The
Nice Guys
Came
out; 2016
Time;
1 hours 56 minutes
Watched:
Netflix
Rating;
R for violence, sexuality, nudity, language and brief drug use
IMDB
Rating; 7.3/10
Caution;
Spoiler Alert
Staring;
Russell
Crowe as Jackson Healy
Ryan
Gosling as Holland March
Angourie
Rice as Holly March
Matt
Bomer as John Boy
Margaret
Qualley as Amelia Kuttner
Yaya
DaCosta as Tally
Daisy
Tahan as Jessica
Kim
Basinger as Judith Kuttner
Story Line.
In
1977 Los Angeles, single father and licensed PI Holland March
(Gosling) is hired to investigate the apparent suicide of famous porn
star Misty Mountains. As the trail leads him to track down a girl
named Amelia (Qualley), he encounters less-licensed and
less-hands-off private eye Jackson Healey (Russell Crowe) and his
brass knuckles, both hired by the young hippie. However, the
situation takes a turn for the worse when Amelia vanishes, and it
becomes apparent that March wasn't the only interested party. As both
men are forced to team up, they need to take on a world filled with
eccentric goons, strippers dressed as mermaids, and even a possible
government conspiracy
Thoughts.
My
daughter said “Watch this movie” so we did! It had some really
funny parts and the 70's vibe was pretty amazing
Be
warned that there are a lot of nude scenes in this movie, so if that
isn't your thing don't watch this.
It's
similar to a buddy cop movie, but these two get together in a
different way as they are both independent. In the end everything
works out for them but the initial thing that brought them together
isn't what you expect, the person they are looking for and end up
protecting escapes and ends up dead anyway,
CAUTION;
Major Spoiler Alert
The
setting is the city of Los Angeles, California in the year 1977.
A
young boy, Bobby (Ty Simpkins) sneaks into his father's room and
takes out a porno magazine from under his bed. Bobby checks out the
centerfold, adult film star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio). In the
distance, a car rolls down a hill. The car then crashes through
Bobby's house and out into a ditch. He runs outside to check it out.
A young woman is sprawled out nude a few feet from the car. It's
Misty. She sees Bobby and asks, "How do ya like my car, big boy?"
before she dies. Bobby takes his shirt off and covers Misty.
In
the next scene, we meet enforcer Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe). He
follows a man that has been seeing a 13-year-old girl and smoking pot
with her. When the girl leaves the man's house, Healy knocks on the
door and then slugs the man square in the face, then tells her to
stay away from young girls.
Private Investigator Holland March
(Ryan Gosling) is sitting in his bathtub full of water wearing a nice
suit. He has "You will never be happy" written on his hand.
He lives with his daughter Holly (Angourie Rice) after his wife
passed away, and he has become an alcoholic. As a PI, March doesn't
get the best jobs. He meets with an old woman who claims her husband
is missing. March notices an urn over the fireplace with her
husband's name on it (and his ashes inside it).
Healy meets a
teenage girl named Amelia (Margaret Qualley). She gives him March's
name and address on a pink note shaped like a cow. March is looking
for Amelia because he was hired by a woman, Mrs. Glenn (Lois Smith),
to find her niece, Misty. Mrs. Glenn claims to have seen Misty
appearing at her window in a pinstripe jacket, despite March
insisting that Misty is dead and that she really saw Amelia. March
goes to a bar to ask around, but the bartender threatens him with a
bat. Later, March tries to break in through the backdoor, but he cuts
his wrist badly and has to go to the hospital.
Healy goes to
March's house and punches him in the face, then kicks him in the
stomach. He tells March to stay away from Amelia. March goes for the
cookie jar to get his gun, but Healy knocks it out of his hand and
then intentionally breaks March's arm, telling march how to describe
the break when he goes to the doctor. On his way out, Healy meets
Holly, claiming to be a friend of her dad. She gives him a bottle of
chocolate Yoohoo.
Healy goes home and is attacked by two men,
known only as "Older Guy" (Keith David) and "Blueface"
(Beau Knapp). They are looking for Amelia as well. Blueface goes into
the next room to look for some money that Healy was holding, only to
get sprayed with blue dye (hence his name). Blueface shoots at Healy,
but Healy escapes.
March is at a bowling alley with Holly and
her friends for her birthday. We see that he now has a cast on his
arm. Healy approaches him in the bathroom, but March is prepared with
a gun. The two sit down to talk about Amelia. March explains his case
to Healy and demands a nice cut of the pay if he's gonna let Healy
work with him on this. Healy agrees.
