The Nice Guys: 10 Reasons It's The Most Overrated Film Of The Year
Does the title refer to the critics who reviewed this movie?
Shane Black has been the driving force behind some of the most relentlessly entertaining movies of the past three decades; as the guy who brought us Lethal Weapon, he defined the buddy comedy genre and - more recently - brought his unique brand of witty fun to memorable outings such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (a neo-noir masterpiece) and Iron Man 3 (the most underrated Marvel movie).
To say I'm a Shane Black fan is kind of an understatement: as far as Hollywood screenwriters go, I'd place him somewhere in the upper pantheon. Which is why it surprised me immensely to find his latest flick, the long-awaited '70s-set buddy comedy The Nice Guys, to be a major disappointment... and, given its immensely positive critical reception, potentially the most overrated film of the year.
Despite it containing all the classic Shane Black tropes, Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling and a cool period setting, The Nice Guys fails to deliver on the talents of its writer/director in almost every way. It's not a Shane Black movie as much as its Shane Black trying to write a Shane Black movie, and that's a real shame.
Here are 10 reasons why The Nice Guys (with a 90% score on Rotten Tomatoes) is the most overrated film of 2016...
10. The '70s Setting Feels Wasted & Underutilized
One of The Nice Guys' "things" is that it's set in the '70s. That's one of the elements you mention when somebody casually ask you what the film is about in their attempt to weigh up whether they should go see it. You say: "It's a detective film set in the '70s, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling." It's a selling point.
And yet despite the '70s setting, Shane Black's latest film doesn't really embrace the aesthetic of the time period to the point where the movie feels authentic to the year it's supposed to be set in (which is 1977): given the semi-dark nature of the story, its rendering of Los Angeles is too cheesy - cartoonish, even - caught between trying to appear both realistic and touristic at once.
Black tries to make it work, of course: the font used during the opening credits is '70-ish, there are appropriately obvious cuts on the soundtrack, and smog is mentioned a bunch of times ('70s L.A. was very smoggy, in case you didn't know). People are dressed like it's the '70s, too, but the movie's overall attempt to bring this period to life falls flat. There's not enough attention to detail to create the seedy atmosphere that The Nice Guys needs in order to make us believe.