A fairly gimmicky idea for a comedy that didn't really translate to a one and a half hour feature film.

Steve Martin is the most clichéd of Raymond Chandler/Sam Spade-esque hard boiled noir detective, surrounding by the gags and characters the genre is known for.

Here and there throughout the story (in what must have been a licensing nightmare) appears footage of actors from films of the classic noir period - Bogart, David, Dietrich et al - and they've been woven into the story.

At first I didn't even realise what was going on - I knew nothing about the movie and didn't know this was the point of it. When I did, I was thinking it could have been done a little better, even a little more to get the point across.

Although Steve Martin was the usual saving grace, his signature shtick was (as necessary) understated. Some funny lines, not much else.