It is said that screenwriting is the world’s most difficult art form in the world. One of the reasons for this is that so many movies have been made and stories told that being original and having an original idea is close to impossible. To be really original, one of the first things you have to do with a script is to create very original dialogue, but the problem with this is walking a fine line between what is called “on the nose dialogue” and witty subtext that is both different and not downright strange at the same time. Shane Black , who came to fame in 1987 at age 26 with the movie “Lethal Weapon”, both wrote and directed this movie and once again he attempts to be unusual and different which can at times seem to be too much of a good thing.

The movie “The Nice Guys” tries to walk a tightrope between being a private eye caper in the city of Los Angeles that is somewhat like the movie LA Confidential – 1997 also starring Kim Basinger and at times a very weird movie. One example of this weirdness is a scene where Ryan Gosling’s character is driving a car and then suddenly realizes that in the back seat there is a giant Bee and the car drives itself. This insanity is then explained as a dream sequence where Gosling’s character fell asleep while driving the car. Another scene has Gosling seeing a dead body and repeating the same exact fear reactions from Lou Costello in just about every Abbot and Costello movie and this came off as more embarrassing than funny. There is a speech by Russel Crowe where he talks about the last person you may see before you die is of all people, Richard Nixon. Crazy lines like this are all over this movie and at times this kind of thing works and at other times, it all falls flat.

At the start, the story involving of all things a mother-daughter feud, a porn movie, and a major Automobile manufacturer is all over the place and then comes together at the end after a good deal of unnecessary confusion. Some of the dialogue is funny and some of it just doesn’t work at all. There is a good deal of violence and death in this movie, some of it over the top and unnecessary but nothing more than we have all seen in movies for many years. Gosling’s character smokes in this movie non-stop which I for one always find to be very annoying and should not be allowed in any movie.

Russel Crowe, who plays the lead private investigator in this movie for some reason thought it necessary to gain a great deal of weight for this role. You had to wonder if this huge weight gain was really necessary for a role like this in the first place, especially considering the danger you can put on your overall health to gain an lose extreme amounts of weight. For me, it would have made no difference whether Crowe was normal weight or 40 pounds overweight to play this part.

The role of Gossling’s daughter is played extremely well by Angourie Rice and she almost steals the whole movie with her acting ability and young movie star looks. This young woman probably has launched a great acting career with this movie.

At the end, it was very obvious that this film may be the first in a continuing series of “Nice Guy” movies with Crowe and Gossling. If this movie makes a great deal of money there is no doubt that there will be one or perhaps many more sequels.

I thought this movie was good enough to recommend, despite the confused story and at times insane situations and dialogue.

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The Nice Guys – IMDB

This movie is mostly about one thing: loneliness​ and adjusting after a spouse dies. I can’t​ remember ever seeing any movie that is entirely about this one issue, but this one handles this subject every well.

“The Medler” approaches the inevitable life of grief and death expertly, suggesting that the main character, played very well by Susan Sarandon​, is trying to distract herself from fully realizing her grief after her husband dies by constantly calling their only daughter, played very well by Rose Byrne, meddling into her business and driving her crazy. It’s quite believable​ that a person would do something like this, I​ definitely would, because sitting alone in a house and thinking about your grief would be an unbearable alternative​. Trying to distract yourself with other people and activities is certainly a healthy thing to do but can also make the people’s lives around you quite miserable​.

Once Sarandon’s​ daughter leaves to New York to shoot a TV pilot she replaces her daughter by helping her friend’s gay friend’s wedding, which also includes paying for it and handling all the details. Sarandon’s character it seems has a great deal of money after her husband has died and her therapist suggests that perhaps she is giving so much of it away because of her guilt of inheriting the money in the first place. In my opinion, her money was just another way of distracting herself from facing her grief. On an airplane, on the way home after visiting her daughter, Sarandon’s character had a moment of realization​ and grief that it seemed she was trying to avoid for the whole story. The acting at this point in the movie was both subtle and very well done.

There is a possible future love story that develops for Sarandon’s character towards the end of the movie and her boyfriend is played very well by
J.K Simmons who is in many more movies lately after his groundbreaking performance in the movie Whiplash where he won a best supporting actor Oscar in 2014. The list of Simmon’s recent credits is amazing as he is trying to cash in on his Oscar before it all dries up. I have no idea how one actor can be in so many movies over such a short period of time.

This movie is a good one and the subject matter is very relatable. All of the acting performances are very good. I do recommend this movie.

Good Will Hunting is one of those movies that within the first few minutes you knew was something special. The idea behind this movie is a great one; a super genius without any formal education has mathematical skills far beyond anyone else in the world. This story came from real life, from an Indian math genius of the 1920’s named Ramanujan who was poor, never formerly educated and changed the world with new mathematical formula’s that nobody had previously been able to solve. This movie is also reviewed in this blog: The Man Who Knew Infinity

Good Will Hunting was nominated for best Picture in 1997 and won best original Screenplay. Robin Williams played the therapist who befriends Will Hunting in without any doubt the best acting role he ever had; for this role he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The lead character of Will Hunting was played by Matt Damon , who also co-wrote the screenplay with his co-star Ben Affleck . There were several reasons why Good Will Hunting was such a great movie: the unique story about a one of a kind math genius, the scenes discussing math with the MIT math professor and his colleagues, the acting and mostly the relationship between Robin Williams and Will Hunting which grows over the 2 hour movie to a great friendship ending in a scene where Willams character has a breakthrough with Will while discussing Hunting’s years of a very abusive childhood as a foster child. The resultant break through following Williams repeating the line “it’s not your fault” is one of the best and most emotional scenes I have ever seen in any movie (see video below). Like many actors who make movies, Robin Williams never achieved the heights he achieved in Good Will Hunting ever again and considering how good he was in this one role, that is a shame.

There is a love story in Good Will Hunting involving actress Minnie Driver and It thought that this was a good side story with the ups and downs of this relationship greatly affected by Will Huntings very bad childhood. Its been 19 years since this movie was released and if you have not see it already, you owe it to yourself to see this great movie.