I liked it! If I ever ran a campaign about private investigators in a 1970s world without any kind of supernatural or fantastical stuff, this could have been an adventure in it. I mean, good Lord but the body count was impressive, in its way – and nobody said a goram word about it. I could almost hear the dice clatter at key points in the narrative: Yup, you manage to land in the pool. :clatter: The other guy… well, let’s just say he was about six feet off. Yeah, I’m not gonna bother to roll for damage for him.
Again: this is not bad! As a RPG adventure it was a fun one. I was laughing throughout the film, and in a good way. The character interactions between the three main PCs – I’m including the teenage daughter in the party there, by the way – were just good from start to finish. I don’t think that they’re going to make a sequel, but it wouldn’t make for a bad limited TV miniseries.
For me the movie is about these two alcoholics and how it affected their life. Both had some traumatic incident that either pushed or stopped them from drinking. One of them is actually trying to better himself, the other one simply gave up.
The comedy is really broad. While the body count is impressive for a comedy, there is actually a moral streak in it.
Special mention for the Australian actress playing Gosling’s daughter. I can’t hear any accent, and she’s good enough for an Oscar.