Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - A Movie Review By Andrew Lawrence

"You don't get it, do you? This isn't "good cop, bad cop." This is fag and New Yorker. You're in a lot of trouble."

Even though my favourite movie genre is serious dramas with dark and troublesome characters (Black Swan, Magnolia, Drive etc.), I often find myself wanting to watch something a bit more light hearted and easy to digest. Writing about these types of movies isn't as fun or as challenging as it is to write about a deep psychological thriller, but since I'm in a laughing mood today, I decided to mix things up a bit and do something different. Being a genuinely funny comedy, Shane Black's directorial debut Kiss Kiss Bang Bang from 2005 fits the bill nicely, and since I just recently picked it up on BluRay as well, it seems like destiny itself wanted me to review it today.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a comedic crime drama about a man by the name of Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), a petty thief from New York, who trough a twisted turn of events ends up at a flashy Christmas party in Los Angeles. Through a mutual friend who has mistaken him for a method actor, Harry is introduced to Val Kilmer's character, Gay Perry, and it doesn't take long before the two of them unwillingly find themselves in the middle of a dangerous mystery involving money, deceit, broken dreams and murder. This plot synopsis might sound familiar and boring to a lot of readers, but don't be alarmed. Through some incredibly well written dialogue and by applying some genuinely hilarious narration to this otherwise very cliche'd story, Shane Black and his crew manages to create a movie that admittedly does becomes a little overly convoluted at times, but still manages to retain a wholly original sense of atmosphere and comedic timing. 

The thing about this movie that really makes it work in my opinion, is the way that Shane Black manages to mix dark and satirical comedy with dry and sarcastic jokes, without letting it get out of hand. A lot of comedies, especially Adam Sandler comedies, tend to throw too much storytelling and too much character emotion overboard in order to shoehorn a pair of cheap laughs into the film; a tendency that absolutely kills the momentum of the plot and ruins the audience's trust in the atmosphere of the movie. I'm aware that this might sound like a bloated statement to use in a situation like this, I mean, we're just talking about a comedy, right? No. There's no such thing as "just a comedy". It's a real and respectable movie genre just like the drama and and thriller, and just because the quality of the average comedy has declined severely over the years, I'm not gonna hesitate to take them just as seriously and judge them just as harshly as movies from those other genres. Most script authors agree that writing a truly funny comedic screenplay is much harder than writing a dramatic one, and the fact that Shane Black was able to do just that for this movie and still managed to keep all the other balls he was juggling in the air at the same time, truly is admirable.

Now that the script is out of the way, you need someone to act it out in front of the camera. Robert Downey Jr. entered Shane Black's directorial feature film straight out of rehab, and luckily enough, his performance as Harry Lockhart is just as fresh and sober as it is funny and relatable. He plays the underdog in this movie; the guy who never achieved his dreams and didn't land his dream girl, and I found his character both entertaining and well written. He's a newbie in terms of Hollywood code-of-conduct, and his unknowingness and the many rookie mistakes he makes along his way, make for a lot of very entertaining and awkward situations. Also, because of the sharp and rapid way the dialogue in this movie is delivered, Robert Downey was cast perfectly for the role of Harry Lockhart in my opinion. Had the character been portrayed by an actor who doesn't possess the ability to process and deliver dialogue as fast and as on point as Downey is, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang wouldn't be nearly as fluent or as sharp as it is. 

Michelle Monaghan is also in this movie, and she plays a 34-year-old actress who struggles to find work in the enormous city of LA. She has kind of given up her dreams of becoming a famous movie star, and this element is used as one of Shane Black's several methods of poking fun of the Hollywood way of living, but I'll get back to that later. Even though she did supply me with a few laughs here and there, Monaghan didn't do anything too special in this movie, and I definitely felt as though her part could have been played by almost any other actress. Luckily, the same can't be said about the next guy. 