Healy and March walk by
the Department of Justice building and come across a group of
protesters lying on the ground, wearing gas masks, claiming the air
is polluted and killing them. The group was organized by Amelia, so
March figures she will be there. Some of the protesters tell them
that Amelia isn't there. March offers $20 to anyone who will help. A
guy named Chet (Jack Kilmer) joins the two and takes them to the home
of Amelia's boyfriend Dean. The house has been burnt down. A kid on a
bike passes by and asks for $20 to give up information. He knows
Amelia and says she was with a guy named "Sid Hatrack", and
that they made an "experimental" movie together.
Healy
and March drive by a billboard for a "Pornocchio" porno
produced film by Sid Shadduck, the man that the kid mentioned. After
getting his information, the two attend a party at Shadduck's with
many porn stars in attendance. Holly tags along by stowing away in
the trunk of March's car, but he sends her away in a cab. Healy and
March go around looking for information on Amelia. Healy goes into a
room with costumes and a film reel titled, "How do ya like my
car, big boy?", along with a pinstripe jacket and a pink cow
note with what looks like flight information. He finds Holly in a
room with a porn star watching a porno. Meanwhile, March is really
drunk and ends up stumbling down a hill where he loses his gun. He
sees Amelia, and she sees him, but he's too drunk to notice it's her.
He finds his gun and then tries to light a cigarette, and his lighter
illuminates a dead man's body. March calls Healy over to check it
out. Healy goes through the man's pockets and learns that this is Sid
Shadduck. March says they need to get rid of the body in case Amelia
tried to place him since he said he lost his gun out loud. The two
dump Shadduck's body over a fence, where it crashes onto the table of
a wedding reception, horrifying everyone.
Holly comes across
another porn star who knows she's been asking about Amelia. She
guides Holly to a limo where she gets trapped with Blueface.
Simultaneously, Healy runs into Older Guy. The two fight as Older Guy
tries to shoot Healy, but Healy gets the upper hand and lets him live
after he beats him down. Blueface sees Amelia and opens the door to
shoot at her, but Holly slams the door on his hand and yells at
Amelia to run before making her own getaway. March shows up after
they left, but the valet tells him that Holly was in the black car.
March steals a car and chases after it.
Holly and Amelia both
end up cornered in the middle of the road by Blueface. A van drives
by and slams into Blueface. Amelia is ready to run but Holly wants to
help Blueface as he is suffering. Amelia flees and Holly goes to get
help. Healy shows up and finds Blueface. He threatens Healy with the
fact that someone called "John Boy" is going to find him
and kill him. Healy then chokes Blueface to death before Holly
returns. Holly asks March if he killed Blueface, and he lies, saying
that he would never do that. She tells him that's good, because she
would never speak to him again if he had killed Blueface. March
drives by and runs to his daughter. Not long after, the paramedics
show up, along with a Judith's assistant named Tally (Yaya Dacosta).
A limo pulls up to Healy and March. It is Judith Kuttner (Kim
Basinger), head of the Department of Justice. She says she's Amelia's
mother.
Healy and March sit with Kuttner in her office. She
explains that the Vegas mob is trying to push their porn industry to
L.A., and Amelia is involved because of the "experimental"
movie she did with Shadduck, which Kuttner thinks is the result of
her lashing out. Dean was murdered in his home as it burnt down so
that the movie would be destroyed. She hires Healy and March to find
her.
Back at March's house, March is lying on the diving board
above his pool. Healy comes by, and March asks him why Tally earlier
referred to him as "the guy from the diner". Healy recounts
a story from a year earlier when a man in a diner was threatening
people with a shotgun. Healy stepped in and intervened, causing him
to get shot in the arm, but he still managed to beat the crap out of
the assailant. It cost Healy a lot in hospital bills, but he claims
it was the best day of his life. He then sees that March fell asleep.
Healy then drives away and spots Holly reading a book in a dark
field. He approaches her and learns that her mother died as a result
of a gas leak explosion, which March didn't detect because he has no
sense of smell.
The next morning, Healy and March get ready to
continue working, but March is already drinking. Holly calls him out
on being a fuck-up and the worst detective ever. Healy mentions the
information on the note he found at Shadduck's house, knowing it was
written by Amelia. March deduces that the writing isn't for a flight,
but for an apartment building. The two drive out to the location, but
the building was torn down two years before. They then pass by the
Airport Hotel, and the information was for a room number.
Healy
and March go into the hotel and ask the bartender if he saw Amelia
enter the hotel. After Healy slams his face onto the counter, the
bartender says he did see Amelia go upstairs in an elevator, and that
"John Boy" may be up there as well. After the two debates on
going up there, they take the elevator to the floor where Amelia may
be. They find a dying man with his throat cut, and then a man being
shot repeatedly until he falls out the window. Healy and March decide
to go down. They go back to the car, and March thinks Amelia is dead.
To their surprise, she lands feet-first on the car. She tries to
shoot at them, but the recoil knocks her off her feet and she goes
unconscious.
