Where, oh where, did the buddie-movie go? It died with hoop earrings, pink-lipstick and polka-dot fashion wear.

Or did it? I’m not sure. Nor am I exactly sure what happens within Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’s celestially sardonic comedy-noir murder-mystery… something about a body in a boot… a missing sister… abusive parenting… necro-urolagnia… whatever, the point is: the eighties have been hip again for sometime now, and with the re-hipness comes the restoration of the epochs drollest raconteur, one Shane Black.

Mr. Black is the man responsible for ‘exploding’ and then scuttling off from the 80s-90s action-film resurgence; creating the Lethal Weapon saga; The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight and even had a say in the immensely enjoyable, yet berated, Last Action Hero. Black eventually fled the landscape due to accusations of undue money-mongering (he quickly became the highest paid screenwriter of all time) and went drinking for a decade; wallowing as a vacant socialite in the L.A. highlife… which is where Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang find it’s feet.

Robert Downey Jr. knows a thing or two about excess. He made his breakthrough performance alongside Black’s most recognisable creation, the kooky Martin Riggs (a.k.a Sir Mel of Gibson) in Air America, shortly after he used his newfound celebrity to become a coke-snorting machine, hoping in and out of prison. Who better then, to play the moral man in Black’s swipe at Hollywood’s duplicity and overindulgence?

We find Harry Lockhart (Downey Jr.) as the narrator; causally mumbling the film’s back-story. He was an amateur magician, now he’s a petty thief. We then find him being mistaken for an actor (with some ‘Marlon Brando shit’), casually telling a girl that he ‘invented dice as a child’; protecting a worse-for-wear girl (Michelle Monaghan); nonchalantly reeling off Black’s trademark one-liners, and eventually gets the crap kicked out of him. It acts a white flag with a shiny-handle; it is Black apologising for all the clichéd tough-guy characters he had spawned, and it’s his weapon of intent; to use the tired set-ups he’s created and spin them entertainingly on their heads.

Shane Black resuscitates the action-buddy-comedy genre and then pees on it. Why? Because it’s funny.

Entertaining, yes, but not so coherent. Black’s narrative decision to have Downey Jr. act as a post-modern noir-voiceover / projectionist, moves the film to a Marmite predicament (you’ll either love it or hate it) and its often difficult to choose the former. In trying to be a smarty-pants, pointing out its own plot devices, etc. it patronises its audience, and discourages the viewer from investing emotionally in the story. Something Black doesn’t seem too interesting in doing anyway, as we lose narrative lucidity about the mid-way point, allowing instead for some wonderfully comedic scenes and one-liners; there’s a quick game of Russian Roulette, there’s a punk-rock Steven Seagal… some testicles get electrocuted… corpses get peed on…

Luckily, the detached storytelling gives the film licence to take a little break from realism. Shane Black is the man who can create a character cool enough to get beaten up and moments later, still be charming enough to seduce the girl, and sleep with her best friend (in reality, he should be home crying). He even get his finger ripped off and makes light of it (again, he should be home, crying). Shane Black is also the guy who made gunplay and odd-couples so cinematically delicious; the odd couples have changed from black man and white man, to black man and white woman, to white man and gay man…

Val Kilmer plays Gay Perry (*gaffaw*) a hard-nosed homosexual private eye, hired to train Harry Lockhart for a potential film role. Cue some predictable, yet agreeable, banter between the sexually orientated. Thankfully Kilmer does not use this opportunity to clog up the screen with another irritating overly-camp portrayal of homosexual men, instead he plays the role monotonically deadpan (almost), and perhaps too much so, as he pales against the vibrancy and quirkiness of the charming Downey Jr. (he’ll be appearing co-starring in David Fincher’s Zodiac in early 2007, folks) and rising star Michelle Monaghan.

Unfortunately, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang isn’t perfect. For all its smart-arse bravado and acerbic humour (even the unavoidable ‘slushy’ scene is done with a finger missing) there are coherence problems-a-plenty. Yet, besides the addiction of occasionally tedious narrative postmodernity, this is a successful rehabilitation of the long absent Shane Black and of his own brand of quality ‘man-movies’ you can actually enjoy. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, then, is a worthy attempt by Mr. Black (it’s his first effort as Director) to resuscitate the rotting corpse of the his once all-powerful action-comedy genre… and then pee on it. Why…? Because it’s funny.