Review of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a very interesting movie. There's quite alot of violence and isn't particularly for the faint hearted. Its definitely got elements of parody and its interesting how the main character, Harry, also narrates over some of the movie, as he introduces himself as being the narrator at the start of the movie. The narration accounts for some of the parody, with pokes at movies like Robocop as well as a prody of a beer commercial, present in some of the things that happen during the movie, this movie does poke a bit of fun at other such movies and about LA or Hollywood itself in a way, though its all rather subtle and is more of a thriller or crime drama than it is a comedy.

The story felt to me to be a bit all over the place and pretty confusing at times but its all quite intriguing too. The movie is set in LA and its all rather dark, of course, with quite a few characters to find out about and so on.

What happens, as the movie goes on and the two main characters end up in a worse and worse situation, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Harry, although really I don't know that I should feel sorry for him, being a thief and all! but he does have a certain charm about himself I suppose.

I think if the movie was much longer then I would have lost interest but it isn't overly long, luckily, though as it is I will admit I struggled a bit. I will also admit that I was a bit distracted with other things but I did watch most of it and remember it fairly well. For those that take it entirely seriously and are hoping for something overly realistic, you (most likely) really won't like the ending, as the narrator himself indicates (which is a good touch, like I said already the narrator adds that extra parody factor to it, thats something a bit different and I thought was cleverly done). I suppose its difficult to know quite what audience would entirely enjoy it but I still felt it was a pretty well-made movie. Its the fact that it isn't entirely a comedy or spoof/parody but if you are only interested in it in terms of being a solid story, then where the parody elements come in and particularly the ending, that, you might feel, is a bit of a put off, perhaps.

Robert Downey Jnr. and Val Kilmer both do well in their roles, giving what I thought were pretty realistic performances, even if the whole movie has a bit of a surreal feeling to it, they do quite well. This is somewhat of a modern film noir, in terms of being a murder mystery type crime drama/thriller and I like the fact that it does have a parody element to itself.

It is pretty fast paced and isn't particularly boring at any one point and so keeps you pretty interested throughout, though I did feel that the story is a bit complicated and you will have to concentrate quite a bit to keep up with it, this isn't really a 'leave your brain behind' movie, if you know what I mean! still, its entertaining and amusing in parts, with a decent cast and decent performances, with an interesting story and the narration and parody elements adding something different to similar movies I believe, if this is the sort of movie that you enjoy then I'd say, give it a go. Just be aware that the parody element is there. You may find the ending annoying but others might find it quite funny, I guess it all depends and I don't want to give it away by explaining what happens, so I suppose it depends but as long as you know to expect that parody element and can embrace that, then you should really quite enjoy it.