Review: Gosling-Crowe chemistry livens uneven 'Nice Guys'

[...] technically, Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe don't play cops in "The Nice Guys," by writer-director Shane Black (who knows a thing about buddy cop movies, having written "Lethal Weapon" back in 1987.)

[...] the equation's the same, and like a buddy-cop movie (or a porn film — more on that later) the important thing isn't the plot.

[...] again, there are some inspired moments, such as when enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe, paunchy and amiably violent) tracks down Holland March (Gosling — sweet, clumsy, effortlessly funny ) in a men's room stall.

March is understandably wary, considering Healy had broken his arm at their last meeting, leaving him howling on the kitchen floor like a wounded cat.

Watch Gosling juggle pointing a gun, keeping an annoying stall door open, and hiding his privates behind a magazine.

In a prelude, a young boy reaches under his parents' bed to inspect their "Playboy," featuring naked porn star Misty Mountain.

Holly, sort of a Nancy Drew but in an R-rated film, keeps ending up in peril, either to her life or her moral upbringing (the 13-year-old is forced to watch and discuss porn at one point).

The Nice Guys," a Warner Bros release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America "for violence, sexuality, nudity, language and brief drug use.