Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)

All Critics (151) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (133) | Rotten (25) | DVD (25)

[Robert Downey Jr. is] the quickest, sharpest, slyest and wryest comic actor on the screen.

December 17, 2011 Full Review

Joe Morgenstern

Wall Street Journal

Top Critic

[A] cheerful mess of a pulp-fiction parody, pumped full of laughs by Michelle Monaghan, Val Kilmer, and Robert Downey Jr.

November 27, 2007 Full Review

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is as much fun as the title suggests, and packed with banter that rolls off the tongue just as easily.

November 27, 2007 Full Review

Christy Lemire

Associated Press

Top Critic

An ultra-knowing exercise in genre deconstruction, and something of a charmer to boot.

June 24, 2006 Full Review | Comment (1)

Ben Walters

Time Out

Top Critic

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is the first movie since 1994's Pulp Fiction not just to understand movie violence as a pop cultural form ... but to play it like a virtuoso violinist.

November 11, 2005 Full Review

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

Black has concocted a zany detective dramedy, a jokey, nocturnal Chinatown and an amazingly, amusingly verbose movie, all banter and hard-as-nails detective cliches.

November 11, 2005 Full Review

Roger Moore

Orlando Sentinel

Top Critic

The best movie, with the best script, in writer Shane Black's career.

May 5, 2013 Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Choppy L.A. thriller. Absolutely not for kids.

January 2, 2011 Full Review

Maria Llull

Common Sense Media

Its wink-wink eyelids feel heavy from having seen so much in Hollywood and it turns out to be the best accidental detective story since "The Big Lebowski." Downey Jr. and Kilmer make one of the least likely, most inspired buddy pairings of the 2000s.

September 19, 2010 Full Review

Nick Rogers

Suite101.com

An effervescent ride buoyed in no small amount by the agility of the actors

September 1, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Slick, sassy and downright delicious "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is a royal cinematic treat.

April 16, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Cole Smithey

ColeSmithey.com

A raucous mix of black comedy and noir thriller.

February 27, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

Saxon Bullock

Film4

This is how Hollywood action comedies should be done -- smart, fast and a hoot.

January 15, 2008 Full Review

Garth Franklin

Dark Horizons

As a slice of disposably self-referential entertainment, it more than earns its keep, and also acts as an effective witness-protection programme for two stars who were formerly more in need of a bullet than a kiss.

December 1, 2007 Full Review | Comment (1)

Mark Kermode

Observer [UK]

A winkingly funny neo-noir treat.

July 14, 2007 Full Review

Joe Lozito

Big Picture Big Sound

The film's more than a little bit tounge-in-cheek, and the constant winking at the audience could tire for some. For me, I just kicked back and enjoyed the ride, one far more literate than most shoot 'em ups your'e like to to come across any time soon.

June 21, 2007 Full Review

Jason Gorber

Film Scouts

A good time for folks who like Raymond Chandler novels and action movies with a quirky side.

October 9, 2006 Full Review

Forrest Hartman

Reno Gazette-Journal

It's the laugh-a-minute repartee of this odd couple that drives the movie far more than the ridiculously overly complicated plot.

September 28, 2006 Full Review | Comment (1)

John Wrathall

Sight and Sound

Violent, caustic, funny and rather deliberately derivative of the Tarantino school of wink-wink nudge-nudge filmmaking.

July 14, 2006 Full Review

Dan Jardine

Cinemania

Goes for [snarky postmodernism] immediately, then, to my surprise, deftly pulls it off.

June 24, 2006 Full Review | Comment (1)

Jeffrey Chen

Window to the Movies

• 1. Gay Perry: Is that it?
  2. Harry Lockhart: No, that's the other corpse from the last guy who stayed here.
  – Submitted by Frances H (7 months ago)
• 1. Gay Perry: Go. sleep badly. any questions, hesitate to call.
  2. Harry Lockhart: Bad.
  3. Gay Perry: Excuse me?
  4. Harry Lockhart: Bad. Sleep bad. Otherwise it seems like the mechanism that allows you to sleep...
  5. Gay Perry: What, fuckhead? Badly's an adverb. Who taught you grammar? Get out.
  – Submitted by Frances H (7 months ago)
• 1. Harmony Faith Lane: It's like the city can't get enough of messing with people. Like putting a woopie cushion on the seat of an electric chair.
  – Submitted by Frances H (7 months ago)
• 1. Harry Lockhart: I'm retired. I invented dice.
  – Submitted by Frances H (7 months ago)
• 1. Harry Lockhart: My name's Harry Lockhart. I'll be your narrator. Welcome to L.A.
  – Submitted by Frances H (7 months ago)
• 1. Harry Lockhart: It's hard to believe it was just last Christmas the me and Harmony changed the world. And we didn't mean to.
  – Submitted by Frances H (7 months ago)