Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Herald rating: **

Finally, one for anoraks who remember quotes like: "All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun." Jean-Luc Godard said that, and if you can't place the name don't read on.

Pauline Kael, the marvellous New York critic, backed him up after she saw an Italian movie poster in Italy which she translated as "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." She wrote: "These four words are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of the movies".

Fast-forward to Shane Black, writer of three Lethal Weapons, The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Last Action Hero, in his directing debut.

His star and narrator is Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr), wannabe actor from New York who moves to Los Angeles and takes private eye lessons from a gay dick named - yep, Gay Perry (Val Kilmer).

The movie's convoluted plot is divided with chapter headings lifted from stories by Raymond Chandler (if you can't place the name ... )

There will be a girl with the unlikely name of Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan). There will be bloodshed, or blood shed, by Harry. He will be desperate to impress her.

Really wanted to love it. Sadly, despite all those references, it doesn't hang together.

* DVD, Video rental today