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    Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

    Reviewed by
    the_crazycanuck@

    Oh oh oh! Do you remember the good old days when crime thrillers were entertaining and funny instead of cold and unfeeling? I do! And guess what, with the release of 2005's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang we get a fresh breath of 90's nostalgia from the days of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. First time director, but seasoned action writer from the likes of the Lethal Weapon Franchise and the 1996 sleeper hit The Long Kiss Goodnight, delivers a witty, blazing funny piece of storytelling and a phenomenal lineup of characters. Robert Downey Jr emerges from rehab to deliver a delightful performance as the quirkly charming Harry Lockhart who is strangely reminiscent of a number of Woody Allen roles. And get this, Val Kilmer plays a gay guy. Oh yeah, Val Kilmer, the guy who played Batman. Albeit in a very poor Batman film, but still a gay Batman. Wow. Anyway back to business, he does a great job underplaying the part and pardon the pun, but he plays a great straight gay man to Robert Downey. The two have almost surprising chemistry on scene, the witty "bang bang" dialogue is absolutely inspired, and as a result we get an entertaining roller coaster ride through the seemingly straightforward, but in the end oddly not, plot. Wow that rhymed. What we have is a small time thief (Downey) who miraculously gets a free trip to Los Angeles when he stumbles into an audition. Once there he hooks up with a private detective (Kilmer) for detective lessons, with hilarious and sexy results. Michelle Monaghan plays Downey's love interest, and she does a decent job, but it's in this character's relationship with Robert Downey's that we really see how talented a writer Shane Black is. He's got this deep backstory going back to small town USA where they both grew up and the relationship they shared then and now. The subplots dealing with Monaghan's character are truly brilliant, and gives what might be a shallow action thriller a little more depth. Also a neat little element to the film is the motif involving a set of pulp detective novels that not only link Downey and Monaghan's characters at childhood, but also try to explain the muddled and complicated plot. One of the weaknesses of the film is that the plot contains so many twists and turns, the audience sometimes gets lost in such a fast movign film. Luckily one of Shane Black's brave little ventures is an eye-raising but original narration by Robert Downey Jr's character. What's so odd about that? Well he talks like he's making a movie, he makes references to a scene being a bad scene, very strange. Of course it's a throwback to the old film noir flicks of the 30's and 40's, but it did feel a little... forced shall we say. But, on that note, it does help explain the plot so the audience doesn't get left in the dust. I would maybe have tweaked the narration a little bit so it didn't stick out so much, but Downey makes it work and it kind of goes with the style of the film. Getting away from the details, well needless to say a complicated series of events goes down, that I won't ruin for you, but it's full of surprises, laughs, kisses and bangs. Definitely a real breath of fresh air with a lot of the bullocks pouring out of Hollywood lately, I say check this one out. One of the top 10 of the year!

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    the_crazycanuck@  19.11.2005 age: 13-17 37 reviews

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