The ultimate wedding of Shane Black’s wily, aesthetically winsome & warm-hearted sides. In a story of discovering you can fight city hall (so to speak), its mantra is etched ON city hall: “He that violates its oath profanes the divinity of faith itself.”

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 11, 2025

It’s a smart lesson hidden within an odd couple murder mystery and one worth remembering regardless of political affiliation, because oppression is oppression and either you’re a Nice Guy or you’re a bootlicker; can’t be both.

| Feb 11, 2025

Black does some of his best visual work ever in “The Nice Guys.” It may be his masterpiece. He creates a pitch perfect period piece set in 1977 Los Angeles. The composition of every scene offers a reward to eagle-eyed viewers.

| Jun 9, 2024

One of the characters is apparently the talented one and the other, the unsuccessful one. However, an alternation will occur. Consequently, the conjunction of two opposite but complementary male characters is a style of the director.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jan 12, 2024

You have these flat-lines in what is largely a very amusing detective story where dead air sort of takes centre stage for a few minutes every so often, in part because there’s not always something else going on in the surrounding atmosphere to distract...

| Nov 13, 2023

[Shane] Black likes his characters and loves the genre and that's enough to make the tribute / pastiche / affection parody work.

| Aug 19, 2023

For its furious pace, a couple of terrific set-piece scraps and for the disarming likeability and chemistry of Gosling and Crowe, The Nice Guys ticks every box for an R-rated good time.

| Jul 12, 2023

(Crowe and Gosling are brilliant together in something that sends up their tough guy images.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 4, 2023

Abundant with the same type of caustic sarcasm that made Black’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” an underappreciated, yet cult favorite, “The Nice Guys” is smarter than it has to be and in retrospect, like all great crime thrillers, it is a relatively simple story.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 4, 2022

... It’s the rare crowdpleaser that’s also eccentric and a little bit irritable in an endearing sort of way.

| Aug 10, 2022

The Nice Guys is a jubilant, gritty, and guilt-free lark. As a critic, it's so satisfying to see a film that serves as both strong filmmaking and popcorn-munching entertainment.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 15, 2022

The Crowe-Gosling team might stir unhappy memories of what-were-they-thinking? twofers like Pat Morita and Jay Leno (Collision Course), Ted Danson and Howie Mandel (A Fine Mess) or Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds (R.I.P.D.), but they're a dynamic duo.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 18, 2021

The plot is cumbersome until it becomes painfully obvious who is behind it all, and then it becomes trite.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 26, 2021

Ryan Gosling excels as a feckless and cowardly private investigator in a buddy comedy full of wit and energy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2021

Ryan Gosling's best performance this year, and Russell Crowe's best work in a long time.

| Apr 13, 2021

The Nice Guys loses its way time and again, and generally not in an intriguing manner. The filmmakers rely on too many clichés and shortcuts (psychotic hitmen, quirky thugs and such) and too much pointless, time-wasting violence.

| Feb 11, 2021

Funny and even thrilling by times, but its greatest trick is to make you fall on side with these two not-always-so-nice-guys.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 3, 2021

The humor rarely flows naturally, instead arriving in the form of squabbling asides, designed specifically to be separate, segregated moments outside of the plot.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 5, 2020

This mostly disappointing effort from Shane Black can be described much like the private dicks of the title-not exactly great, or even good, but ensures you'll at least have a nice time watching it.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 30, 2020

A fantastic throwback to several eras. At its heart it's a classic 1940s film noir...wrapped in the polyester styling of 1970s crime films...contains the fun 1980s buddy-film banter and chemistry...punctuated by the ultra-violence of the 1990s.

| Jul 17, 2020