The odd couple … a tried and tested Hollywood staple that never felt new but that somehow also never gets old. This year’s The Nice Guys, available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD from September 26th courtesy of Icon Film Distribution, brought the trope bang up to date by revisiting the 1970s and delivered one of the funniest, most vital and brilliantly action-packed films of the year to boot. To celebrate that, we thought we’d have a look at some of the best worst partnerships to grace the screen
THE NICE GUYS
Shane Black directing the previously untapped slapstick comedy chops of Ryan Gosling whilst also giving Russell Crowe the comedy vehicle of his career? Sold! The Nice Guys follows a down-at-heel, usually drunk private eye and a curmudgeonly, INCREDIBLY HARD Hollywood fixer as they become entwined in an attempt to cover up scandal in the motor industry and the porn film that threatens to reveal the truth. Rarely has a screen partnership sizzled like this, and rarely have either lead looked like they’re having this much fun. Peppered with the one liners and singular verve Shane Black fans have come to expect and far more people should experience, The Nice Guys might just be the best film this year you’ve yet to see. Change that! Do it now!
THE HEAT
Odd couple pairings have a notable tendency to involve two sets of testicles so Paul Feig’s hilarious buddy movie featuring Sandra Bullock (uptight, plays by the book) and Melissa McCarthy (foul-mouthed, slob, loose canon) was as much an oestrogen-filled breath of fresh air as it was really, really funny. An FBI agent shunned by her colleagues is forced to team up with a Boston cop who terrifies hers and, for once, genuine hilarity ensues.
TED
Seth McFarlane has become known for having something of a leftfield imagination – just see some of the cutaways on Family Guy if you’re in any doubt – so it should come as no surprise that when he opted to find cinema’s latest odd couple he opted for a sentient bear and, well, Mark Wahlberg. Anyone who saw Wahlberg on the Graham Norton Show will be keenly aware that he’s got the odd well and truly covered but Ted employs a surprising amount of heart in an amongst the gross-out gags. Sequel missed the mark, though.
21 JUMP STREET
From the brains who ultimately brought you The LEGO Movie, 21 Jump Street takes a comparatively obscure 90s drama starring Johnny Depp and turns it into a laugh out loud buddy comedy about two clearly in their 30s cops infiltrating a high school drugs ring. Dave Franco impresses as the villain of the piece but it’s Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill who have the best time (and the best lines) as they find the high school tables turned the second time around. Watch out for the pair realising they’re high just as a teacher asks for their attention.
THE LION KING
What? Animated pairings can be mismatched too, and surely that’s the very essence of hakuna mattata, no? Timon and Pumba (weasely meerkat thing and warthog, respectively) should be different links on the same food chain, even more so when they take the young Simba under their wing, but instead the pair defines friendship, their common denominator being a distinct lack of smarts combined with an especially healthy survival instinct. See, we’re stronger together, and all that.
48 HOURS
1980s buddy movies had the slightly queasy notion that what made a couple odd was differing race. Thankfully things have moved on a bit from that point but this classic starring a (then sober) Nick Nolte and a rising star known as Eddie Murphy does at least stand out for putting them from polar opposite sides of the track, with race coming far down the list. Nolte is a cop after two vicious killers, Murphy the bank robber he springs from prison for the titular time period to help track them down.
THE ODD COUPLE
And the film that started it all. The Odd Couple stars Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon as mismatched flat sharers forced to deal with respective anal retentiveness and abject slobbishness – or die trying. The film was so influential that it spawned a sequel and two TV series, but just as with every other time Matthau and Lemmon paired, the original cannot be beaten. Essential viewing regardless of your tastes or preferences.
The Nice Guys is available on Digital HD, Blu-ray and DVD from September 26th, courtesy of Icon Film Distribution
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