KISS KISS BANG BANG
[Film stats: Earned $4.2M domestically (with a budget of $15M). Got 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and 87% on Flixster.]
Hello, all!
The last installment in this self-indulgent “series” is finally here, and I couldn’t think of a better [or more on-the-nose] film to use to kiss it goodbye than KISS KISS BANG BANG.
Most of you are probably familiar with Shane Black without even realizing it. Believe it or not, the crude jokester of Dutch’s team in PREDATOR is also one of the sharpest writers in Hollyweird. [When he’s not being killed on-screen by intergalactic alien hunters, he’s churning out some really solid scripts.]
In this film, Black serves double duty as writer and director of a film that’s dripping with the kind of snappy dialogue you’d expect from him. Happily, the two lead actors are absolutely on-point with the material, and while you probably know Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man [or maybe “That guy that got fired from that lady lawyer show”] and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, you owe it to yourself to check out the duo in this one; they’re pitch-perfect together.
According to the IMDB, the plot for the film is as follows: “A murder mystery brings together a private eye, a struggling actress, and a thief masquerading as an actor.”
So, yeah, that’s three primary characters, and while Michelle Monaghan certainly doesn’t phone in her performance as the “struggling actress,” the film really shines when RDJ and Kilmer share the screen. Honestly, Black excels at the “buddy” kind of cinematic dynamic, from Riggs and Murtaugh in the LETHAL WEAPON films to another film he wrote and directed, THE NICE GUYS, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling having a good on-screen dynamic. Good as those films were [and the Riggs/Murtaugh pairing was good enough to spawn three sequels and a TV spin-off, after all], the duo of RDJ and Kilmer really is the best of the bunch.
If you want a better idea of how the actors play off one another, I’ve embedded a trailer for the film below:
Despite the somewhat implausible setup, the film never feels forced. Even when the dialogue veers into somewhat “look at me” territory [seriously, who uses the word “pluperfect” in a sentence?] or the situation strains a bit at the ability to suspend disbelief [such as the infamous “I peed on the corpse” scene (from which the earlier pluperfect complaint comes)], the aforementioned duo manage to make it work. Of course, they have a great script to work with on this one, and it’s interesting how Black decided to step away from the dialogue-driven action films [like LETHAL WEAPON] that made him Hollyweird’s “it” writer in the first place. Maybe it’s because THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT bombed at the box office. For whatever reason, it’s a good thing that he did, because this is just a great little flick. As its title suggests, it’s part romantic comedy and part neo-noir, CHINATOWN-esque murder mystery.
There’s a reason why the critics and audiences are on the same page with this one, I promise. And with that, I’ll say simply that I hope to have recommended at least one movie over the past month that you hadn’t seen before that you choose to give a try. In my opinion, they’re all worth a watch.
Enjoy!
P.S. For those of you who give this one a shot and enjoy it, you may also want to check out KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Yeah, it’s a bit of an unorthodox connection, but it’s still a good film.
Other films recommended:
[Day 1 - BARTON FINK; Day 2 - CENTURION; Day 3 - THE BABADOOK; Day 4 - RISEN; Day 5 - CHOPPER; Day 6 - ZERO EFFECT; Day 7 - IN BRUGES; Day 8 - HOUSE OF GAMES; Day 9 - DREDD; Day 10 - THE MISSION; Day 11 - WARRIOR; Day 12 - ANNIHILATION; Day 13 - THE FISHER KING; Day 14 - GOOD KILL; Day 15 - THE HITCHER; Day 16 - SHORT CUTS; Day 17 - THE SALTON SEA; Day 18 - A SIMPLE PLAN; Day 19 - MOON; Day 20 - CHEF; Day 21 - TRIANGLE; Day 22 - WIND RIVER; Day 23 - BLUE THUNDER; Day 24 - HOPE AND GLORY; Day 25 - LORD OF WAR; Day 26 - ONLY THE BRAVE; Day 27 - OUT OF SIGHT; Day 28 - SORCERER; Day 29 - LAYER CAKE]
[Film stats: Earned $4.2M domestically (with a budget of $15M). Got 86% on Rotten Tomatoes and 87% on Flixster.]
