Photo By John Bramley

Michelle Monaghan and Robert Downey Jr. share a dumbstruck moment in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

Cellophane cinema is something you enjoy watching but then forget the details soon afterwards. It's breezy, see-through entertainment, not intended to make much of an impact beyond a screeching car chase, the pouting lips of a pretty woman and a belly laugh or two.

Shane Black, a successful screenwriter of action blockbusters, finally gets the chance to direct with the scattershot crime comedy Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. Corpses pile up fast in a movie that's equal parts comedy and thriller, the cluttered work of an impatient filmmaker who squeezes all his favorite genres into one basket.

Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a New York City con artist desperate to break into a toy store for last-minute Christmas shopping. Comical happenstance means his getaway from police lands him in an actor's audition, where his realistic portrayal of a crook is good enough to warrant a paid trip to Los Angeles.

Auditioning for a part in a Hollywood action movie introduces Lockhart to his colorful acting coach, Los Angeles private investigator Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer), nicknamed "Gay Perry" for obvious reasons.

A murder mystery involving the sister of Lockhart's childhood sweetheart from small-town Indiana, aspiring actress Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), leads to more comic happenstance. It also provides Lockhart and van Shrike opportunities to play cop and crook as their sleuthing takes them to showbiz parties at swank homes in the Hollywood Hills and a stylish downtown Los Angeles hotel.

Monaghan is a sassy surprise in her first standout role since the little-seen family drama Winter Solstice. She's a slim, dark-haired tomboy with enough fizz and attitude to hold her own with Downey and Kilmer.

Kilmer's gay private detective gets the film's biggest laughs thanks to his deadpan style and by-the-book attitude. He's a believable eccentric, a grounded loony and the perfect companion to a loose cannon like Downey. Whether or not you accept Downey as a great actor struggling to meet his potential, there's no doubting the light-hearted fun and brisk energy he brings. Kilmer and Downey make a good team, elevating Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang into film that's better than its plot.

Black, who began his career as an actor before becoming the high-paid screenwriter of Lethal Weapon and other action movies, is smart enough to hire cinematographer Michael Barrett and production designer Aaron Osborne to make good use of Los Angeles. The film looks great, from its Saul Bass-inspired opening credits to its noisy finale.

The sole setback to Black's directing debut is his decision to pen the script, falling back on his trademark genre-within-a-genre formula. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is often funny and foul-mouthed thanks to Kilmer, Downey and Monaghan, but its insider-Hollywood plot and buddy action antics are anything but fresh.

Nobody is asking Black to reinvent himself as a European auteur. Yet if he wants to become more than a Hollywood hack, his next film should be more than a slight revision of a Lethal Weapon-inspired action comedy. Grade: C