The guys bring Amelia back to March's home, where
Holly is watching TV with her friend Jessica (Daisy Tahan). After
Amelia wakes up, she tells them the truth - her mother is behind the
murders as a result of the film Amelia made to protest the air
pollution from car companies, and Kuttner is doing whatever it takes
to stop that film from being shown. The guys then get a call from
Tally, who asks them to make a drop with a briefcase full of money.
March mentions that Amelia is there, and Tally says she'll send the
family doctor over.
Healy and March get the money and start
driving to the drop. On the road, March notes that he can drive
without holding the steering wheel, and March says that cars can do
that now. Healy shows off an ankle gun while a giant killer bee
(Hannibal Buress - him again!) is in the back smoking a cigarette.
Suddenly, we see that March had fallen asleep at the wheel! Healy
snaps March out of it, but they end up crashing against water
barrels, causing the briefcase to fall out and spill the contents
everywhere. They see that the briefcase was not holding money, just
paper clippings.
Back home, Holly answers the door to find a
man (Matt Bomer) claiming to be the family doctor to see Amelia.
However, Holly notes that he is wearing gloves, and quickly figures
that this is John Boy. She goes to the cookie jar and takes out her
dad's gun. John Boy threatens to cut Holly with his knife, and then
offers to let Jessica live if she helps him with Holly. Jessica tries
to intervene, but John Boy throws her through the window. The guys
make it home as John Boy leaves. He takes a machine gun out of his
trunk and fires several sprays of bullets at them. March runs to grab
Jessica and brings her in the house. He puts her in the closet to
hide with Holly and Amelia. Holly gives March his gun back. Healy
shoots at John Boy and runs inside for protection. John Boy flees as
he hears police sirens approaching. Amelia escapes out the window and
runs into the street. She flags down a car and asks for help.
Unfortunately, this is John Boy's car. He shoots Amelia dead and
leaves her in the street.
Healy, March, and Holly all feel
terrible after Amelia's murder. But a big break in the case happens
when Mrs. Glenn reappears. She once again insists that she saw Misty
wearing a pinstripe jacket by her window. When Healy mentions he saw
that same jacket at Shadduck's house, March gets the idea to go to
Mrs. Glenn's house. They see a projector pointed at the window, and
Healy mentions seeing the reel for the film at Shadduck's, meaning
Mrs. Glenn only saw Misty through the image projected on her window.
Mrs. Glenn breaks down because she knows Misty really is dead. The
guys realize that there was a second reel, and Amelia was planning on
showing it to distributors on that very day at a party.
The
guys and Holly attend the party. John Boy and other goons are there
to find the film and destroy it. They all learn that Chet is the
projectionist. John Boy approaches him and asks where the film is.
Healy later finds Chet beaten nearly half to death in a
dumpster.
The guys find the room with the projector, but they
are cornered by Tally, who holds them at gunpoint. March tries to
find Healy's ankle gun, before realizing that was just part of his
dream; there is no ankle gun. Holly shows up pretending to be room
service and throws a pitcher of coffee in Tally's face, but it's cold
and does nothing to her. Tally ends up slipping and knocks herself
unconscious, allowing the guys and Holly to get away.
Outside,
Holly overhears Older Guy talking to John Boy about their plan. Older
Guy spots Holly and brings her back to March at gunpoint on the roof
of the hotel. March tells Holly to duck, and he whacks Older Guy over
the head. March grabs Older Guy's gun and shoots him three times. He
tries to grab Holly as he falls, but March pulls her away and the two
men fall off the roof. March lands in the pool while Older Guy
splatters on the concrete.
The film starts playing for the
whole party to see. It features Misty's character speaking against
the head of the car company, Bergen Paulsen (Gil Gerard). Paulsen
sees it and orders his men to find the film. Holly finds the film
first as Tally wakes up. It's in a large, flat film reel container.
Holly rolls it out the window, leading Healy, March, and the villains
to go after it. After a long chase, March ends up with the film,
while Healy fights John Boy. Holly walks in on Healy strangling John
Boy. She vows to never speak to him again if he kills John Boy. Healy
lets go and only knocks John Boy's lights out. The police show up
moments later.
Healy and March go to the Department of Justice
building to confront Kuttner one last time. She shows no remorse for
her daughter's death, and while she knows she's going to jail, she
promises that someone worse than her will be in charge next.
Later
on, March goes to meet Holly and Healy at a restaurant. He sits with
Healy at the bar where they discuss their case, and March thinks that
they'll be driving electric cars within five years. He then tells
Healy that they have another case, in which a woman thinks her
husband is sleeping with Linda Carter (possibly Wonder Woman,
possibly not). March has even come up with a name for their agency:
"The Nice Guys".
