The Aisle Seat - Movie Reviews by Mike McGranaghan
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THE AISLE SEAT - by Mike McGranaghan

"SOUNDTRACK SPOTLIGHT: THE NICE GUYS"

The Nice Guys

Shane Black's The Nice Guys is in theaters now, and it's wonderful. (You can read my review right here.) Ryan Gosling plays a low-rent private detective, and Russell Crowe is a thug who beats people up for money. They join forces to search for a missing porn star. The film is quirky and often hilarious, with first-rate performances. The Nice Guys also has two separate soundtrack releases, one with era-appropriate pop/rock songs used in the film and the other with a traditional score. Both are well worth checking out.

Because it's set in the 1970s, The Nice Guys soundtrack is filled with '70s musical goodness. Some of the best songs of the era are found on the album, which is being released digitally, on CD, and in a sweet Collector's Edition vinyl release by Lakeshore Records. The songs have been carefully chosen to compliment the scenes from the film in which they appear. The fifteen tracks are:

01. “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” - The Temptations
02. “Get Down On It” - Kool & The Gang
03. “Boogie Oogie Oogie” - A Taste of Honey
04. “September” - Earth, Wind & Fire
05. “Couldn't Get It Right” - Climax Blues Band
06. “Love and Happiness” - Al Green
07. “Dazz”- Brick
08. “Boogie Wonderland” – Earth, Wind & Fire
09. “Jive Talkin’” – Bee Gees
10. “Rock and Roll All Night” – KISS
11. “Ain’t Got No Home” - The Band
12. Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” - Rupert Holmes
13. “Lonely Boy” - Andrew Gold
14. “A Horse with No Name” – America
15. “Green Peppers” - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass

The Nice Guys

The instrumental score album (which will be released on May 27) features music composed by John Ottman and David Buckley. Ottman, as fans of cinematic scores will doubtlessly know, also wrote the music for several of the X-Men movies, in addition to Superman Returns and Jack the Giant Slayer. Buckley, meanwhile, scored The Town and The Brothers Grimsby. Working together, they have crafted musical cues that combine a traditional film noir vibe with a distinctly 1970s type of arrangement and instrumentation. It's a score unlike any other, and it works beautifully both in the context of the film and as a standalone recording.

Music is an integral part of The Nice Guys, so these two releases constitute a great way to re-experience the movie after you've seen it. For more information on the soundtrack and score, please visit the Lakeshore Records website.


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