Val Kilmer is the final actor in this this movie that I want to touch upon, and in this case, I definitely did save the best for last. Kilmer's character works for the guy who has hired Harry and brought him to LA, and his job is to prepare Downey Jr.'s character as much as possible for his upcoming film shoot. I'm only describing the tip of the iceberg here, but what they do together isn't important anyway. It's the way they do what they do that really matters, and this is where Kilmer's acting and comedic timing really shines. First of all: He's gay, and his nickname is Gay Perry. As if that wasn't funny enough, Kilmer treats this element of his character in such a way that it makes everything he says and does ten times more hilarious, but he manages to stay completely badass and respectable at the same time as well. My favourite part about Gay Perry though, is the overly sarcastic way he talks to Harry whenever he says something stupid or makes a rookie mistake on one of their countless nightime jobs. These moments had me laughing so hard my sister came down from her room upstairs to see if anyone had released a pack of wild walruses in our living room, and I won't even begin to describe how long it took for me to explain to my mom why we now have coffee-infused snot-stains on the cealing. Gay Perry is entertaining. 

As funny as the main characters are, this movie would not have been nearly as entertaining as it is without Shane Black's huge amount of subtle and provocative meta-jabs at Hollywood and the luxurious Los Angeles lifestyle. I talked a little bit about how Monaghan's character had given up on her dream of becoming a top-roster actress after having moved to LA at a young age earlier, and I'd like to explain the nature of this element in a little more detail. The funny thing about her character is that it seems so stereotypical and cliche'd, that it's hard to believe that Black didn't include the character as a blatant reference to the huge amount of aspiring young women who move to Hollywood with dreams of becoming the next Marilyn Monroe or the next Meryl Streep. If you're not convinced that this is what Black meant to say with the Monaghan character, I'd like to direct your attention to another one of his satiric strokes of movie making genius from this film; Harry Lockhart's narration. 

Throughout Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's runtime, Downey's character interrupts the movie to give his few cents about what's going on at specific points in time of the story. Sometimes he stops the film to talk about how overdone an event that just took place is in movies like this one, and other times he just flips out about how stupid specific scenes are and how bad a job he's doing at narrating. Next to Gay Perry's remark about gloves made from fawn's fur, this element is the most hilarious part of the entire film, because of how unexpected and cool it is to see a director do something that feels as down on earth, grounded in reality and as respectable towards the audience as Harry's narration does. Black creates a connection between the audience and movie that's straight up incomparable to anything I've ever seen before, and I have a lot of personal respect for him as a movie maker because of this sense of connection. I mean seriously, the title of the movie is an overseas expression that was created as a way to make fun of predictable detective movies from the 60's and 70's, movies that this film obviously took a lot of inspiration from! Shane Black, I salute you.

As grandiose and incredible as I've made it out to be thus far, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang does have its fair share of flaws. It's a satiric comedy that makes use of some incredibly funny and original elements to propel it's story forward, but that being said, the story in itself isn't revolutionising or groundbreaking in any way, shape or form. The plot gets really complicated at one point, almost so much so that it becomes too entangled to keep track of, and this did take me out of the experience a couple of times. Another comedy that made me feel this way was The Big Lebowsky, one of the most beloved comedies of all time, and addition to that, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang actually shares a lot of other elements with this so called classic. Both movies center around a down on his luck low-life protagonist who struggles to keep up with the world, and eventually finds himself in the middle of a crime mystery because of it. The Big Lebowsky is a timeless classic to millions of people, but personally, I simply can't get over the fact that there isn't much else to plot than a funny guy who has some funny friends, who end up in a ridiculous situation that they have to solve. The same goes for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang; it's a little too much style over substance for my taste. Mark Kermode from BBC radio who's one of my favourite movie critiques, described Shane Blacks directorial debut like this: "It's all surface, but what a beautiful surface it is."

In the end, taking a break from the serious stuff is something even the most hardcore David Lynch or Darren Aronofsky fans have to do once in a while, and if some of you guys happen to be reading this review, then please, give Kiss Kiss Bang Bang a go. It might not have the multi layered characters and the existential subplots that your'e used to, but it's earned a guy who can watch Take Shelter three times a day's seal of approval, and that's not something to joke around with. (4/6)

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang IMDb page here

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang trailer here