The Nice Guys: 10 Reasons It's The Most Overrated Film Of The Year

7. Kim Basinger Is Flat As A Pancake

The Nice Guys Russell Crowe Ryan Gosling
Warner Bros. Pictures

Kim Basinger turns up in The Nice Guys for the sum of, oh, 10 minutes, poised as a kind of villain named Judith Kutner, a Department of Justice official who may or may not have masterminded much of the chaos that spurs our heroes into action.

She needn't have bothered, though; Basinger is flat as a pancake for every minute she's on screen, delivering a performance so lifeless that you're left wondering whether she died during production and the studio were forced to render most of her performance with cheap CGI. It's that bad.

The Nice Guys was supposed to give movie-goers an awesome reunion by way of Crowe and Basinger, who starred together in the infinitely superior L.A. Confidential back in 1997 - a film for which she won an Oscar, by the way. Not only has the magic faded, the pair barely get a chance to interact.

Black doesn't even bother to make a meta-reference with regards to the fact that these two were once in a period crime film together. Poor show all round.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.