Film
The Nice Guys
A shaggy, profane buddy comedy dressed up as a hardboiled 1970s LA noir, from the writer of Lethal Weapon. Gosling's hapless private eye and Crowe's hulking enforcer stumble through a smog-choked mystery involving porn, pollution and a missing girl, tripping over corpses and punchlines in equal measure. It's for anyone who wants their crime plot delivered with genuine belly laughs and real menace, not irony instead of stakes.
If you liked this
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang2005
Shane Black's other great buddy noir, with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer doing the same bickering-detectives-in-over-their-heads dance, narrated with the same wisecracking self-awareness.
But The plot is deliberately, almost proudly, a tangled mess — if you need things to add up cleanly, this will needle you.

Lethal Weapon1987
The template Shane Black wrote before he perfected it — mismatched cop chemistry, wall-to-wall banter, and action that actually hurts. Riggs and Murtaugh invented this whole lane.
But Straighter and more earnest than The Nice Guys — less comedy, more genuine 80s cop-movie machismo.

Inherent Vice2014
Same dazed, sun-bleached LA, same conspiracy-you-can't-quite-follow energy, but filtered through Paul Thomas Anderson's woozier, more melancholy lens with Joaquin Phoenix stoned throughout.
But Deliberately disorienting and slow where The Nice Guys is brisk — a mood piece more than a plot machine.

The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Long Goodbye1973
Same city, same era, same amiable-loser detective wandering through a conspiracy he barely understands — this is the film Shane Black is quietly in conversation with.
Robert Altman's shambling, sun-drunk take on Philip Marlowe basically invented the bumbling-detective-adrift-in-LA mode that The Nice Guys is playing dress-up in, decades earlier and stranger.
But Slow, elliptical, and deliberately anti-climactic — 70s art-house pacing, not a plotted romp.

More like this (8)
Hot Fuzz2007
If you loved how violence and jokes collide without cancelling each other out, this is the British cousin — village-cop satire that turns into a genuinely brutal action movie.
But Leans harder into parody of cop-movie tropes specifically, rather than just being a great one itself.

In Bruges2008
Another pair of foul-mouthed men wandering a picturesque backdrop while morality and slapstick grind against each other. Same DNA of comedy that curdles into something sadder.
But Considerably darker and more mournful by the end — less pure fun, more existential gut-punch.

48 Hrs.1982
The granddaddy buddy-cop mismatch, with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte establishing the insult-comedy-plus-real-danger formula this whole genre runs on.
But Rougher edges and dated attitudes throughout — it's a product of its era in ways that haven't aged gracefully.

Beverly Hills Cop1984
Pure fish-out-of-water charm — a detective talking his way through danger with jokes instead of fists, in a shiny LA that's one plastic layer removed from the grime of The Nice Guys.
But Lighter stakes and a more conventional plot; the danger never feels as real.

L.A. Confidential1997
If you want the same city, the same era-adjacent corruption, and the same tangled conspiracy played completely straight, this is the gold-standard version with none of the jokes.
But Dead serious throughout — expect prestige noir gravity, not a single wisecrack to relieve the tension.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels1998
Guy Ritchie's kinetic, overlapping-criminals comedy has the same delight in watching idiots and professionals collide violently and hilariously.
But Thicker slang and a more ensemble, less character-driven structure — you're tracking factions, not a duo.

The Deuce2017
It's the serious, long-form documentary-adjacent version of the exact industry The Nice Guys mines for comedy — same subject matter, opposite register and format entirely.
David Simon's serialized drama about the birth of the porn industry gives you the world The Nice Guys treats as a punchline — the same period, the same milieu, but as lived reality with James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
But Slow-burn, novelistic television with a huge cast and no jokes to soften the exploitation it depicts.

Blood Simple1985
It's the same neo-noir engine of incompetence and violence colliding, stripped of the punchlines — shows what The Nice Guys would look like if it played every joke as a threat instead.
The Coen brothers' first film runs the identical machinery — bumbling investigators, a body that won't stay buried, black comedy simmering under the surface — but never lets you laugh out loud.
But Genuinely tense and grim where The Nice Guys releases the pressure; this one just tightens it.

People
Cast
Russell CroweJackson Healy
Ryan GoslingHolland March
Angourie RiceHolly March
Matt BomerJohn Boy
Margaret QualleyAmelia Kuttner
Yaya DaCostaTally
Keith DavidOlder Guy
Beau KnappBlueface
Lois SmithMrs. Glenn
Murielle TelioMisty Mountains
Gil GerardBergen Paulsen
Daisy TahanJessica
Directing
- Shane BlackDirector
- Nilo OteroFirst Assistant Director
- Julia TaskerScript Supervisor
- Luca KouimelisScript Supervisor
- Eric Richard LaskoSecond Assistant Director
Writing
- Anthony BagarozziWriter
- Shane BlackWriter
Production
- Carmel MusgroveAssociate Producer
- Sarah Halley FinnCasting
- Aaron AuchCo-Producer
- Ethan ErwinCo-Producer
- Anthony BagarozziExecutive Producer
- Hal SadoffExecutive Producer
- Ken KaoExecutive Producer
- Michael J. MaloneExecutive Producer
- Norman MerryExecutive Producer
- Janette EvansFirst Assistant Accountant
- Eric HoogeLocation Manager
- Joel SilverProducer
- Mohammed Al-ZahraniProducer
- Eric LayneProduction Accountant
- Georgina MarquisProduction Supervisor
- Jeff ValeriProduction Supervisor
- Michael J. MaloneUnit Production Manager
Recommended by
Deadpool, In Bruges, Knives Out, Game Night, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, L.A. Confidential, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Bad Boys, The Long Goodbye, The Thin Man, Hot Fuzz, Spy, The Guard, Beverly Hills Cop, 21 Jump Street, Lethal Weapon, Inherent Vice, Midnight Run, Date Night, Pineapple Express, 48 Hrs., Get Shorty, The Big Lebowski, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Seven Psychopaths, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, 22 Jump Street