Shane Black is the writer who arguably reinvented the buddy movie in modern cinema. His script for Lethal Weapon sold for a huge sum for a first time writer and cemented Mel Gibson’s reputation as a bona fide A–list star….for a while anyway. The template of good cop- crazy cop sprinkled with outrageous action set pieces and laugh out loud comic lines was a template that he applied to nearly all of his future films. And those films included The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight and Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and most recently The Nice Guys.
All of those titles were a nod to Black’s interest in the hard boiled detective novels with characters like Mike Hammer and all with an old school mystery at the centre. And that’s exactly what you have with The Nice Guys , a script that Black along with his regular collaborator Anthony Bagarozzi, wrote but took 13 years to get to the big screen. Intended as a film the lack of studio interest saw it relegated to a TV pilot and even then it stalled until producer Joel Silver stepped in. Silver was the uber producer of the 1980’s who had bought Black’s Lethal Weapon script and even cast him in a small role (as well as punching up the script) on Predator.
Set in present day, The Nice Guys was rejigged and instead set in 1970’s Hollywood to accommodate its porn star plot that was more suited to an age when those specialist interest movies were shot on film before a digital internet era. The script had already caught the eye of Ryan Gosling who had made quite the impact with the brutally brilliant, ’Drive’ but The Nice Guys would prove that he was, and is, a brilliantly adept comic performer. Black wanted to pair him with Russel Crowe as the brawn of the duo and with whip smart dialogue, cracking set pieces all littered with often hilarious lines seemed to assure a box office hit. Unfortunately on its release the $50m budgeted film earned only $71m. It deserved to do far better especially as it was opening against The Angry Birds Movie and Bad neighbours and yet they earned each $352m and $108m respectively. Perhaps audiences were not ready for a decent mystery with a savvy script. So its re-release on a limited edition 4K and blu –ray box set makes this a worthwhile revisit with a load of special features that includes….
- Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discs
- New 4K UHD master produced by Second Sight Films and presented in HDR Dolby Vision approved by director Shane Black
- New Dolby Atmos audio produced by Second Sight Films and original 5.1 audio mix
- New audio commentary with Shane Black and co-writer Anthony Bagarozzi moderated by writer Priscilla Page
- Knights in Tarnished Armour: a new interview with Shane Black
- Finding an Audience: a new interview with co-producer Ethan Erwin
- A Thousand Cuts: a new interview with director of photography Philippe Rousselot
- From Lethal Weapons to Nice Guys: a video essay by Leigh Singer
- Always Bet on Black: archive featurette • Worst Detectives Ever: archive featurette • Cast Interviews
- Trailers Limited Edition Contents
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by OC Agency Group
- 150-page hardback book with new essays by Mitchell Beaupre, Barry Forshaw, Jamie Graham, Justin LaLiberty, Naomi Roper, Hannah Strong and Nadine Whitney
- Nine collectors’ art cards
All those features both new and archive are very good – the audio commentary especially – and it’s all highly entertaining and full of great anecdotes – one of which even cites Steve Coogan’s ‘Dan!’ scene from ‘I’m Alan Partridge’ series as an influence.
Once again Second Sight excel with their lavish treatment of these retro re-releases and again it makes a good film a must buy for fans of the genre and Shane Black’s work.
related feature : ‘The Nice Guys’ – review
related feature : Joel Silver introduces Russell Crowe & Shane Black at ‘The Nice Guys’ London premiere
Here’s The Nice Guys trailer….
The Nice Guys – LIMITED EDITION 4K & BLU-RAY BOX SET is available from 16th June 2025
