The Nice Guys (2016) by Charles Ardai. I usually find that a movie taken from a book is not as good as the book itself. But I didn’t know how I would feel when it was done the other way about. I tried to avoid like the plague novelizations (among other things) but got lured into this one because it was published by Hard Case Crime. I’ve read a half dozen books with their imprint and found them true to the noir/tough guy genre.
The “Nice Guys” makes my teeth itch at times. Specifically when one of the nice guys of the title, Holland March, a private detective, drinks too much. He is a full blown alcoholic with little or no self control. That might not the worst of all things in a hard-boiled thriller, but his young daughter (was it 12 going rapidly into 35?) is being drawn into violent/adult situations throughout the book. It is not that he necessarily puts her into harm’s way, it is that he doesn’t ensure her being safely stashed with her girlfriends families before rushing off to Hollywood parties being hosted by porn kings or searching for missing women in not the best of all places.
Jackson Healy, hired muscle, is the other half of the eventual team. They meet “cute” when Healy breaks March’s arm. But because each is a gun for hire in their own fashion and both are looking into a porn starlets murder, they team up. Good thing March is usually too drunk to hold a grudge.
The action is jammed in throughout the book, there are plenty of laughs along the way and March’s daughter, Holly, is wise beyond her years, but I couldn’t stop thinking that this was a book that would probably make a good movie.
Or at least a so-so film. ( )

A capable novelization of the 2016 action-comedy film The Nice Guys. It would be interesting to get an opinion on Charles Ardai's book from someone who hasn't seen the movie, to see if it holds up, but I'm not that guy. I love the film, a hilarious good-time movie, a hidden gem that I would push on everyone, so I already knew every beat and sequence. Whether newcomers will be able to appreciate it in print, I can't say. I found the crime/mystery element easier to keep track of in the book, but the jokes and, of course, the action, thrive on the timing and delivery on the screen.

Even though it's a favourite of mine, I usually wouldn't read a novelization of a movie; they rarely add anything. But I thought The Nice Guys might be different. Not only is the screenplay (by Shane Black and Anthony Bagarozzi) a strong one, but a Seventies-era detective flick set in Los Angeles is ideal for a hard-boiled crime novel. Particularly as the film starts off with narration by Russell Crowe's world-weary co-protagonist, I was hoping (perhaps unreasonably) for some sort of fleshed-out, Chandler-esque piece. Ardai didn't really deliver on this, with his Nice Guys being only a port of the film, but I loved it anyway. Sometimes things can just be fun and nothing else. Ironically for a plot that involves smog and car pollution, The Nice Guys, in both book and film, is a breath of fresh air. ( )

The Nice Guys is a hard to put down book about Private Investigators and they search for a missing girl. Full of laughs and humorous commentary, this book has no lacking in the perfect blend of action, mystery, and characters whom you are cheering for ( )

Not bad, except that it is very obviously a movie novelization. I haven't seen the movie, but it felt like I was watching it instead of reading it... ( )

Ardai's The Nice Guys is the novelized screenplay of the movie starring Gosling and Crowe as a mismatched pair of
detectives in a dark noir over-the-top comedic adventure. This is not a
traditional novel and it often feels visually as if you are watching a movie, not reading. The action is spelled out but perhaps the descriptions not as much. You can literally hear the narration, particularly in the beginning.

You get an enforcer for hire, a down on his luck cynical slapstick private eye who muses that unlike in the movies he never gets drop dead gorgeous clients, a dead porn star, and a nefarious conspiracy.
Set in Hollywood, it, of course, revolves around movies and ostentatious Hollywood parties.

The start of the novelization builds up the cynical detective stuff and the parallel tough guy story. The dead porn star ("Misty Mountains"), rundown bars, and sleazy customers fill this part of the book. And, our private eye is Inspector Clouseau clumsy.

It eventually devolves into action scenes with bullets flying, dead bodies turning up, car chases, and the like. Each sequence one upping the previous sequence.
Some of the twists and turns are just over the top. If you are looking for a traditional private eye novel, this isn't exactly it. But if you want to feel as if you are watching a slapstick detective adventure, you may
have found it.
( )