Writer-director Shane Black creates a violent, sleazy, sexy world of the late 70s; a noir-ish setting in which he places this tangled web of a plot, and these relentlessly hilarious characters. Even if the story doesnt quite add up in the end, the actors and the jokes are so sharp youll have little reason to complain.Im going with three-and-a-half out of five for The Nice Guys. Its a whole barrel of fun.

Reminiscent of the Coen Brothers, Shane Black’s The Nice Guys is a twisted concoction of genres. It’s a neo-noir mystery cum buddy cop action comedy that startles you with its unpredictable crime plot laced with deadpan humour. Black turns his dashing duo into clumsy buffoons, who seem to be anything but ‘nice’. Despite the plot being somewhat convoluted and dragging in portions, it is Crowe and Gosling, who manage to pique your interest. Replete with nudity and violence, if eccentric crime dramas with a dash of dark comedy are up your street, The Nice Guys is your film.

The characters in The Nice Guys often ask each other if they’re good or bad, a choice the movie doesn’t want to force the audience to make. Instead it settles for making good on the title, occupying the nice, mushy middle – perhaps unfocused and off-balance at times, but conveying a sense of buoyancy that’s as cheerfully contagious as it is freewheeling.