Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Robert Downey Jr. (left) and Val Kilmer in the movie 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!' - CONTRIBUTED
KISS KISS Bang Bang is your typical dime/detective novel turned movie. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is also as atypical as a detective flick can get. It is hilarious fun from start to end. It is slick. It is funny. It is cool.
It takes all you would expect from a detective flick, shakes them up, stirs them around, cuts out the truly clichéd bits and then represents them as something fresh and original. Its name imbues all that one is about to find inside. It's about stories that go kiss, kiss bang bang - presenting a little loving, a little sex, a little detective work, a little 'shoot-em-up' and lots of running about chasing the bad guys and being chased by the bad guys.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is directed by Shane Black, who also wrote the screenplay, which is in part based on the Brett Halliday novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them. It self-consciously makes fun of itself, the kinds of movies like itself and the state of the movie business in general - or, at least, the people involved in it. Like your typical detective flick, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has a narrator, but he is no good at the job so his narration is a little sketchy, which brings much of the fun.
HILARIOUS NICKNAMES
A part of its nature can easily be seen from the names of the characters who people this flick. The most ordinary name in the flick is Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.). Other characters are Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) - and yes, his name is a descriptive moniker - and Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan), a name which displays her role as the budding starlet and would-be dame in distress. These share space with characters dubbed Mr. Frying Pan (Dash Mohik), Mr. Fire (Rockmond Dunbar) and Pink Hair Girl (Shannyn Shossaman).
But it is the characters behind these names that make Kiss Kiss Bang Bang shots of fun. Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer give wonderful performances. They allow the flick to be essentially a buddy movie, without it feeling like a buddy movie.
FABULOUS DIALOGUE
Downey Jr. is a down-on-his-luck thief who gets swept up into Hollywood and then suddenly finds himself tied up with a murder mystery. Kilmer plays the gay detective (which, according to the detective stereotype, is an oxymoron because it is always a 'dame' who lures the intrepid detective into the caper). The role simply confirms that Kilmer is a fabulous actor. His job is to show the difference between reality and the crime novel which informs Lockhart's approach to solving a case.
The dialogue is absolutely fabulous and the witticisms, especially from Gay Perry, may well have one rolling in the isle. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a flick made for those who like their movies smart and like their cinema miles from the ordinary. It mockingly laughs at stereotypes from its genre, points fingers at itself and then dances off with the devil in pale moonlight.
The movie gets particularly impressive when, to its credit, it gets serious for just a moment. This increases the emotional intensity, which simply makes it far more impressive when it returns to the fun.
If you have seen the trailer and thought 'that movie looks cool' then Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is certainly for you. However, if you were sceptical, you might want to try it on anyway because it just might fit, as this movie is slick. Its name says it all. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang!
