I like Crowe quite a bit as Jor-El, but I think Bart’s right in that the last great role he had was in YUMA.
And it’s nice seeing someone else think NICE GUYS is just aiiiight.
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AMM gets it way a lot.
AI was super excited about this, and then just so floored by how I couldn’t get into it.
Yep. I didn’t hate it at all, and laughed an adequate amount of times. But it wasn’t anywhere near as great as hoped/expected.
I think KKBB is the better film all around.
AYeah with my diamond in the rough thing I figured everything nice had already been said about The Nice Guys. But no one had mentioned the cognitive dissonance of very modern Gosling and gruff Crowe not being gruff enough.
Also I’m a hypocrite.
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You’re not the boss of him!
AI really did like the movie, guys. Just not love.
The mystery was kind of perfunctory. The villain hitman came in too late. And the opening lingering shot on the dying porn star was pretty icky.
But it moved quick, had snappy dialogue and a few great sight gags. Fun!
That last half hour too, woo.
AI don’t even remember the mystery.
ASee, there are those diamonds I knew you’d find!
Not seriously trying to call you out on anything. I agree it pales in comparison to KKBB. But even “just good” Shane Black is still funnier and more entertaining than 95% of movies this year.
Find a girl.
A girl with nice boobs, but dead boobs may be girl or may not be girl.
Something about a porno film.
Something, something…auto industry and hippies.
Something, something…bang.
Some good stuff happens in between.
AActually, I probably couldn’t explain what the hell the mystery is in KKBB.
It’s the Dashiell Hammett / Raymond Chandler thing. The plot is supposed to be labyrinthian in order to facilitate your main character(s) meeting a number of assorted oddballs, ne’er-do-wells, and femme fatales.
AI read a book on screenwriting that talked about “Lethal Weapon” and was like, “Can you even explain what the bad guys’ plan was?” And I was like, “Uhhh… heroin? That’s a plan, right?”
I’d actually argue the villains’ plan in Lethal Weapon was way more straightforward than in KKBB.
Ex-military guys sell drugs. Money is laundered through another vets’ bank.
Bank vet gets cold feet. Bad guys kill bank guy’s daughter to teach him a lesson.
Cops then get involved, find the bad guys, and there’s a lot of shooting.
AGary Busey is all the plot you need.
AI think the author’s point was similar to Johnny’s: the characters are what’s important in these kinds of stories, the intricacies of the plot less so.
Going through the plot of a Shane Black film is generally a pointless endeavor. That’s why most all of his screenplays are about two people meeting and working out their differences during an adventure of some sort. It’s never about the mechanics of the adventure or the villains (who are always penciled in and only ever memorable if a particular actor is there to bring them to life), it’s just about two or sometimes three people working shit out amongst themselves.