I have to admit I was sort of looking forward to this; I like both of its stars, and Shane Black, despite his penchant for excess, still holds a place in my heart for Predator.  Since then he has turned into a screenwriter of messy action movies and occasional director of same.  He likes gratuitous violence, profanity, kidnapping as a plot device and male camaraderie in his films, which are often loud and obnoxious.  In The Nice Guys he pairs a pouty enforcer (Russell Crowe) with a clueless private eye (Ryan Gosling) in 1977 Los Angeles, looking for a teenage runaway.  It’s almost an homage to Chinatown, but without any of that movie’s class.

Crowe looks old and fat and over the hill, but he’s still lots of fun to watch.  Gosling tries his best to plumb the depths of his character, someone who always seems to make the wrong choice, but I tired of his stupidities.  He really is the worst private eye in the world.  His daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) saves his bacon again and again, and is the movie’s finest asset.  And the cars are pretty cool, evoking memories of a time when cars had personalities.  But the film itself is ludicrous and dopey and its violence is off-putting.

Their case involves a runaway who has made an adult film, and people who were somehow involved with her or the film are dropping like swatted flies.  The ultimate villain behind the scenes is very easy to identify, and the big shootout at the climax is simply ridiculous.  Some of the little touches along the way are fun, the women are very hot, and Black provides some ironic moments that provide the story with more meaning than it deserves.  Still, the preview was better than the film.  One can only hope that Mssrs. Crowe and Gosling will find projects better suited to their formidable talents than this mush.  ☆ ☆.  28 June 2016.