The Nice Guys gets a retro, nostalgia-inducing trailer

By Rick Marshall April 29, 2016

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.

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 Weapon, The 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.

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