This tribute to old-fashioned hard-boiled detective fiction is laced with Hollywood satire and the snappy, lightning-fast dialogue that helped make writer-turned-director Shane Black's name synonymous with hard-edged '90s action comedies. The tone is set by an early scene in which likable screwup Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is robbing a toy store with his even-less-adept partner. The gig goes wrong, Harry's partner is killed by a pistol-packing civilian and Harry stumbles into a cattle-call audition for a Hollywood cop movie while fleeing the cops — one of whom sheepishly wishes him good luck when he realizes he just burst in on some guy's shot at being in the...
Released:
2005
Rated:
R
Length:
102 mins