After about a half-hour it became very clear to me that Black had no real idea what his story was and didn't particularly care to find out.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:142
Fresh:118
Rotten:24
Average Rating:7.3/10
Consensus: Tongue-in-cheek satire blends well with entertaining action and spot-on performances in this dark, eclectic neo-noir homage.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, violence and sexuality/nudity.
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Oct 21, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $4,235,837
Synopsis: Harry Lockhart (ROBERT DOWNEY JR.) is basically a decent guy. Sure, he's a petty thief who skates through life on a shaky cocktail of dog-eared charm and cockeyed optimism, but he wants to do the... Harry Lockhart (ROBERT DOWNEY JR.) is basically a decent guy. Sure, he's a petty thief who skates through life on a shaky cocktail of dog-eared charm and cockeyed optimism, but he wants to do the right thing. He just doesn't know how, exactly. Harry's perpetual bad luck takes a turn for the better when he and his partner are doing some after-hours Christmas "shopping" at a New York City toy store and the security alarm breaks up the party. (Yeah, it sounds like trouble, but keep reading.) In making his frantic getaway from the cops, Harry inadvertently stumbles into an audition for a Hollywood detective movie, and faster than you can say Jack Robinson, the producer flies him to Los Angeles for a screen test. Thrust into the cutthroat world of L.A.'s pros, cons, losers and wannabes, Harry is teamed with tough-guy private eye Perry van Shrike (VAL KILMER), AKA "Gay Perry," to prepare him for his screen test. Gay Perry is ruthless, relentlessly tough and - you guessed it - gay. He also has little patience for Harry, who tries out his acting skills by passing himself off as a detective. It seems like nothing short of destiny when the thief-trying- to-be-an-actor- impersonating-a-detective crosses paths with Harmony Faith Lane (MICHELLE MONAGHAN), an aspiring actress who needs his help. Inspired by her hero Jonny Gossamer, a fictitious hard-boiled private eye featured in a series of pulp detective novels, Harmony moved to Hollywood to pursue her dreams...but a few years and a lot of rejections later, she's facing the harsh reality that her best days may be behind her. When the mysterious suicide of Harmony's sister intersects with a seemingly unrelated case that Harry and Gay Perry are investigating, they suddenly find themselves embroiled in a real-life murder mystery. Bodies surface and re-surface...long-buried family secrets erupt in present-day mayhem...and what began as a free trip to L.A. may result in Harry's one-way ticket to the city morgue. If he's going to stay alive and become the hero that Harmony needs him to be, Harry will have to convince a reluctant Gay Perry to help him solve the case. He'll need to channel Jonny Gossamer's tough-as-nails swagger. And a little dose of luck - or is it fate? - wouldn't hurt, either. --© Warner Bros. [More]
Starring: Robert Downey, Michelle Monaghan, Val Kilmer, Corbin Bernsen
Starring: Robert Downey, Michelle Monaghan, Val Kilmer, Corbin Bernsen
Director: Shane Black
Director: Shane Black
Screenwriter: Shane Black
Producer: Joel Silver, Steve Richards, Carrie Morrow, Susan Levin
Composer: John Ottman
Studio: Warner Bros.
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Release:
Jun 13, 2006
Reviews for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
This is the kind of dialogue that sparks our three actors into zany life.
Put together well, and its numerous stunts and action sequences are imaginatively conceived and carried out with an original flair.
“Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” is a pulp fiction in itself with dead bodies showing up and plenty of kidnappings.
A very writerly film, incessantly displaying a preoccupation with its own storytelling structure and cheekily blowing the lid off other movies' tropes and wiles.
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a terrific one-night stand, but you may wake up, as Harry does, and wonder exactly who you slept with.
I was at first entertained but eventually exhausted by all the movie references, which become maddeningly self-congratulatory.
Nihilistic, misanthropic, and it just might hate its audience a little, but damn if it doesn't wash out as something exhilarating.
Goes for [snarky postmodernism] immediately, then, to my surprise, deftly pulls it off.
Black winds up sabotaging his own material when another director’s perspective could have successfully meshed parody with the hallucinatory underbelly of pulp fiction.
All three actors give it their all, but Monaghan stands out with a sexy yet oddly down-to-earth variation on the Midwest girl gone wrong, thanks partly to a dark dysfunctional family secret.
An occasionally funny and entertaining film that ultimately tries too hard and cannot maintain the breakneck pace that the first act antes up.
While Downey Jr. and Kilmer come through this exercise unscathed, the whole think is just too busy, too pleased with its own bratty hipness...
... a smug, self-referential blend of twisty Raymond Chandler-style mystery and "Pulp Fiction"-style spoof of same.
Latest News for Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
February 17, 2006:
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December 23, 2005:
San Diego, Vegas & Utah Critics Make Their Year-End Picks
Thanks again to MovieCityNews.com for keeping us up-to-date on all the year-end critics flick-picks. This time it's the San Diego, Las Vegas and Utah reviewers who share their... More...
December 22, 2005:
Phoenix & Toronto Critics Offer Their Year-End Favorites
It's tough to keep up with all the critics' awards being tossed out this time of year, but Movie City News sure helps out a whole lot. This time we have the year-end picks from... More...
December 16, 2005:
London Movie Critics Present Their '05 Nominations
Movie City News shares with us a press release from the London Film Critics Group in which their various nominations are announced. Keep in mind that the Brit crits use their... More...
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