If anyone were to compile a list of 21st Century box office bombs that never deserved to suffer such a dastardly fate, then Shane Black’s The Nice Guys should realistically be near the top of the list.
One of the most inspired and outright hilarious buddy capers to arrive since the turn of the millennium, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe generate sparkling chemistry as they embark on a perilous trip through the seedy underbelly of 1970s Los Angeles, replete with the writer and director’s signature rapid-fire dialogue and jet-black absurdity.
Widely adored by anyone that had the pleasure of seeing it on the big screen – as hammered home by respective Rotten Tomatoes scores of 91 and 79 percent from critics and audiences respectively – the main problem was that nobody seemed interested in paying to see it. As a result, The Nice Guys tanked, earning less than $63 million on a budget of $50 million.
That simply isn’t fair, and seemingly murdered any chances of the sequel teased at the end. However, during a recent interview with Barstool Sports, Crowe hinted that he’s been spitballing ideas for a second chapter with Gosling, even if they only got as far as “somehow we’ve got to pretend we’re Mexican detectives.”
That’s more than enough for anyone that’s a fan of the original, but no matter how hard we try and will it into existence, the sneaking suspicion is that The Nice Guys 2 isn’t going to happen, which is nothing short of criminal.