Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
By: Moviefaire | Category: Film Reviews | 11/18/05 | 08:59 AM
 |  |  Grade: A- | Genre: Action/Comedy/Crime
Summary: A witty, sprawling mess of a film about a murder in Los Angeles that is as absurd and bizarre as the city it openly makes fun of.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, is a flick as breezy, surreal and disjointed as Los Angeles and yet it happens to be my first guilty pleasure of the year. Shane Black, screenwriter of the Lethal Weapon series, directs his first feature film after a long absence from the screen and surprisingly charms me silly. With a touch of film noir, a shade of Pulp Fiction, a hysterical narrative, bizarre flashbacks and machine-gun dialogue, Kiss Kiss rolls into kind of snowballing mess, and while you are not quite sure of what it is, you really do not care once it gets going. It is the first film I have laughed out loud at in at least two years. The plot has more twists than a pretzel and can almost overwhelm you with its continual barrage of action, humor and darkness making one wonder what the inside of Black's head must look like. Yes, this film is a mishmash of everything, but it somehow cooks up into a completely edible feast of a movie, thanks to some brilliant writing, superior performances by Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr., and edgy direction by a man who truly knows the strangeness of Los Angeles inside and out. |
 | | | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang | | Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen & Ali Hillis | | Director: Shane Black |
| | View the Trailer (Quicktime) |
|
Mr. & Mrs. Smith
Only $15.98 (or order used).
Qualified orders over $25 ship free
Amazon.com
Independent Films
DVD Club for Award-Winning Films
Don't miss out. Join today!
www.filmmovement.com
NETFLIX - Rent Movies
Only $11.99 a month. No Late Fees.
Over 40,000 Titles. Free Trial.
www.netflix.com
|
|
|
Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) plays a totally incompetent thief who after a botched robbery runs into a movie audition to find safety from the cops and gets cast into a film by mistake. The film opens with him in Hollyweird and from the beginning, Lockhart, who admits he is as awful a narrator as he is a robber, takes us back and forth from flashbacks to the present to sort out this complicated plot where he winds up in the middle of a murder mystery knee deep in bodies. Along the way he is introduced to a former heartthrob, Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), and a gay private detective, Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), who is to give him lessons on how a real detective operates for his acting gig. The interplay of this threesome makes up the film, and the plot begins as Lockhart follows Perry around on a stakeout only to find a murder in the process. Nothing is it seems and the story gets more and more complicated so have a cup of coffee before you see this movie as the caffeine rush is needed to keep up with the plot and continual bantering between Lockhart, Perry and Harmony, which delivers some of the best comedy lines written in years. Black's smart and potent dialogue about everything and anything - movies, life, Los Angeles, love - just roll over the audience in a tidal wave of giggles, even in some of the darkest scenes, which keep the film from being something too much to handle.
The performances of Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr., are sublime to watch as they take the material and run with it, breathing life into both characters, so much so in fact that I want to see these two again. I really do. I abhor sequels for the most part, but they were such a treat to behold, that even though Black is known for taking the buddy/action genre to new heights with the Lethal Weapon series, he totally aced it here with the perfect casting and the incredible chemistry onscreen between these two actors. Kilmer is a revelation as a tough homosexual in this comedy, in fact, his delivery of lines had me spewing my coke. Downey's Lockhart is the adorable, doe-eyed everyman who rattles off Black's ultra-cool language so relentlessly that I did not want to miss one word for fear of not catching every laugh, and yet, as usual Downey could make me feel for him, even in this modern takeoff of a trashy detective novel. Michelle Monaghan as Harmony is not as strong in her performance as Downey and Kilmer, and cannot quite keep up with them, but to her credit she does deliver lines with the right comedic timing, and after all she is playing the token sexy-chick role.
Black's direction had me coming and going, and it was almost dizzying, but he surprised me, even though the film at the core lacked substance. However, after the first five minutes I realized I was not going to get substance, and just went along for the ride and was glad I did. It's not that you leave your brain at the popcorn stand, because you will need one to catch and understand every reference, piece of dialogue and twist in the plot, but the point is this film is meant to be fun. However, it is a dark, film noir kind of fun. In fact, Shane Black has almost reinvented the formulas of flashbacks, narration, and the murder mysteries of the 1950s into a smart updated version. Black singlehandedly made me not afraid to see a comedy again even though I was up to my neck in bodies, bullets and sex. The entire Los Angeles audience I saw the film with belly laughed out loud all the way through and by the way, they clapped heartily at the end too. Yeah, so I guess we know ourselves out here, huh? Go figure.
Check Movie Times
|
