Zero Effect (1998)

Everything old is new again. Zero Effect is a likably smart-arsed exercise in derivative style; more of a `what's-happening?' than a `whodunnit?' Despite writer/director Kasdan's protestations at Cannes, Daryl Zero is clearly a composite of the finest fictional sleuths of the past yanked into the '90s (Columbo, Jake Gittes, Sam Spade, and, particularly, Sherlock Holmes). Holmes caressed his violin, Zero tortures his guitar; Holmes caned opium, Zero prefers whizz. But while Holmes relied on the companionship of fusty blood-hound Dr Watson, Zero employs Steve Arlo (Stiller) as a mere cipher of communication, freeing his focused sensibilities of social clutter.

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