Movies Like Nice Girls (2024)

Staff & contributors

Chasing the feel of watching Nice Girls ? Here are the movies we recommend you watch right after.

A screwball comedy following two crass female cops sounds, well, nice. But without a compelling mystery, believable chemistry, and funny jokes, Nice Girls fails to live up to its name. The crime that drives the movie’s plot feels flimsy and Disney-esque, a formula of a mystery you’ve seen a hundred times before. The chemistry between Leo and Melanie seems nonexistent. Yes, they’re capable actors who do especially well in their action scenes, but together, they fail to create a memorable spark. And then there are the jokes, which I want to believe are lost in translation instead of just plain unfunny. They feel dated in their observations but current because of the context (they’re often racial or political), but they never seem to land. None of the other parts of the film seem to. It’s a great idea—not since Spy have I seen such a valiant attempt at a female crime-busting duo—but it ultimately fails to deliver.

This movie is hilarious. It presents a pleasant caricature of high school humor, proving there is a way to do 2000s trashy crude writing in a reimagined modern setting. Setups for punchlines and mini-arcs consistently have good and sensible payoffs, and every character up and down the cast feels focused in their own way. Because the writing had been cared for, characters and dialogue make the most of every segment they occupy and feel like they have a purpose, striking a balance between great jokes and a genuine sincerity in their messages, without feeling like either half existed just to balance out the other or just to keep things “cool.” The film comfortably takes its own advice: be yourself.

Genre: Comedy

Actor: Ali Gallo, Anissa Borrego, Bardia Seiri, Bobby Cannavale, Dinora Walcott, Gattlin Griffith, Imogen Tear, Isabella Ferreira, Kaitlin Olson, Kayvan Shai, Kim Hawthorne, Loren Gray, Mason Thames, Nolan Bateman, Ramon Reed, Raphael Alejandro, Sammi-Jack Martincak, Scott MacArthur, Steele Stebbins, Stefanie Rons, Talia Bernstein, Thomas Barbusca, Victoria Moroles

Director: Dave Chernin, John Chernin

Rating: R