Movie Review

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

In a movie season when everything is trying to be about something, a movie like "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is needed. This is a movie with no message, no social significance, and no big emotional payoff. It?s a big, dumb flick like only the guy who wrote all the "Lethal Weapons,? "The Last Action Hero,? and "A Long Kiss Goodnight" could bring us. And by dumb I mean not as smart as say a flick like "The Weather Man," but not an insult to people?s intelligence like say "Domino" or "Doom.?

Harry (Robert Downey Jr.) is small-time thief who during a robbery stumbles onto an audition for a movie part in LA. He brings realism to the role and is called out to Hollywood as a ?maybe.? While there he meets Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), an aspiring actress from Indiana. Harmony is trying to escape a rough past. Harry is in love with her and trying to score. The other character involved here is Perry, known as Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), a private detective brought in as a consultant on the same movie as Harry. Perry takes Harry on one of his surveillance missions. He says that a woman wanted him to follow her husband around. By the end of the night, however, the two find that they have two dead bodies and a complex case to solve. The plot hinges on those fun but never quite believable instances in which characters suddenly remember another clue that makes everything come together. It?s a lazy tool for a screenwriter but at the same time the audience hangs on every twist and every dead body, and is still tripped up just enough to not see the next one coming.

Shane Black?s breathless way of adding action and comedy is another thing that distracts us from the movie?s little flaws. He has a gift for over-the-top action, as Lethal Weapon showed us many times. A scene in which a coffin hangs from a bridge, and Harry hangs from the arm of the deceased inside the coffin shooting the bad guys is reminiscent of the kind of stylized and clever set pieces he used in flicks like "Lethal Weapon" and "A Long Kiss Goodnight" to turn up the excitement. This is also laced with a dark "wink-wink" sort of humor. I usually hate it when the narrators of movies talk directly to the audience but here it?s the source of the film's best lines. During the film?s wrap up, Harry says, "Don't worry, I saw Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to end this seventeen times." Also, terrible things are done with dead bodies, and a finger is cut off and digested by a dog.

Black?s one misstep is that he doesn?t flesh out the characters as well as he could have. He isn?t going for an emotional film here, so it doesn?t make much of a difference, but we could have invested so much more in the characters if he had chosen to cut the mystery short for a while and concentrated on the people involved. As it is, he is much more concerned with the look of the film. The film is shot in some of the seedier portions of LA, the places where you would expect the oddballs to be in full supply. This adds to the whole dynamic of the mystery.

The cast is fantastic, especially Downey Jr. and Kilmer who come back in a big way here. This is the best work they?ve done in a long time. They make for a perfectly matched odd couple. Downey?s na?ve demeanor counteracts well with Kilmer?s all-out cynicism, making the jokes click almost every time. The only other cast member is Michelle Monaghan, who adds the last needed ingredient for this fun flick for guys: sexiness. "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is an enjoyably slick, exciting, and funny diversion from everything else in the theaters right now.

Craig's Grade: B

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%