Movie Review: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang · 1:37am May 21st, 2018

During the summer of 2016, after seeing The Nice Guys, my dad and I made the effort of watching other movies written or directed by Shane Black, as we had enjoyed that film so much. Thanks to the magic of Netflix, we rented and watched three films he'd written for:

- The Last Boy Scout (mainly decent more than anything, although Bruce Willis' performance is quite impressive)
- The Long Kiss Goodnight (the disk crapped out on us partway through, but what I saw was pretty "meh")

And then there was this film.

"Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".

Set in LA, the film is about perpetually unlucky ex-magician and petty thief Harry Lockhart (played by Robert Downey Jr., three years before his career resurrection as Iron Man), who manages to avoid being arrested after a job gone wrong by blundering into an audition and being mistaken for a method actor. Offered the part of a detective, Harry is assigned to shadow private investigator Perry van Shrike (played by Val Kilmer), or "Gay Perry" as he's popularly known.

At the same party where he first meets Perry, Harry also runs into his old childhood crush Harmony Lane (played by Michelle Monaghan); as well as the party's host, retired actor Harlan Dexter (played by Corbin Bernsen), who recently resolved a ten-year feud over his wife's inheritance with his daughter Veronica...

Sounds important down the road, yes?

As Harry's narration puts it...

"I apologize, that was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie. Gee, do you think it'll come back later, maybe? I hate it when movies do that. TV's on, talking about the new power plant, hmm, wonder where the big climax will happen?"

That kind of lemony snark is a major highlight of the movie. Harry's narration is delightfully full of smartassery, fully aware that he's narrating a movie, and it's one of the many (pitch-black) comedic highlights of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. The characters in the film, from major to minor, all throw around some wonderfully hilarious quips and snarkery. One of my personal favorites being a bit between some henchmen for the villain, who get into a quick debate over a "Ike, Mike and Mustard" reference that one of them makes.

"I'm with him [Harry] on this one man, that's pretty fucking obscure."

Anyway, onto the rest of the review.

Like with The Nice Guys, it's hard to talk about some of the plot twists in this film, since, as a crime and mystery story, the plot elements and the impact of those twists are a major part of engaging with the film. But here is what I will say...

The mystery begins with Harry following Perry on a stakeout, and they end up witnessing some hoods disposing of a car in a lake. After trying (and hilariously failing) to mount a rescue, Harry is later contacted by Harmony about investigating another case: her sister's suicide, which she believes was actually a murder.

No way that those two cases are connected, right? After all, it's not one of the Jonny Gossamer novels that Harmony likes so much... XD

Like The Nice Guys, this is a film that deals with many harsh and sour subjects. The film gleefully deconstructs many of the trappings of a film noir story (especially those by Raymond Chandler - to the point that different segments of the movie are titled after Chandler works like The Lady in the Lake and "Farewell My Lovely"), revealing the harsh reality beneath... but at the same time, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang presents this harsh reality with enough snappy banter and winks to the audience to remind us why the fake stories are fun.

As Harry puts it near the end, "I said goodbye, watched Jonny's world go back on the fiction shelf. But while it lasted, brother, it was one for the books."

Again, it is easy to compare this film to The Nice Guys. And they do share a number of similarities. But there is still some good differences between them, and what is also important, is that the characters involved all give good performances.

Robert Downey Jr. - again, during a time in his career when he was at a career low - turns in a fantastic performance as Harry. His character is a screw-up and a motormouth, who almost always suffers some form of abuse, and yet despite his smartassery and bad decisions, still has a notable chivalrous streak. Downey's performance is at its strongest in a sequence when Harry witnesses a murder, right in front of him. I can't give any details, but I was in awe of how deftly Downey hits the different changes in emotion required by the script.

Val Kilmer is also a delight as the sharp-witted, sharper-tongued Gay Perry. He's a tough badass with a lot of (justifiable) frustrations about babysitting Harry, and provides one of the film's most memorable lines.

...But I'm not gonna share it. It's too good, watch the movie yourself!

Now, again, as with The Nice Guys and many other Shane Black films, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a rather bittersweet story.

But at the same time, it is still riotously funny. Especially whenever Harry screws up.

All I will say, is that one of the best examples of these is when Harry tries to intimidate a thug with a revolver and a round of Russian Roulette. Works about as well as you'd expect, which is to say, not at all.

Kiss Kiss Bang--

Bang!

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