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STUDIO: Warner Bros.
MSRP: $28.98
RATED: R
RUNNING TIME: 104 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Commentary with director and stars
• Trailer
• Bloopers
The Pitch
"A magical blending of noir, comedy, action, and satire."
The Humans
Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer. Michelle Monoghan, Corben Bernsen, Shannyn Sossamon, Larry Miller, Dash Mihok.
The Nutshell
Downey portrays Harry Lockhart, a two-bit thief who stumbles into a mystery as well as the Hollywood lifestyle when his "crashing" of an audition lands him a chance to star in a major motion picture. His life gets even more complicated when he bumps into a long lost love, dead bodies, and is partered with a tough but sweet private investigator. Comic gold follows.
Recruitment for the Perrineau Fan Club starts at the grass roots.
The Lowdown
You want
to talk about a film that is so disinterested in what focus groups and studio
heads want and expect? This is it. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is so fiercely
of its own mind that it comes around on the other side of the moon as one of
the more accessible and wholly entertaining films in a decade simply by sheer
force of will. It’s that rare film that both defies and adheres to convention
in all the right ways at all the right times. Sadly, it’s a tough film to
critique. It’s a strange little firecracker, hardly original in plot and not an action
film you’d mention in the same breath as Shane Black’s claim to fame, Lethal
Weapon. It’s an oddity, a flick that just infects you with charm and
bite and a confident swagger that’s impossible not to love.
Just be glad I showed the Downey/Kilmer KISS KISS pic and not the BANG BANG.
Part of
the joy of the film is in seeing the true virtuoso of acting that is Robert
Downey Jr. playing in the big leagues again as a lead. It’s been a long and
winding road, but when the man is allowed to shine he pretty much makes a lot
of the golden boys look like amateurs. As our bumbling lead and narrator
(possibly the best narrator we’ve seen in a film this side of Mr. John Cusack),
he gets to have a lot of fun with his new lease on
life and he shines. Additionally, his rapport with Val Kilmer’s Gay Perry (the
gay private eye) is amazing stuff. The two actors have had rollercoaster
careers, but this serves as a
point
as in nearly every big buddy flick except this one is twenty times smarter and
cockier. Shane Black on a bad day is capable of high quality venom and pointed
comic banter. Here, in his writer/director debut he often attacks a joke from a
different angle, allowing his actors to own it with their performance. He chose
well.
The budget for Marvel’s Mysterio biopic was surprisingly low.
A lot of
you didn’t catch this in theaters (and for that I scorn you), so I don’t want
to go into detail about the more special moments involving Captain effing Magics,
corpse pissings, celebrity lookalikes, waterlogged guns, extras standing in
front of the camera, and the proper way to close a door, but I’ll say that this
is a film made for repeat viewings. With the very gifted and very cute Michelle
Monaghan sealing up the heroic trio and a fun group of bad guys both obscure
and familiar, there’s not much to dislike about Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It’s
electric stuff, but oddly so. There’s no one moment you can use to sell your
friends on it, you just have to let it run its course and by the end the army
has another recruit to spread the word. This is one of those films that fans
feel ownership of, devotees who will spread the word at all costs. It’s the best
plague ever.
Reviews
don’t do it justice. Nor does the trailer. Nor does the cool and stylish
opening credits sequence. Nor does the Abe Lincoln appearance, though it comes
close. Just trust us. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a classic and a reminded of how
alone and cold we’ve been all these years since Shane Black has left us to the
wolves of action filmmaking.
You’re goddamn welcome.
The Package
The blooper reel is a useless special feature 99% of the time, either being only funny if you were there on the day. Typically it’s only funny if you realize that the line being flubbed was the 99th take after 98 consecutive takes where the same line was flubbed or whatever. They’re typically less funny than the actual material, something which goes against the whole laws of bloopers. Of course, bloopers tend to be piss in general and geared more towards the people who find America’s Funniest Home Videos to be high comedy. The best bloopers tend to be on PG or G rated films where someone makes a mistake and proceeds to call everyone in earshot a cocksucking coward.
Thankfully, the included blooper reel here is better than the norm. Not as good as the material Shane Black actually wrote, but fun to see. Especially after listening to the commentary track, which is the real selling point of this DVD aside from the terrific film pictured on the case.
Poor Shane Black.
The guy is as funny as they get and probably as gifted "in the room" as any of the most prized comedians but he can’t get a word in edgewise with such high wattage and charismatic talents like Downey and Kilmer in the room. Surprisingly, it’s Kilmer who hams it up the most. I expected Downey, who is a virtuoso, to take the conn. Instead, Kilmer cracks jokes both funny and silly and it obviously causes a bit of a disjointed feel to the commentary track. Downey is no slouch himself, but he seems a little more on point. Black fights for his airtime when he has something that needs to be said, but seems content to just let things run their course. It’s a natural and fun track, not as informative as you might hope but still great.
9.0 out of 10
