‘The Nice Guys’ doesn’t finish last

From the very first shot — rising over the back of a tattered, pre-restoration Hollywood sign to reveal the L.A. sprawl below while the bass from the Temptations’ Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone bumps in the background — The Nice Guys tells viewers all they need to know about the world in which they’re going to be submerged.

This is Southern California in the ’70s, when a layer of brown filth cloaked the skyline and Hollywood Boulevard had long ago lost its starry shine. It’s the perfect place for detectives like Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe) and Holland March (Ryan Gosling), two deadbeat Philip Marlowes scavenging on the margins of society without the luxury of Raymond Chandler’s hard-boiled prose.

This run-down, wood-paneled world of AMC Pacers and The Pina Colada Song makes an appropriate setting for this lightweight yet diverting action comedy that, aside from being too long, has the sense not to take itself too seriously. (Be warned, though, that some parts are fairly violent.)

Directed and co-written by Shane Black, best known for writing Lethal Weapon and directing Iron Man 3 and the 2005 Robert Downey Jr. film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, it offers a chance for Gosling and Crowe to display a comedic camaraderie. Gosling, as he has shown on Saturday Night Live, is especially adept at delivering his often hilarious lines in a low-key manner.

At first, Healy and March are not friends — and March ends up bearing the brunt of Healy’s bone-cracking wrath as proof. They cross paths while working the same case involving a missing young woman named Amelia (Margaret Qualley).

But as they get more involved — and a famous porn star, Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio), ends up dead — they begin working together.

It seems that everyone involved in the particular X-rated movie that Misty had starred in is turning up 6 feet under. Who’s behind it? And what does it have to do with the auto industry and the upcoming Auto Show or the creep named John Boy (Matt Bomer), who, like his namesake character in the ’70s show The Waltons, has a huge mole on his face?

Healy and March get some needed help from March’s 13-year-old daughter, Holly (Angourie Rice), who seems to be just a bit too precocious.

But none of what’s going on really matters. It’s just an excuse for a laconic, laid-back buddy movie with a great soundtrack (filled with Earth Wind & Fire, America, and Al Green), a few laughs, broken bones and smashed heads — as well as a bit of environmentalism (yes, really) thrown in for good measure.

The Nice Guys does wear out its welcome by the end. But when the the prospect of them working together again is raised, it’s easy to imagine getting on board for another round.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 9:25 AM with the headline "‘The Nice Guys’ doesn’t finish last."