It’s all delightfully fizzy, bloody fun in The Nice Guys

In a summer filled with superheroes and sequels, it's refreshing, if not bewildering, to discover a major studio film with characters you've never seen before, and a plot that doesn't come saddled with the expectations of a franchise wearing it down. That said, there is something familiar in The Nice Guys, though it's a welcome familiarity: the sharp wit, lovably scuzzy heroes and old-school macho posturing that's synonymous with the work of Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). The writer-director's long history with the buddy-cop genre is expertly mined here, as a slapsticky Ryan Gosling and a no-nonsense Russell Crowe team up to unravel a '70s-set crime involving porn stars, hit men and auto makers. It's all delightfully fizzy, bloody fun – even if there's the teeniest, tiniest hint of sequel ambitions.