Self-reflexive, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, and self-mocking pastiche of the private-eye genre, the directorial debut of screenwriter Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero, The Long Kiss Goodnight, in chronological rather than alphabetical order). The hard-boiled first-person narrator, the chronically insouciant Robert Downey, Jr. ("I was tired, I was pissed, I was wetter than Drew Barrymore at a grunge club"), refers to himself as "your narrator," and knows full well he's in a movie. The title is lifted from a collection of Pauline Kael's film criticism, a title lifted in turn from an Italian movie poster. And the chapter headings -- "Trouble Is My Business," "The Lady in the Lake," "The Little Sister," "The Simple Art of Murder," "Farewell, My Lovely" -- are all titles of works by Raymond Chandler, although it's highly doubtful that anyone knowledgeable enough to recognize them would, in the first place, be susceptible to flattery over such knowledge, or, in the second place, be susceptible to this filmmaker's brand of sophomoric bluster. The touches of black comedy are of slapstick breadth. The decadence scarcely seems subject to further decay. With Michelle Monaghan, Val Kilmer, and Corbin Bernsen. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd
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