Top 5 Best Movies Like The Nice Guys (Ranked & Where to Stream)

Robert Downey Jr. plays Harry Lockhart, an accidental actor thrown into real-life homicide inquiries alongside Val Kilmer’s unflappable, razor-tongued private investigator, Perry van Shrike. Shane Black’s directorial debut is a riotous deconstruction of pulp detective fiction, loaded with narrative fourth-wall breaks, rapid-fire quips, and genuinely convoluted Hollywood crime conspiracies. Kilmer delivers a career-best comedic turn with immaculate deadpan timing, while Downey Jr.’s manic narration keeps every plot pivot lively. Because it shares writer-director Shane Black’s trademark DNA, this is the definitive sibling film to The Nice Guys, delivering the exact same balance of cynical noir grit, bruised knuckles, and hysterical situational disasters.

Martin Brest’s culture-clash classic turned Eddie Murphy into a global superstar through sheer charismatic momentum. Murphy stars as Axel Foley, an audacious Detroit detective who travels to sun-drenched Southern California to investigate his childhood friend's murder, immediately clashing with by-the-book local cops played by Judge Reinhold and John Ashton. Foley’s improvised hustles, paired with Harold Faltermeyer’s iconic synth score, turn conventional police procedurals into an intoxicating playground of improvisational comedy and genuine stakes. If you loved the contrast of scruffy 1970s detective work and unhinged improvisational energy in The Nice Guys, Foley’s rebellious blitz through the elite underworld hits that identical sweet spot.

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller took a dated 1980s television drama and turned it into an unhinged, self-aware action triumph. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill star as inept rookie cops who infiltrate a high school to dismantle a synthetic drug ring, only to find the social hierarchies have completely inverted since their youth. Tatum’s surprising comedic chops and Hill’s neurotic panache fuel an escalating chain of kinetic firefights, awkward teenage drama, and genuine slapstick physical comedy. Viewers seeking the chaotic incompetence and accidental heroism that made The Nice Guys so infectious will revel in the pitch-perfect camaraderie and uninhibited bedlam generated by this dynamic duo.

Paul Feig brings an unapologetic, R-rated swagger to this collision of policing styles, pitting Sandra Bullock’s arrogant FBI agent against Melissa McCarthy’s foul-mouthed, bat-swinging Boston detective. Working a violent drug trafficking ring, the duo repeatedly clash over protocol, interrogations, and hygiene before forging an uneasy bond over dive-bar drinking sessions and bloody tactical raids. McCarthy’s blistering insult comedy works in sublime contrast to Bullock’s tightly wound physical clowning, proving the female buddy-cop formula can hit just as hard as the classics. It offers fans of The Nice Guys that identical friction of polarized personalities violently stumbling their way toward competence and mutual respect.

Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah inject fresh visual horsepower into Miami’s signature franchise, sending detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett on the run after their late captain is framed by cartels. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence slip into their rhythm with infectious ease, trading panic-stricken banter in the middle of drone-assisted shootouts, alligator encounters, and cartel ambushes. The film embraces kinetic camera rigs and pure action-comedy melodrama while leaning heavily on the emotional mileage of a decades-long partnership. For those drawn to the reckless gunfire and stubborn, brotherly loyalty found in The Nice Guys, this summer blockbuster brings that same popcorn adrenaline with modern polish.