Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

Review by Clint Morris

Though it sounds like something you'd see at a venue where both a bucket and a quick peepshow is inclusive in the admission price, if the movie Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang were a book, it'd be blow-dried of it's collected soot, plastic-coated, placed delicately in a glass box and sheltered for good.

Yep, it's words are so precious that it should be seen by everyone, not simply someone who likes maxxing up their library card with no plans to return any of the books within the 14-day loan period.

In the 1980s and early 1990s Shane Black was the go-to man if you needed a buddy action film written. From Lethal Weapon to Last Action Hero, Last Boy Scout, and Long Kiss Goodnight, he was as endowed as he was wealthy - his expertise was in crowd-pleasing quick-quips and profanity, over-the-top action sequences and homophobic humour.

Quicker than a tray of uncovered mince around a hungry cat though - he just disappeared, making way for a hundred overexcited hacks to find employ on every 'blood and bullets' escapade that followed.

Black's now returned, both as writer and director (his first stint behind the camera - maybe that he was his barter for a reprise?), for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang - a movie that brazenly reads as a 'What I learnt in Hollywood' from the eminent screenwriter.

From the in-jokes to the character stereotypes, nonsensical action sequences and sardonic outline - Black's seemingly yanked every memory of his Hollywood years from his noggin, put them down on paper and taken a Nikon to it. The result? A blast. And for once we're not talking about the explosions...

A tongue-in-cheek mish-mash of laughs, satire, action and also, a Mickey-ing of the classic detective movie, the L.A.-set film centres on an accidental actor named Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr), a cocky and dishevelled charmer who right away introduces himself to us as the hero and narrator.

Over the course of the film's 104 minutes - he explains how he got to this place.

Detective Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer) - or 'Gay Perry' as he's warmly known - agrees to coach Harry for a screen test.

Instead, Perry gets more than he bargained for, getting dragged in a convoluted murder mystery that involves an edgy heroine (Michelle Monaghan), a mysterious ex-Hollywood player (Corbin Bernsen, in a small, but no doubt welcome role since he's been swimming in telemovie land for far too long), some welcomingly over-the-top henchman and a couple of corpses.

One way or another, they'll get to the bottom of it.

Black's writing is superb. From the film's splashings of black humour (bad guys dying in ludicrous ways, body parts getting chopped off, dead bodies being treated ever so disrespectfully) to his poke at Hollywood (infinite name-dropping, a few jabs at some of Hollywood's biggest names, and notably, a nitpick at how most genre movies are usually structured), it's just spot-on.

The well-merited rest has obviously done Black good, and he returns revitalised and re-energised. But surprisingly, ready-and-armed to attack the genre he made his name in. His defence? Simply a cinematic translation of Brett Halliday's novel, "Bodies Are Where You Find Them".

Acting-wise, Downey Jr is his usual reliable self as the multifaceted Harry, whilst Kilmer displays his rarely used comic chops as the always-dependable Perry. Again, credit should also go to Black for penning such well-defined, so-real-they're-funny characters.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang starts to dip in it's third act, but like a see-saw - it does go back up again, and just in time to have us walking away satisfied, amused and confident that there's still some fresh ideas over there in Tinseltown.

4 out of 5

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Australian release: Thursday the 10th of November, 2005
Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen, Larry Miller, Dash Mihok, Shannyn Sossamon.
Director: Shane Black.
Website: Click here.

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