10 Movies That Could Be The Big Surprise Hit Of 2016

5. The Nice Guys

What Is It? A darkly comic buddy cop movie directed by Shane Black, only this one isn't set at Christmas. Russell Crowe is a hired goon who's a bit of dick (so Russell Crowe) who teams up with a timid P.I. Ryan Gosling on an escalating criminal case. Will It Be Good? I repeat, it's a darkly comic buddy cop movie directed by Shane Black. This is his element; he can make it work whether it's an odd Hollywood throwback or massive Marvel extravaganza. The trailer really showed this off, and it doesn't look like this is just Lethal Weapon 5; the seventies setting gives a nice edge and the two off-kilter protagonists look to be a good set of anti-heroes. But Will It Be A Hit? Being a summer release that doesn't come as part of a franchise, there's not going to be as many eyes on The Nice Guys as Captain America: Civil War (released two weeks before) or X-Men: Apocalypse (released the week after, along with the oddly placed Alice Through The Looking Glass), but that'll work to its advantage. The "surprise" black comedy and wicked action is stuff that'll build real buzz, so as long as The Nice Guys is as good as it looks, Black's got another hit on his hands.