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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [2005]


RRP: £17.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

With smart scribe Shane Black both penning the script and behind the camera, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was never going to be ordinary. Yet it’s far better than you could have hoped for, marrying in comedy, action, a bit of a detective work and a constant, knowing wink to the audience.

Cruelly underperforming at the box office, the film finds Robert Downey Jr as a small time thief, who quite literally finds himself stumbling into the world of acting. With a potential role as a private detective in the offing, his agent arranges for him to spend his time with private investigator Val Kilmer. All is fairly light, until a dead body crosses their paths and a genuine mystery presents itself.

And that then sets the scene for a pacey, energetic film spearheaded by a trio of strong performances. The main plaudits should go to the interplay between Kilmer and Downey Jr, who both eat up their respective best roles in years. Meeting them head on though is Michelle Monaghan, who plays a wannabe actress with a talent for fast talking, and looks that Downey Jr’s Harry can’t help but resist.

Now it’s fair to argue that the setup itself doesn’t feel particularly fresh. Yet the execution most certainly is, with Black savvy enough to know when to avoid the genre clichés, and when to drive his script right through the middle of them with a great big grin on his face. Grounded by a splendidly witty narration from Downey Jr, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is, at the point this review is being written, an underappreciated gem. Hopefully time, and DVD, will see it right.--Simon Brew


A rare detective movie treat
Review date: 2008-10-25 Rating: 8 out of 10

Shane Black is easily one of the pioneering writers in action films, being responsible for the entire Lethal Weapon series, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero and The Long Kiss Goodnight. It wasn't until Kiss Kiss Bang Bang though, that he took the reins as a director and the result is one of the most enjoyable films in years.
The film follows Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer as a burglar who accidentally lands a major hollywood role and the private detective tasked with giveing him detective lessons respectively. Downey Jr breathes charisma as the perpetually out of his depth Harry, one of the most likeable protagonists Black has written. Kilmer plays the brilliantly grumpy Gay Perry completely deadpan and makes the perfect straight man to Harry's fumbling incompetence.
The plot follows Harry as his detective lessons become mixed up with a reali life murder, a chance meeting with a high school crush (Michelle Monaghan), and there's little more I can say without spoiling the plot. The plot itself harks back to classic detective stories circa Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, thankfully being a fair bit more complicated than a lot of mystery films recently.
The movie has a fantastically dark sense of humour, complemented well by Shane Black's trademark dialogue and the main cast's perfect delivery but also has very dark edges to it's story and some reasonably violent action sequences. These traits wouldn't have been out of place in the 80s but these days it's an unexpected but very welcome surprise, a more adult treatment of its audience than you'll find in most other movies.
If you're a fan of Shane Black's other films or detective movies in general then you definitely owe it to yourself to check out Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It's a highly entertaining, grown up movie from a great writer with some excellent performances; and it's so much fun you're bound to come back again and again.

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Reviews


watched it 2 times (wednesday & thursday) - I still cant understand the film completely.
Review date: 2008-09-18 Rating: 6 out of 10

Clever (though not flawless) and fun movie, but waaay to confusing. people that say otherwise LIE!!
f.ex Why did the litle sis steal big.sis creditcard and stuff ? I thought she had enough money now that she was Dexters daughter.
why, when Jr. mentioned no undies ,and zoom!!? Straight to the looney-bin ?
+ funny moment ,Harmony spots bad guys in a car; H;Perry, thats them! P;who's them? H;12o'clock! you said it's a black guy and a white guy, right? -ARGH.. Are black and white guys so rarely seen in a car together in L.A that.. oh yeah.
Highly unlikely.
+ Another ++ things I didnt get! I wont bother watching it a 3rd time to try and understand it because I CLEARLY wont!
Buy it for the entertainment, it is fun, but dont try to get it...because you probably will not ;)


Clever and funny, maybe too clever, and with a fine performance by Robert Downey Jr
Review date: 2008-07-09 Rating: 8 out of 10

Part of me clearly appreciates the clever, loving riffs on noir movies, but part of me is seriously put off by the nudge, nudge, ain't I being clever pretensions of writer-director Shane Black. At one time, and maybe he still is, Shane was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter, proud author of such big-time drek as the Lethal Weapon movies, Monster Squad, Last Action Hero and The Last Boy Scout. In other words, he knew how to hit a bulls-eye with the 18 to 28 male target audience. In Hollywood, that spells quality writing with a cap Q.

With Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, we're witness to one of Hollywood's power players with a potty mouth wrestling with style and witty parody. The witty parody wins, but it's a close call. Why? Because Black can't resist self-congratulatory in-jokes and reveling in his own cleverness. He's the smart-mouth kid who tries to be the nonstop laugh and life of the party.

The set-up is nice...petty thief Harry Lockhart is running from the cops in New York when he busts in on a talent call for a movie. In short order he's sent to Los Angeles for more tests for a part of a private eye. Real private eye Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) is assigned to prep him. Then at a party he encounters Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), a woman he fell for when they were school children in Indiana. Before long Harry, who isn't too bright but is well meaning, is finding bodies in car trunks, on floors and in beds. He's beaten, shot, tortured and has a finger swallowed by a friendly mutt. Gay Perry keeps rescuing him, Harmony keeps tempting him and hit men dog them all. The mystery is almost irrelevant. It's the brittle style, smart-mouth dialogue, loving reverence for the noir sensibility and the acting that gives us pleasure. For my taste, Black's Hollywood insider cleverness in both the writing and the directing starts to get tiresome...not enough to be a complete turn-off, but enough that I wished he'd stop nudging us with his elbow. The movie chapter headings he gives us, each one a title of a Raymond Chandler novel, is a case in point. Clever and amusing the first time, tiresome the second time and "alright, all ready, we get it" each time after.

Kilmer and Monaghan do fine jobs with their roles, but it is Downey who really shines. He now has a hard-earned, lived-in face that serves him well. He can handle drama as easily as comedy. With Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, his Harry Lockhart is not exactly a loser, but he certainly is slow at grasping essential facts. Downey gives Harry a great deal for us to like. Mainly, he gives us a well-intentioned guy to whom all sorts of things happen. Harry survives because he's serious, because he's loyal to Perry, because he loves Harmony and because Downey has superb comic timing.

The title comes from Pauline Kael by way of an old Italian movie poster. Says Roger Ebert, "These four words, she wrote, `are perhaps the briefest statement imaginable of the basic appeal of the movies. The appeal is what attracts us and ultimately makes us despair when we begin to understand how seldom movies are more than this.'" Hmmm...like the Lethal Weapon movies, Monster Squad, Last Action Hero and The Last Boy Scout?

The movie looks just fine. The extras include a commentary track by Kilmer, Downey and Black as well as a gag outtake reel. I didn't bother with either.

modern classic
Review date: 2008-06-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

i really love this film which is one of the funnist films ive seen for quite a while a definate must see

Great film, few issues with the DVD
Review date: 2008-05-09 Rating: 10 out of 10

I won't review the actual film here (apart from saying I liked it a lot) - you can find far better ones on movie review websites.

The DVD itself has a few issues. First, you have to go through three pages of menus on insertion to select "United Kingdom" and get everything in English. Then, you get two unskippable trailers (including the dire anti-piracy one) before you even get to the main menu.

Basically, you get what you pay for with this budget DVD. Whatever happened to good old-fashioned "put DVD in and press play" to watch the movie?

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Michelle Monaghan
Robert Downey Jr
Deanna Dozier
Corbin Bernsen
Val Kilmer

Creators:
Robert Downey Jr (Primary Contributor)
Michelle Monaghan (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900586719
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2006-03-13
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 99 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: English (Original Language)

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