Coffin loads of black humour, refreshingly fun dialogue, great acting performances, and a touch of film noir: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang has the making of a cult classic.

Running from the cops after an unsuccessful looting attempt, Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) finds himself in the midst of a movie audition, where he’s discovered to be a natural acting talent. To shape him up for a role as a movie detective, Harry is paired up with private detective Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), who takes Harry along on one of his jobs shadowing a suspect. After Harry reencounters an old friend from highschool - Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), a struggling actress - at a sleazingly glamorous Hollywood party, his training soon gets intertwined with a real case when her sister is found dead.

Writer-director Shane Black marks his return to Hollywood with his directorial debut after almost ten years of abscence. He is probably best known for scripting Lethal Weapon 1 (1987) and 2 (1989) and The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). Teaming up with producer Joel Silver, not less successful with Die Hard and The Matrix, Black’s film is inspired by a series of trashy detective novels you’d usually find at airports and train stations. The novels even feature prominently in the film, Harmony having been a rabid fan of them since childhood, while Harry sees parallels in the books to what they’re going through.

What Black essentially does is a deconstruction of detective novels and film noir, rearranging elements and themes from them and placing them into his own narrative. So while Black borrows common patterns, he also develops them further and goes beyond genre conventions (by featuring a gay lead character for instance). The unique style of narration is one of the film’s strong points; Black actually delegates it to his protagonist Harry, who talks the audience through the movie, occasionally cutting short a new tangent he’s just started on to double-back and show (anecdotal but vital) backstory first, suddenly jumping back to the initial focus immediately after (what sounds complicated here is hilarious on film). And as with most detective novels, the many intricacies built up in the course of the film entangle themselves to be majestically untied in one big resolution in the end.

Also enjoying a strong, possibly career redefining comeback is actor Robert Downey Jr., after years of drug abuse kept him away from cameras. Even the sublime Val Kilmer is overshadowed by Downey’s funny and ultimately show-stealing performance (a lot of that also stems from the story being told from Harry’s point of view). But their chemistry is undeniable, all the more surprising given the fact that Kilmer and Downey Jr. had not worked together or even met eachother prior to this project. The way they play off eachother almost turns this film into a buddy comedy that you’d like to go on watching for hours just to hear their newest retort. It’s an astonishing feat of Michelle Monaghan that she manages to keep up with the two of them, being allowed to play moody, sexy, bitchy, distressed, helpless, badass, umcompromising, teasing and a plethora of other facettes her character is blessed and cursed with.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is highly fun to watch, the ideal movie to see with your friends so that you can throw quotes at eachother after the viewing. And it’s also so smartly told and played out that you’ll find this hard to consider a guilty pleasure; you’re bound to leave the cinema feeling entertained without having had the need to shut your brain off for the past two hours.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang opens November 11 in the United States (wide release) and the United Kingdom.

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