Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang

An actor who is studying his craft while wingman’ing a gay detective for tips on his next character, finds himself in the middle of a murder plot that starts with one angle, but ultimately, develops several of them, many of which he fleshes out with the help of a hot woman, whom he used to know as a child. A great title and worthy experiment ensues…

As seen at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival

This film starts off with a very groovy credit sequence, keeps things going with an original voice-over narration that makes it all feel fresh again, appears to be headed into the creative side of filmmaking, but ultimately gets a little too clever for its own good, features one too many murders in a plotline that isn’t all that interesting, but is validated with Black’s trademark hip dialogue, original set pieces and good actors. Val Kilmer, in particular, is having a lot of fun here, playing a detective character nicknamed “Gay Perry” (get it, “Gay Paris”?) who doesn’t mind using words like “faggot” and the like. Kilmer doesn’t play him as your typical over-the-top flamboyant homosexual man, but does create an original, funny character. And speaking of funny, I guess that was another one of my issues with the film, as it definitely has plenty of humor in it (some of its one-liners are sure to become classics, while others might take a couple of viewings to even “get”), but it also features a number of murders and violence, and doesn’t necessarily balance the two all that well. Balancing humor and drama is tough even for vets in the biz, but seeing as this was Black’s directorial debut, it must’ve been an even tougher task to fulfill for the rookie. I also had a problem with the so-called “relationship” that’s developed between Robert Downey Jr.’s character and the one played by Michelle Monaghan (who is quite hot, by the way, and let’s us know by dropping down to her skivvies at some point, and prancing around in a Santa outfit in others…ho-ho-ho, indeed). Basically, I didn’t buy it and I didn’t particularly care for either person or the two together.

Downey Jr. was great in his role, particularly as the self-effacing narrator, who acknowledges himself as being the narrator, and even stops and rewinds the movie for us every now and again (his introduction to the story is also a great one). A fun technique. In fact, the film seemed to start and end with more of those types of cinematic “gags”, but in between, it just sorta got bogged down in its own story that really wasn’t all that interesting or engaging. The film’s final frames were particularly inspired, on the other hand, with a couple of the characters completely acknowledging the audience, and having a lot of fun with that and contrivances of the genre. In fact, some of the film reminded me of LAST ACTION HERO. I only wish there had been more of that, and less of the goofy plotline which I honestly stopped paying attention to after a while. I really wanted to like this movie so much more. I loved its title, I’ve always enjoyed Black’s humor and dialogue, some of the situations were clever, but overall (particularly at the 2-hour runtime at which I saw it), it just felt a little too intricate and plot-twisty for its own good, with not enough investment in its characters, or the storyline, for me to care, the whole way through. That said, it’s still a ton more original than most films coming out nowadays, so I’d still slightly recommend it in theaters for anyone who enjoys film noir, dark humor, groovy dialogue and murder, murder, murder.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian