Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

July 18, 2006

Rated: R Runtime: 103 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

With rare exceptions we all go into movies having some idea what we expect to see and end up judging the movie on how well it meets those expectations. I expected Kiss Kiss Bang Bang to be a self-aware attempt at being hip, with some action and tah-tah’s thrown in just to spice it up a bit. That’s pretty much what I got but the surprising thing was how good it turned out to be!

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang The film starts with Harry (Robert Downey Jr.) and a friend doing a little Christmas shopping in New York City… at night… after the store has closed. Yep, he’s a thief. After they leave the store a woman starts shooting at them, hitting the friend and forcing Harry to run away to avoid the bullets and cops. Ducking into a building, he finds himself in a casting session with a script shoved in his face. To keep his cover he starts reading lines.. lines which happen to go along with what just happened to him and thus he reads it with great emotion and improvisation. The casting director is impressed and sends him to Hollywood for some additional training and testing.

At a party he’s introduced to some people, including his trainer in the ways of being a detective, Perry (Val Kilmer) otherwise known as “gay Perry”.. cause he’s gay. He meets some girls, meets some guys, has his ass kicked, and gets the story rolling. I’m being vague on purpose here as part of the fun is learning about the story as you go along. Suffice it to say that at it’s heart Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an old fashioned whodunnit thriller with a few expected (and unexpected) twists along the way.

What makes this movie special is the narration by Robert Downey Jr., the writing on this is spectacular! For example, near the end of the movie he makes a comment along the lines of “oh yeah, one more thing… don’t worry, I just saw Lord of the Rings and I won’t put you through 15 funerals before rolling credits, but there’s something you need to know.” Good stuff! There also several completely unexpected bits that happen that are laugh out loud funny, I just can’t tell you what they are.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a very strong 4 star movie, almost 5 in fact. Humor, violence, nudity, car chases.. it missed a fifth star by a very small margin. Maybe if Val hadn’t felt the need to play gay Perry so well…

Posted by John | Filed Under 4 Stars, Ali Hillis, Comedy, Corbin Bernsen, DVD, Drama, Michelle Monaghan, R, Robert Downey Jr., Thriller, Val Kilmer