'The Nice Guys' stars Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling in a 1970's crime mystery involving the death of a fading pornstar in Los Angeles, California. ‘The Nice Guys’ has been one of my most anticipated films of the year ever since the first trailer released a while back. For me, ‘The Nice Guys’ lived up to every expectation I had and I had an absolute blast watching this film from beginning to end. The chemistry between Crowe and Gosling is nothing short of exceptional and they played off of each other better than I could have imagined. The chemistry had to be great otherwise the film would have fallen apart but luckily we got an amazing dynamic between the two leads to really give this film a fun vibe throughout. On top of that the film has some really witty writing that gives these characters and these scenes a lot of meat to chew on. If there is any one thing that Shane Black doesn’t get enough credit for is how well he shoots action sequences. Each action bit makes your eardrums ring with beautiful sound coming from the barrel of a gun, the explosion of a car, and even every punch that lands. Many are still talking about how great Crowe and Gosling are, but not enough are talking about how fun and exciting the action is. Where the film falls off a bit for me is in the pacing and the dream sequence. The dream sequence makes sense in context, serves it’s purpose and is the set-up for a really funny gag later in the film but it felt out of place. You could easily take the scene out and nothing would have changed much about the film. I feel like the film should be paced a lot more quickly considering what type of film it is but it moves at a much more slow, noir-like pace. Black’s purposing behind that may be because he wanted to give us some more of that 70’s flavor but it didn’t sit right with me. There’s a lot to love during those slower moments but it really bogs the film down a bit and makes the film feel unfocused. When in actuality they understand what type of story it wants to tell along with how they are going to tell that story. Some of the humor also comes off a bit ridiculous but when discussing the film with my Dad afterwards he mentioned how a lot of the weirder moments are just homages to classic 1970’s material. I then began to appreciate the film just a bit more because I still enjoyed the film without understanding the homages that were sprinkled throughout. ‘The Nice Guys’ is already one of 2016’s best films through and through. Although I found some minor issues with the film in it’s pacing and out of place dream sequence there is still TONS of stuff to love. Gosling and Crowe are fantastic together, Shane Black’s writing and direction of action gives this film a lot of life, the humor is laugh out loud funny, and you can tell that each actor involved is having an absolute blast being in this film. Especially Gosling. I would highly recommend everyone see this film because even if you weren’t alive in the 70’s (much like I was) you still can get a lot out of it. If you experienced the 70’s the film might be just a little bit more special to you because you can get all the homages that Black tries to get across. ‘The Nice Guys’ gets a 9/10