The Nice Guys

I probably would have enjoyed The Nice Guys more if I had understood what they were going for when I watched it. It was consistently funny, but some of the characters were annoying, a lot of the scenes didn't work, and the ending was strangely unsatisfying.

The trailer for The Nice Guys looked funny, and Roeper liked it, so I guess I had unreasonably high expectations. It was kind of disappointing. Russel Crowe's character was cool I guess, but March kind of got on my nerves. Ryan Gosling did look good at least.

I wish there were a commentary. I wonder what they were going for. Was it supposed to be a spoof/homage? So many windows shattered in this movie, and they all looked so fake, so much like sugar, and they broke before the objects hit them. And lots of things were super unrealistic, like how easy it was for the blue-faced guy to grab the fish out of the tank, and how much March was bleeding when he cut his wrist on the glass. Although that was a funny scene. He seemed like a fairly decent PI. You would think he would've learned that lesson already.

Most of the blood seemed purposefully fake-looking. I don't know what the gag was with everyone being such a horrible liar. It was clearly supposed to be obvious that Amelia, her mother, and Tally were lying, I just don't know why they made it so obvious. I liked the coincidence of the kid at the opening looking at a picture if Misty Mountains and then bam, there she was in real life.

It was pretty consistently funny. And I liked how Amelia kind of came in and out of the story. I didn't like Holly that much. She helped a lot, but she still should've just stayed out of trouble. I liked the gag where there was a dead body right next to March and he didn't even know it. A lot of the scenes felt a little contrived and fake, though. I don't know that I buy them going into business together, although I guess it makes sense. March is a pretty good PI, and Healy can act as the muscle.

The whole "did you fall again?" line was great. And I liked when Judith said half her day was porn and March asked her what kind her favorite was. I knew as soon as we saw Tally for the first time that she wasn't one of the good guys. March telling her they had Amelia was pretty much the dumbest thing ever. Hopefully he doesn't get involved in anything too dangerous in the future, since he's the worst judge of character ever.

The way that people kept getting shot when Keith David was around was pretty funny. I liked how much of a badass John Boy was, although his hair was atrocious. I got kind of confused at the end about if Judith was working for Detroit or trying to take them down.  The '70s thing was kind of annoying. I wonder if they could've done the same movie in present-day. It was originally supposed to be a TV series. That might've worked better.