SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Micitype Pretty Good

Luecarou What begins as a feel-good-human-interest story turns into a mystery, then a tragedy, and ultimately an outrage.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Pjtaylor-96-138044 Shane Black's directorial debut, 'Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)', is a neo-noir thriller that riffs on hard-boiled detective genre conventions but also conforms to them almost as much as it subverts them. It's well-done comedy, several laugh-out-loud moments punctuate a consistently well-written screenplay, but it can feel a little cynical, at times, and the overly complex plot is occasionally difficult to follow. The way the feature plays around with the fourth wall can get a little 'in your face' in the first forty minutes, too. However, this is still an energetic and entertaining feature that brings Black back to his former self, sitting side-by-side with 'Lethal Weapon (1987)' as an engagingly smart action-comedy. It's sly satire with a subversive streak. 8/10

TonyMontana96 (Originally reviewed: 23/02/2017) This slick, multi-themed powerhouse, directed by Shane Black is perhaps the most entertaining film I've seen in a while. The picture star's Robert Downey as small time actor Harry Lockhart who one day goes to a Hollywood house party and meet's a detective played by Val Kilmer (Gay Perry) whilst there, the two become buddies, later on they witness a murder and have to find out what's really going on and during this, a thirty four year old actress (Harmony Faith) played by Michelle Monaghan involves herself in the investigation and from then on there's all sorts going on with the plot, which is best left unspoiled, as it's one that should be figured out by the person watching, However I probably couldn't tell you the plot stays fully sustainable all the way through but it's a film so fast paced and engaging, it's hard to mind, and that was my reaction here, I'm thinking the picture requires multiple viewings to fully understand the plot, but for now it's still a very good piece of cinema with some nice original writing from Shane Black, who injects a ton of laugh out loud humour here.The film has some wonderful performances; Robert Downey Jr is absolutely brilliant, Val Kilmer is very good and Michelle Monaghan, is both beautiful and excellent here as well, along with a solid supporting cast who are slightly less memorable by name, but very good nonetheless. The humour is very fresh, and most funny, including a sexy Monaghan telling Downey Jr that he can sleep the other side of the bed, but nothing will happen, and play's games with him, she's naked and you get the picture.Brisk dialogue features too, with a laugh out loud sequence where Kilmer's character says "You know what you'll find when you look up the definition of the word idiot", in which Downey Jr replies "A picture of me"? "No the definition of the word idiot which you F**king are" says Kilmer. There's plenty of memorable one liners, some great, realistic action too and some stunningly well shot club scenes involving hot women. Shane Black's Direction is first rate, the writing is refreshingly original and energised and like I mentioned earlier the pace is perfect. Overall Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a great comedy that ignores formula and delivers something worth remembering with smart wit, stunning performances and a clever narrative that may need many viewings to be fully appreciated; it's brilliant.

Johan Dondokambey Opens curiously with Harry's childhood and the crime-themed opening credits, the movie develops the characters Harry and Harmony eccentrically. But that thing ended there and then as the rest of the movie develops the story just like other crime movies do. Fortunately the story is quite good with all those little twists and the additional Harry's stupidity. The jokes are mostly dull particularly the dialog jokes. But the practical jokes were quite alright for me as they hooked some laughs out of me, like when Harry tossed Perry's gun or the scene with the finger and the dog. Robert Downey Jr.'s acting may be the biggest aspect that helped this movie to have the quite a good impression. He can really delve deep into character and depicted Harry's stupidity and clumsiness very nicely. Michelle Monaghan's attempt to look sexy utterly failed here as she doesn't really have the capability to act sexy. Val Kilmer's acting here is quite nice, constantly being the wise character to guide Harry.

seymourblack-1 This exhilarating high-speed comedy thriller is full of fun, action and excitement and contains a lot of quick-fire dialogue that's cool, sharp and extremely witty. Its complicated plot about an investigation into a murder mystery is typical of those featured in numerous classic film noirs but its overall style is also very contemporary. The juxtaposition of these two styles and the elements of parody and pastiche that are evident throughout, make this a very postmodern offering and a fascinating homage to the hardboiled detective stories that were so popular in the 1940s.Writer/director Shane Black clearly drew much of his inspiration from Raymond Chandler as he named the four chapters and the epilogue of "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" after well known Philip Marlowe stories and constructed a plot which was very Chandler-esque, as it's labyrinthine in nature and also features an investigation of two seemingly unrelated cases which subsequently prove to be linked to each other The obligatory narration is predictably clever, sarcastic and funny but also contains more updated aspects, such as a tendency to speak directly to the audience and a disarmingly amateurish quality which manifests when information is imparted out of sequence and freeze frames and rewinds have to be used to clarify what's being said.Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a small-time New York City thief who goes on the run from the cops after one of his robberies goes wrong and then escapes his pursuers by hiding in a building where auditions for a detective movie are in progress. Much to his surprise, Harry passes the audition and is flown to Hollywood to prepare for his movie role by shadowing a gay private investigator called Perry van Strike a.k.a. Gay Perry (Val Kilmer). At a party held by a wealthy entrepreneur called Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen), Harry meets his childhood friend Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan) a girl who used to confide in him a great deal but frustratingly, never showed any romantic interest in him. Her attempts to make it as an actress had not been very successful to date and her greatest achievement so far was a brief appearance in a corny commercial.Harry and Perry are on a stakeout one night when they see a car being propelled into a lake and then manage to pull the dead body of a young woman from the wreckage. Later, Harmony tells Harry that her younger sister (Jenna) has been found dead and asks him to investigate the circumstances of her death. "The Lady In The Lake" is later identified as Harlan Dexter's daughter Veronica and a tenuous link between her and Harmony's "Little Sister" becomes apparent as one of Harmony's credit cards (which had been stolen by Jenna) had been used to hire Perry to be at the lake.After a complicated investigation that exposes Harry and Perry to great danger and leads them to a psychiatric clinic owned by Harlan Dexter, it becomes clear that Veronica's murder was connected with a feud over an inheritance and that Jenna's tragic death had been brought about in a totally different way.Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer make Harry and Perry's unconventional partnership one of the highlights of the movie and their banter is just brilliant. Michelle Monaghan also impresses with her ability to mix her character's comic side so successfully with her more mysterious qualities. Just like Marlowe, Harry gets beaten up regularly and is even tortured but is also quite modest as he recognises that he's a useless thief and readily admits to being a terrible narrator."Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is tremendously entertaining, hilarious and criminally underrated and hopefully, in the long term will achieve the level of recognition that it so richly deserves.