I can't remember who recommended the movie, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, maybe Stryder and L.C. I watched it last night, and found it pretty entertaining, even though I had a bit of trouble understanding what the Hell was going on much of the time. And no, I wasn't reading the paper or doing sudokus while I was watching it.
It stars Robert Downey Jr. is a petty thief on the run, impersonating an actor impersonating a private eye. He teams up with doughy looking Val Kilmer who is a real private dick in Hollywood. The two find themselves in over their heads when dead bodies start appearing wherever they are. The corpse count gets pretty high. Michelle Monaghan plays love interest/actress/sleuth Harmony Lane.
It starts with Harry Lockhart (Downey) introducing himself as the narrator, and his style throughout the movie is pretty hapless, and therefore captivating. It's a great gimmick. At least I thought so.
The plot involves one twist after another, making it hard to follow, but something is always happening, so it's entertaining. Amazingly, at the end when it is explained, it all makes sense...sort of.
So it's not Shakespeare (that's my other DVD), but it is an entertaining way to spend a rainy evening.
Have fun. Let me know if you figure it out before all is divulged at the end.
Robert Downey Jr. is so cute. Who cares what the movie's about.
I stumbled across a movie I hadn't seen recently, The Truth about Cats and Dogs. Chick flick, but that works for me.
Posted by: Houston | October 06, 2007 at 05:29 PM
Shane Black - who wrote (?) and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - disappeared in 1996 after The Long Kiss Goodnight tanked.
In 2005, before the release of the movie, he talked to Erik Hedegaard in Rolling Stone magazine about his disappearing act - and the curse of Hollywood (and gave the great quote I've always remembered!):
I once heard that the curse of Hollywood is not that 99 percent of the time you're out of work; and your friends are mean to you, petty, peevish and angry; and everyone hates each other and is venal, full of spite, malice, bigotry, hatred and self-interest. No, that's not the curse. The curse is that the one percent of the time it's good, it's so good that you'll put up with all the bullshit just for that one time you can sit in a theatre and go, "Hey, that's my f***ing name up there!"
And Ian Fleming said of his James Bond character: Fleming said, "James Bond is ... the feverish dreams of the author of what he might have been - bang, bang, bang, kiss, kiss, that sort of stuff. It's what you would expect of an adolescent mind - which I happen to possess."
I always wondered if that's where the title came from.
Posted by: Shawn Lea | October 07, 2007 at 09:37 AM