Hello, all!
The last installment in this self-indulgent “series” is finally here, and I couldn’t think of a better [or more on-the-nose] film to use to kiss it goodbye than KISS KISS BANG BANG.
Most of you are probably familiar with Shane Black without even realizing it. Believe it or not, the crude jokester of Dutch’s team in PREDATOR is also one of the sharpest writers in Hollyweird. [When he’s not being killed on-screen by intergalactic alien hunters, he’s churning out some really solid scripts.]
In this film, Black serves double duty as writer and director of a film that’s dripping with the kind of snappy dialogue you’d expect from him. Happily, the two lead actors are absolutely on-point with the material, and while you probably know Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man [or maybe “That guy that got fired from that lady lawyer show”] and Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, you owe it to yourself to check out the duo in this one; they’re pitch-perfect together.
According to the IMDB, the plot for the film is as follows: “A murder mystery brings together a private eye, a struggling actress, and a thief masquerading as an actor.”
So, yeah, that’s three primary characters, and while Michelle Monaghan certainly doesn’t phone in her performance as the “struggling actress,” the film really shines when RDJ and Kilmer share the screen. Honestly, Black excels at the “buddy” kind of cinematic dynamic, from Riggs and Murtaugh in the LETHAL WEAPON films to another film he wrote and directed, THE NICE GUYS, with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling having a good on-screen dynamic. Good as those films were [and the Riggs/Murtaugh pairing was good enough to spawn three sequels and a TV spin-off, after all], the duo of RDJ and Kilmer really is the best of the bunch.
If you want a better idea of how the actors play off one another, I’ve embedded a trailer for the film below:
Despite the somewhat implausible setup, the film never feels forced. Even when the dialogue veers into somewhat “look at me” territory [seriously, who uses the word “pluperfect” in a sentence?] or the situation strains a bit at the ability to suspend disbelief [such as the infamous “I peed on the corpse” scene (from which the earlier pluperfect complaint comes)], the aforementioned duo manage to make it work. Of course, they have a great script to work with on this one, and it’s interesting how Black decided to step away from the dialogue-driven action films [like LETHAL WEAPON] that made him Hollyweird’s “it” writer in the first place. Maybe it’s because THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT bombed at the box office. For whatever reason, it’s a good thing that he did, because this is just a great little flick. As its title suggests, it’s part romantic comedy and part neo-noir, CHINATOWN-esque murder mystery.
There’s a reason why the critics and audiences are on the same page with this one, I promise. And with that, I’ll say simply that I hope to have recommended at least one movie over the past month that you hadn’t seen before that you choose to give a try. In my opinion, they’re all worth a watch.
Enjoy!
P.S. For those of you who give this one a shot and enjoy it, you may also want to check out KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. Yeah, it’s a bit of an unorthodox connection, but it’s still a good film.
Other films recommended:
[Day 1 - BARTON FINK; Day 2 - CENTURION; Day 3 - THE BABADOOK; Day 4 - RISEN; Day 5 - CHOPPER; Day 6 - ZERO EFFECT; Day 7 - IN BRUGES; Day 8 - HOUSE OF GAMES; Day 9 - DREDD; Day 10 - THE MISSION; Day 11 - WARRIOR; Day 12 - ANNIHILATION; Day 13 - THE FISHER KING; Day 14 - GOOD KILL; Day 15 - THE HITCHER; Day 16 - SHORT CUTS; Day 17 - THE SALTON SEA; Day 18 - A SIMPLE PLAN; Day 19 - MOON; Day 20 - CHEF; Day 21 - TRIANGLE; Day 22 - WIND RIVER; Day 23 - BLUE THUNDER; Day 24 - HOPE AND GLORY; Day 25 - LORD OF WAR; Day 26 - ONLY THE BRAVE; Day 27 - OUT OF SIGHT; Day 28 - SORCERER; Day 29 - LAYER CAKE]
