Here are several reasons to choose The Nice Guys over The Gray Man

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In the top 10 movies on Netflix right now, Ryan Gosling plays a wisecracking action hero who battles a powerful government foe while being driven by his desire to protect a young girl. I’m speaking of Shane Black’s 2016 action comedy The Nice Guys, which starred Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe as a pair of private investigators in 1977 Los Angeles. The Gray Man, a witless, wearying take on the type of movie that director Shane Black produced to great acclaim in the late ’80s and early ’90s, has been streaming on Netflix alongside The Nice Guys for at least a portion of this week.

Since then, Black has evolved into a more specialized filmmaker, juggling inconsistent franchise movies like 2013’s Iron Man 3 and 2018’s The Predator with unique works like The Nice Guys and 2005’s Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The last two are entertaining, amusing crowd-pleasers that should have been massive successes but have instead developed a cult following, mostly among movie buffs. The Nice Guys’ Netflix release may alter that, just as it has for many other mid-tier action films that didn’t do well upon their first release. The Nice Guys ought to be viewed by as many people as possible, thus it doesn’t matter if only a small percentage of The Gray Man’s Netflix audience comes across it.

I comprehend. In the movie The Gray Man, Billy Bob Thornton’s CIA agent tells Ryan Gosling’s prisoner that he is “glib” and the directors Anthony and Joe Russo seem to take that as a challenge to make the character code-named Six into a quip-spouting machine, even while he is in the middle of car chases, explosions, and firefights. You might also call Ryan Gosling’s Holland March from The Nice Guys glib, but Gosling achieves a flawless balance between the comedy and the melancholy, which are connected aspects of March’s personality. His glibness is a clear mask for great grief.

In The Gray Man, Six has a clumsily forged bond with Julia Butters, the niece of his former handler, whose danger serves as an easy justification for retaliation. Although Holly is occasionally placed in jeopardy by March, their relationship is far more credible in its depth because of the captivating, nuanced performances by Gosling and Rice. Like her father, Holly is precocious without ever being cloying, believable afraid when she gets into trouble, but also cunningly savvy.

Even though The Nice Guys doesn’t have The Gray Man’s budget, Black nonetheless sets the action in a way that is much more engaging and cogent than the Russos accomplish. It takes some time before March and Healy are involved in a major gunfight, but when they are, Black keeps the action exciting and tense while simultaneously adding comedy and advancing the story. The explosions and fistfights at the action conclusion aren’t gratuitous, and neither is Ryan Gosling’s masterful physical comedy in a restroom stall.

The Nice Guys effortlessly achieve everything that The Gray Man struggles to do, adding social commentary and strong supporting work from everyone from Keith David to Kim Basinger. There is still time to switch the funding for The Gray Man’s promised sequels and spin-offs to The Nice Guys as Netflix frequently acquires the rights to a product that was first launched elsewhere.

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