Skip to main content

The Nice Guys gets a retro, nostalgia-inducing trailer

The first trailer for writer/director Shane Black’s upcoming action comedy The Nice Guys generated all kinds of buzz when it debuted late last year, and now the second trailer seems primed to do the same with a nostalgia-inducing preview that anyone who grew up in the VHS era will appreciate.
Recommended Videos

Echoing the tone — and yes, the analog-fueled tech — of movie trailers released during the ’70s and early ’80s, the new trailer for The Nice Guys features the sort of graphics, narration, and traditional cuts that were a hallmark of films released during the mid-’70s period when the film is set. There’s even the inevitable tracking static that home audiences had to contend with after popping the cassette into their VCRs.

Basically, it’s a trip down memory lane for movie fans of a certain age.

The third theatrical feature directed by Black after 2005’s critically acclaimed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and 2013’s superhero sequel Iron Man 3, the dark comedy The Nice Guys casts Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as, respectively, a bumbling private investigator and a tough-as-nails enforcer, who together get caught up in a complicated kidnapping case in ’70s-era Los Angeles. Over the course of their investigation, they end up uncovering a conspiracy that drags them into trouble well beyond anything they anticipated.

The film is based on a script penned by Black (who also penned the screenplays for Lethal WeaponThe Long Kiss Goodnight, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, among other projects) and Anthony Bagarozzi (the upcoming Doc Savage and Death Note movies).

Along with Gosling and Crowe as the film’s hard-luck, odd-couple protagonists, the cast of The Nice Guys also includes Angourie Rice (These Final Hours), Matt Bomer (White Collar), Margaret Qualley (The Leftovers), Keith David (They Live) and Oscar winner Kim Basinger (L.A. Confidential), who gets an “Introducing …” credit in the trailer that goes right along with its retro theme.

The Nice Guys is scheduled to hit theaters May 20.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
All of Shane Black’s movies, ranked
The Nice Guys - Gosling and Crowe

For many, Shane Black is best known as the writer of classic 1980s and '90s action movies like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. As legendary as his screenwriting credits are, though, Black has built an almost equally impressive second career for himself over the past 20 years as a director. He has made two of the most beloved crime comedies of the 21st century. On top of that, he's directed two franchise sequels that, whether you like them or not, manage to subvert your expectations at nearly every turn.

Black, unfortunately, hasn't gotten to direct as many movies as his fans would like, and it's been six years since his last film. Nonetheless, his directorial efforts are all noteworthy enough to warrant being discussed in the internet's preferred manner, which is to say ranked from worst to best.
4. The Predator (2018)

Read more
This underrated 2016 action comedy is just as good as Chinatown. Here’s why you should watch it
The Nice Guys - Gosling and Crowe

Shane Black's The Nice Guys, starring Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe, is a comedic homage to classic LA films like Chinatown, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and L.A. Confidential in which down-and-out detectives uncover far-reaching Machiavellian conspiracies that have dire implications for the future of society.

While The Nice Guys foregrounds Black's fun-loving tribute to the genre over its more serious cautionary themes, the writer/director still makes a point to condemn greedy and short-sighted institutions -- in this case, those that have accelerated climate change. In an era in which billionaires and oligarchs have brought us to the financial and ecological brink, The Nice Guys and its cinematic forerunners seem more relevant than ever.
Following in a hallowed tradition
Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Chinatown - Paramount Pictures Paramount

Read more
3 Netflix comedy movies like Bottoms you should watch right now
Rachel Sennott wears her hair in pigtails in Bottoms.

As Bottoms continues to expand to more theaters, and becomes more and more of a phenomenon as a result, those who have already seen the movie may be hungry for something that matches that movie's unique tone and style.

While black comedy is a difficult genre to do as well as Bottoms does it, there are some movies on Netflix that might fit the bill. The movies on this list all have something in common with Bottoms, even if none of them replicate everything that is making that movie so popular.
Do Revenge (2022)
Do Revenge | Official Trailer | Netflix

Read more