The Nice Guys
Warner Bros. | Release Date: May 20, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 51 Critic Reviews
Positive:
45
Mixed:
5
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Time OutTomris LafflyMay 15, 2016
Ryan Gosling in a physical action-comedy? Whoever thought of the idea should be crowned genius of the year. With dynamite timing and uproarious gestures, Gosling mines his diverse abilities and becomes a blast in The Nice Guys. Read full review
91
The Film StageDaniel SchindelMay 18, 2016
Half of the best gags in The Nice Guys are of the physical variety. Some of the action scenes escalate into full-on live-action Looney Tunes madness. Read full review
91
The PlaylistRuss FischerMay 15, 2016
The Nice Guys, which the screenwriter also directed, is the best of Black’s films. It is eccentrically, sometimes broadly funny, with top-notch performances from Crowe and Gosling and a pitch-perfect sense of timing to help smooth over some of the script’s fault lines and blind spots. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirMay 18, 2016
To sum it all up, The Nice Guys is basically “Chinatown” remade by Quentin Tarantino and starring foulmouthed, updated versions of Abbott and Costello, as played by two of the most recognizable male stars of our time. Read full review
90
VarietyOwen GleibermanMay 15, 2016
The Nice Guys is an ultra-violent burlesque, the sort of cheerfully hostile buddy bash that’s been a staple since the ’80s, only this one is singularly clever about its own triviality, and it offers the scruffy pleasure of seeing two great actors dial down their gravitas with style. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzMay 19, 2016
It’s all delightfully fizzy, bloody fun – even if there’s the teeniest, tiniest hint of sequel ambitions. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonMay 19, 2016
Is this a family film? No way. Does it include scenes that some may find painful to watch? You bet. Will you be entertained? Thoroughly. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyMay 19, 2016
It is an easy sit, a big fat slice of smart entertainment. Constantly funny, startlingly violent, and oddly heartfelt, The Nice Guys is a grown-up delight, a perfect antidote to the nonstop barrage of effects spectacle that normally marks the summer movie season. Read full review
83
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanMay 17, 2016
The Nice Guys spends nearly two hours treating Crowe and Gosling like a pair of piñatas, beating them mercilessly and unapologetically, and it’s watching them crawl out from underneath and towards some form of redemption that makes the film a genuine smash. Read full review
80
EmpireJames WhiteMay 30, 2016
Quick on its wits and fast with its fists, this is Black firmly back doing what he does best. And nobody out there does it better. Read full review
80
Total FilmJames MottramMay 30, 2016
Should be called ‘The Funny Guys’. The Crowe/Gosling partnership drives Black’s lurid comedy at top speed. Enormously entertaining. Read full review
80
ScreenCrushMatt SingerMay 24, 2016
Black’s general atmosphere of resigned melancholy fits perfectly with The Nice Guys and its portrait of sleazy 1970s Los Angeles, the ideal setting for a filmmaker interested in faded dreams and broken dreamers. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 19, 2016
The porn, the drugs, the smog, the bad haircuts - you can play it for laughs or play it straight. With terrific performances from Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, Black does a little of both. The film is at once a nod to hard-boiled film noir and a send-up of it. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsJoe DziemianowiczMay 18, 2016
As summer popcorn-style entertainment, The Nice Guys gets the job done. Read full review
80
CineVueMatthew AndersonMay 18, 2016
The Nice Guys could well mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Black has really thrown the kitchen sink at his latest project and it all works tremendously. Let's hope there's more to come. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 15, 2016
[Black] creates some outrageously contrived and protracted shootouts and one or two good old fashioned action explosions. But he also keeps the dialogue cracking along. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 15, 2016
Think of The Nice Guys as candy noir: all the key ingredients from mysteries such as Chinatown and The Long Goodbye poured into a tall glass, then topped up with sugar syrup, a spritz of club soda, a sprig of mint and an ironic paper parasol. Read full review
77
The VergeTasha RobinsonJun 3, 2016
While the characters are distinctive and charming, and the dialogue is often pretty funny, The Nice Guys is a large step down on the ambition scale from Kiss Kiss. Having deconstructed his favorite genre so perfectly, Black has a harder time reconstructing it without leaving out some pieces. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanMay 19, 2016
Laughter trumps logic here, and the laughs flow freely. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMay 19, 2016
The cast is perfect, but The Nice Guys could have used one more rewrite or two and another trip to the editing bay to really streamline jokes that don’t work and a plot that gets more cluttered than engaging. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMay 19, 2016
The film overflows with quips, irony, and physical gags while at the same time relating a noir-tinged story of seedy corruption set in the neon-saturated underbelly of the 1977 Los Angeles porn industry. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickMay 19, 2016
Some editing would have made The Nice Guys easier to love — at times it feels as bloated as Crowe’s gut. It’s neither as fast, fresh or as funny as Black’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang’’ (2005). Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaMay 19, 2016
Like Shane Black's directing debut, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" with Robert Downey, Jr., his The Nice Guys borrows from noir traditions and pulp fiction, throwing a fresh coat of smart-alecky comedy over the whole thing. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittMay 19, 2016
Brews up an enticing murder mystery and gives Shane Black — who directed and co-wrote the script — another hit on-screen pairing. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMay 19, 2016
