Remember my review of In Bruges where I commented its glorification of violence made me want to vomit? Not to mention its lovely uses of the f-bomb. Just recently, I saw its American counterpart.After stumbling into an audition while evading the police, small-time criminal Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey, Jr.) is cast in a movie and is flown off to Los Angeles. There, he meets up with private investigator "Gay" Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer) to prepare for the role. But soon, Harry is swept up in solving a real murder.
In Bruges and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang have their similarities and differences. They're similar in the sense of f-bombs; different because Kiss Kiss Bang Bang spares us the blood-filled gore that In Bruges basks in.
Downey is essentially ideal casting as the bumbling Harry. It feels like Lethal Weapon, which seems fitting since the director wrote Lethal Weapon. I kinda got a little lost in the mix, but I managed to catch up almost as fast as I lost track of what was going on.
My Rating: ****
I love Kiss Kiss. Very funny, witty film. I'm glad Black decided to direct the film himself.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of this film - I'm also a big fan of In Bruges though, and I had to go and check out your review of that film to see how you felt about it besides the violence. Glad to see you (mostly) enjoyed both
ReplyDeleteI also thought it had a really witty, darkly-edged script but I loved the performances of Downey and Kilmer, they really made it all come together.
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