt expressed interest in having a cameo in The Nice Guys 2. Given how significantly the film’s audience has grown as a result of its popularity on streaming, it’s a better time than ever for Black, Gosling, and Crowe to start working on a sequel.
The Nice Guys is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.