THE NICE GUYS – The Blu Review

Review by Brandon Krzysztof

“You’re the world’s worst detectives!”

August 23, 2016 was a huge day for blu-ray releases of all sorts: Criterion Collection, TV Seasons, and your standard amarays. Each release represented many different kinds of genres:  fantasy for The Huntsman: Winter’s War and animation for the popular video game adaption, Ratchet & Clank. But the one release I was looking very forward to was Shane Black’s latest, The Nice Guys, released to theaters on May 20, 2016. (read Jim Batt’s WAMG review HERE)

The Nice Guys was a film I missed in theaters and subsequently made me bummed out about missing it. I am a huge fan of the Ryan Gosling movement here which in the last several years is a name that sky-rocketed since his huge 2010-2011 films. From being the heartthrob in The Notebook to being an a-list actor, Gosling has proved to be a solid name in Hollywood and is one everyone’s radar. When it comes to Russell Crowe, we know we are going to get a great performance and that’s exactly what we got here. I haven’t seen much of Shane Black’s work but I remember Iron Man 3 being one of my favorite Marvel releases and I hear a lot of people like what he bring behind camera.

THE SYNOPSIS

Two private detectives investigate a murder of an adult film star.

THE REVIEW

The movie was highly enjoyable, but it I would be lying if I didn’t say it was a bit confusing. It’s very fast paced and if you miss something you can be lost and that’s how I felt at some points during the film. Regardless, Gosling shines and like I mentioned before about Crowe, great and subdued. The movie was very hysterical, had great action sequences, and featured really great shock moments; on the latter without giving the shock away, the outcome when two men fall off a building. Overall, it was a very fun experience that I would like to revisit sometime soon, perhaps before the year ends.

4/5

THE QUALITY

I was very disappointed when I found out that this was not getting a 4K release. Warner Bros. has been putting out some there older titles on 4K like Lego Movie and San Andreas and with most major releases getting the 4K treatment, I thought this would be sure thing. Even though that is a bummer, the 1080p HD release looked great on my 4K television. There was some slight grain which you will get with upscaling a standard blu-ray but again it looked very good. The sound was above average as well. The dialogue scenes stood well with louder parts of the movie and I didn’t have to increase the sound or apply subtitles to year what the characters were saying.

THE FEATURES

I was shocked to find that were no audio commentaries at all on this blu-ray. From watching the two featurettes and how everyone got along that Gosling, Crowe, and Black would get together and record one. This obviously wasn’t the case and it was a huge disappointment due to the fact that after I watched the film I was going to watch again.

The first featurette, Always Bet on Black, is a five and a half minute segment that focuses on Shane Black and how the cast and crew think of him on set and how he makes film. This was very interesting, but however it will be over if you take time to blink your eyes.

The second featurette, Worst. Detectives. Ever. – Making the Nice Guys, is just over six minutes and features quick comments with cast and shows behind the scenes of certain scenes of the movie. I’m mixed about this feature because, again, it is very short but I love seeing the making of process. I felt like there is so much that happened in this film that would be interesting to see but we are left with a few scenes.

The third featurette is simply just Trailers from Warner Bros. films. If you haven’t seen them already, they are here for your viewing pleasure but I would like to note that the trailers do play when you insert the disc.

THE VERDICT

The Nice Guys is a great film that is definitely poised to be in your Top 10 of the year. The film has a high re-watchability factor because it’s so fun and also because it’s a bit confusing on the first watch. It didn’t blow me away but I did have fun with it. Great script, direction, and performances make it one of this year’s strongest. The quality of sound and picture are above average but the features are lacking and disappointing even though the little content it has is interesting.

Next week’s blu-ray review will be Disney’s live action hit, The Jungle Book.

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