Cast:  Russell Crowe, Ryan Gosling, Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Keith David, Kim Basinger, Shane Black, Joel Silver, Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi.

Direction:  Shane Black

Produced:  Joel Silver

Written:  Shane Black, Anthony Bagarozzi

Genre:  Comedy

Duration: 116 Mins*

Trust The Temptations' Papa was a Rolling Stone to really set the tone for what is to come. And even then, you do not see the opening that comes zooming past. Los Angeles, California in 1977 is a time of flashy shirts, flashier cars and the advent of the porn industry in the post-Deep Throat era.

An interested lobby wants the adult film industry to expand from Las Vegas to Hollywood. A missing girl, Amelia (Margaret Qualley) could be an essential link. Except that her mother is a high-ranking official in the Department of Justice, so that can get tricky. There is also a dead porn star, Misty Mountain (Murielle Telio), in the mix. So between the blundering Holland March (Ryan Gosling) and the lethal Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe), there is an uneasy alliance with escapades in their 70s shoot-out glory as they punch, trip and blast their way out of tight corners.

The Nice Guys is short on plot and more on the subversive gags stringing the two detectives along. It is the sheer absurdity of sequences - watch out for when March discovers a body and Healy helps him dispose of it - that gives the film its charm. Back-track in the story and the chain of events may seem improbable, peppered with coincidences. Yet, this is not the film that strives to plug loopholes via exposition. You watch with the spirit of the two leading men - by just going with it.

Angourie Rice is quite the scene-stealer as Holly, March's daughter. In a film about men with guns, she stands as the only grown-up, even more than Amelia's activism and her coterie's smog protest (another one of the stand-out sequences in the film).

The Nice Guys falls into the style-over-substance structure, with a nostalgia throwback to an eventful decade. It works because the leads have their timing and chemistry down pat, because the writing bolsters a talkie scene into a chuckle-worthy one. The humour is all-American, the action is violent for the genre (yet the comedy-gore mash up works). It is also an acquired taste.

If you are into irreverent detective movies with the noir essentials as parody or homage elements, watching The Nice Guys is the weekend thing to do. Put it on the list.