Angourie Rice, who plays Gosling’s intelligent and highly moral 12-year-old, deserves a special mention. The character is an unexpected presence that adds dimension to the story, and Rice plays her beautifully. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMay 18, 2016
The Nice Guys is funny enough when it sticks to its heroes — whether pinned in a tight spot or bickering with each other — that its less-than-compelling intrigues and digressions come as an acceptable trade-off. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMay 18, 2016
The Nice Guys has a little extra padding that isn’t necessary.... Ah, but Crowe and Gosling save the day. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 18, 2016
Gosling and Crowe have a surprisingly fizzy, ferret-and-bull chemistry, and the hedonistic Me Decade setting is groovy.... But the one-liners and shoot-outs feel a bit threadbare, handed down from older, better Shane Black movies. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJake ColeMay 17, 2016
Shane Black's The Nice Guys doesn't want for great exchanges, and even disposable conversations brim with acidic wit. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnMay 15, 2016
The Nice Guys delivers enough brilliant physical comedy to smooth over its blunter narrative devices. Read full review
72
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeMay 15, 2016
There’s a tipping point at which comedy goes from black to bilious, and that’s a balancing act that The Nice Guys doesn’t always nail. The laughs from this frequently entertaining action comedy get stuck in the throat, keeping this altogether good movie from being a great one. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 21, 2016
The Nice Guys has a nice feel: just slick enough to keep from falling apart, just brutal enough to keep from seeming inconsequential. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 20, 2016
The modest pleasures of The Nice Guys lie not in following the wiggy story twists but in watching Gosling and Crowe mix it up and mess everything up. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternMay 19, 2016
A consistently entertaining, frequently violent and generally slapdash action comedy. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMay 18, 2016
As an action comedy, R-rated division, The Nice Guys is hard to beat. Black knows how to pace and escalate a fight and a film, and he springs wicked surprises all along — scene after scene dances around trapdoors that the audience falls into. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMay 16, 2016
Why see this film? Partly because of the leading men, but mainly because of a girl. An Australian actress named Angourie Rice plays March’s daughter, Holly, who is thirteen. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 19, 2016
For a good portion of Black's film, all this mayhem is great fun, since Russell Crowe is obviously funnier than he has ever allowed himself to appear, and Ryan Gosling is funnier than he has already proven. Together they form a deliciously dumb action duo; one brawn, the other sort of has a brain. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesMay 18, 2016
I’m not sure I’ve laughed harder all year than at Gosling in a bathroom stall, accidentally dropping a lit cigarette down his pants leg. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 20, 2016
Is it fun? Parts, yes, and many will get exactly what they wanted from The Nice Guys. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMay 19, 2016
It should have worked, and it almost does, but Black buries his characters in a sputtering, chaotic story, seeming to realize only sporadically that we aren’t watching this film for the plot and the stunts...but for the byplay between the two main characters. And — who knew? — Crowe and Gosling have comic chemistry to burn. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrMay 19, 2016
For a movie predicated on slapstick forward momentum, we spend an awful lot of time driving backward. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 19, 2016
There are even times when Black seems to be letting Crowe and Gosling make the whole thing up as they go along. Not a bad thing. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 19, 2016
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. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 19, 2016
The Nice Guys never lives up to the promise of its hilarious first 10 minutes, but Crowe and Gosling are good enough to leave you hoping for a sequel. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMay 17, 2016
The porn industry of the era is as much a part of the movie as the classic cars (re-used in the background, in scene after scene) and the leisure suits. But the zingers, which fall off markedly in the latter third when the energy flags and the plot unravels, always pack a punch. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMay 19, 2016
Though the plot here may be a confusing, multi-threaded mess (which may in fact be the script’s truest homage to Chandler), it’s occasionally offset by the exuberance with which Black blends splatter and slapstick, and the leeway he grants his two very game leads. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 19, 2016
This is a dumb movie pretending to be smart, even as it wants you to believe the opposite. Still, dumb can be fun. Read full review
60
Screen DailyJonathan RomneyMay 15, 2016
The Nice Guys harks back to the 70s golden age of revisionist detective thrillers, but the result feels too knowingly déja vu, rather than bringing a truly fresh angle. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 20, 2016
The violence is cartoonishly garish and the yuks are few. Crowe, looking (deliberately I presume) flabby and somnolent, is more dead than deadpan, and Gosling, who appears at times to be doing a Lou Costello impression, is, to put it mildly, not in his element. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyMay 15, 2016
That the film mostly falls flat has far more to do with the largely unconvincing material rather than with the co-stars, who are more than game for often clownish shenanigans Black and his co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi have concocted for them; in fit and starts, the actors display a buoyant comic rapport. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedMay 18, 2016
This one, by the jarringly untalented writer-director Shane Black, is merely violent, vulgar and stupid. Read full review
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