When you have those unexpected movies that you didn’t think would amount to much, but turned out to be not that bad, and actually entertaining when they come out? This is one of those movies. It’s not quite your typical cop movie, and it’s not all the way there as an action movie, but it’s a hearty dose of entertainment that brings about both sides and has an element of some mystery to it. What brought about its interest for me was Ryan Gosling & Russell Crowe. The unlikely pairing definitely had me sold from the previews, which led me to believe that the movie in full would have been equally entertaining.

They say that it costs no money to be a nice human being, which is true, but when you’re leading the life of a detective, you’ve got to eat, right? And no matter what the insane request may be, your good conscience tells you that it’s the right thing to do, but then that little devil on the side of your shoulder is telling to “not for free,” which is reasonable. Ryan & Russell cross paths on what’s supposed to be a regular search for a woman who appears to be missing, but then as the film progresses and the storyline gets weird with odd twists, they have to rely on each other in order to get the case done. Set in the 70s, it’s the era of the Hippy, where the irrational opinion is widespread, and the fear amongst the youth is that the government is trying to kill their own people (my God, were they negative – and they think Millennials today are bad?). The plot may come off as corny for many people, but I found it pretty funny how they were able to contrast a time where the adult film industry (which was still very much taboo at the time) and the booming car industry intersected, and still found some kind of political contrast, without it being a propaganda film, because it truly could have been – although you had lines in the movie that jut made you go “oh come on….”

It cannot be stated enough that Ryan Gosling & Russell Crowe were the match made in movie Heaven for this movie, because they drove it from start to finish. It’s not often that you see Crowe in a light that is comedic, but because of his demeanor of being that tough guy all the time, they balanced each other out, while maintaining the flow of the movie. I was certainly laughing for a large chunk of the movie, so I considered myself thoroughly entertained. It’ll be one of the movies lost in the shuffle, but it’s enjoyable if you do decide on checking it out whether it’s in the theatres or when it comes out on Netflix. But for now, this is my opinion, this is my review,

That’s My Word & It STiXX