This past week, I had the pleasure of finally sitting down and watching The Nice Guys. The movie, directed by Shane Black and starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, is yet another twisted action-comedy detective story from the same director as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I had high expectations for this movie and I'm happy to report that they were all met. This film is fantastic!

Simon Lund Larsen wrote a nice piece on why he thinks this movie does so well and attributes it to the amazing ability of Shane Black to upend the viewer's expectations of a scene time and time again throughout the film. He does this in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and he does it just as well in The Nice Guys.

And that’s what makes The Nice Guys and Shane Black so funny. It’s because it’s not funny. But when unfunny elements are presented to you in an unexpecting order, then it becomes funny.

Simon also includes a few good examples of the directing style being used in the film (warning: SPOILERS!). Read it here. And seriously, make The Nice Guys the next movie you sit down and see.

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