The Nice Guys: Average Guy Movie Review

The King of buddy comedies, Shane Black, is back. His latest movie, The Nice Guys follows Private Investigator Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and Enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) in their attempts to find a missing girl called Amelia (Margaret Qualley), who's somehow linked to the death of porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio).

As with the other buddy comedies written by Black like Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the movie is reliant on the relationship between the two leads and The Nice Guys doesn't disappoint! Crowe and Gosling work very well together, not only are they believable in the portrayal of their respective characters, their antics are also highly amusing. If you didn't know better you'd think Crowe was reprising his role of Bud White from L.A. Confidential. Oddly enough, this is the first time Crowe and Basinger have worked together since L.A. Confidential. Gosling's character shares traits with characters from Black's past projects as well as one of TV's most popular Private Detectives; Jim Rockford (James Garner) of The Rockford Files and yet at the same time Gosling has managed to bring an original character to the screen. Holland March is a widower and a former Police Officer much like Martin Riggs, he's a drunk, low life (borderline degenerate) Private Detective like Joe Hallenbeck (Bruce Willis) from The Last Boyscout. March's daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) tries to get involved in the case like Hallenbeck's daughter Darian, although Holly isn't an angry brat like Darian. Much like Jim Rockford, March keeps his gun in a cookie jar and his advert in the Yellow Pages is virtually identical to Rockford's.

But don't think for a second that this movie is just a rehash of popular movies and TV shows. The Nice Guys, which does feature tributes to other classics is very much its own movie and has been described as a combination of madcap comedy and American corporation corruption. Set in 1977, the story revolves around the L.A. smog, the Detroit Motor Industry and the introduction of the catalytic converter. Kim Basinger plays Judith Kutner, a Prosecutor with the Department of Justice and Amelia's mother, she hires March and Healy to find her daughter. But what begins as a simple missing persons case soon turns into an investigation into corruption, murder and greed of government and big business.

Atlanta and Decatur, Georgia stood in for 1970's Los angeles, although some scenes were filmed in the city itself. Setting the story in 1977 was a good choice as certain elements wouldn't work in the modern world of social media and YouTube. The result of all this is a buddy comedy/thriller with comic undertones and thanks to the 70's setting some trippy ways of thinking. Mike Ryan of Uproxx said: "if you like Shane Black you will like The Nice Guys. It's probably the Shane Black-est of Shane Black movies." With a 91% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 4/5 stars from Empire and Total Film, The Nice Guys is on track to becoming not only one of Shane Black's best movies but one of the best movies of 2016.

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning | Average Guy Movie Review

Two months after acquiring both halves of the cruciform key, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is ready to put an end to the Entity, once and for all. However, in that time the rogue A.I. has increased its stranglehold on cyber space and the planet. Spreading lies and misinformation, the people of the world are divided more than ever, and governments are on high alert. All of which should make it rather difficult, maybe even impossible for Ethan and his team to find a sunken Russian submarine and, use whatever they find there to kill the artificial intelligence that's slowly taking control of the world's nuclear arsenals. It is entirely possible that Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning could be the most anxiety inducing instalment of the franchise - the second half, anyway. Once again, Tom Cruise puts himself through the absolutely ludicrous in the name of entertainment... and a possible adrenaline addiction. Every scenario in which Ethan and the gang find themselves seems to be d...

Jason Bourne: Spoiler Review

I don't usually write spoiler filled reviews because I don't see the point. But considering my not so positive review of Jason Bourne, one of the most highly anticipated movies of Summer 2016, I thought it might be worth trying to explain why I reached the verdict I did. If you haven't seen this movie stop reading because there are spoilers ahead. Click here to see the spoiler free review. The movie begins with Bourne in Greece. He's laying low, making money by competing in underground fights and still struggling with his past. He lacks purpose which is making him miserable. Nicky Parsons on the other hand is busy hacking the CIA in order to expose their black ops programs. So far so good. But when Nicky finds something out about Jason's (or should I say David's) past, she heads to Greece to find him. Unfortunately her activities have drawn the attention of CIA Agent Heather Lee (Alicia Vikander), a cyber ops specialist who begins to track her. Using a ...

American Assassin | Average Guy Movie Review

When his girlfriend is killed in a terrorist attack, Mitch Rapp (Dylan O'Brien) goes in search of vengeance. His activities soon draw the attention of the CIA and Deputy Director Irene Kennedy (Sanaa Lathan) who decides to recruit Rapp. Kennedy sends him to the Orion Group - a black ops unit - where he'll be trained by Stan Hurley (Michael Keaton), a former Navy Seal and the team leader. On Rapp's first mission, Orion are tasked with finding missing plutonium and the American (Taylor Kitsch) who has it, a man Hurley trained. The movie is based on the 11th book in the series by Vince Flynn. I can't say how closely it follows the book, but this is one of those spy movies where the spies do very little spying before shooting up the place, combined with a typical trainer/trainee story in which the trainer continues to doubt the trainee until he proves himself in the third act. As a generic action movie it's fine, the fight scenes are well choreographed and O...

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