Review of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) by Nick O — 04 May 2013

Can you respect a movie that verbally does all the thinking for you? Or do you begrudge it for getting to have all the fun of getting to connect its own dots? Not when things come as quick and fierce as "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" -- like everyone's image of Hollywood, it loves you and leaves you, in Robert Downey Jr.

's thief-turned-actor's quippy, self-aware, perfectly bitter narration. It's one thing to keep referencing movies past and the absurdity of showbiz and, in turn, life itself, and to be all "Sunset Boulevard"-y haunted by it, but like Tarantino and last year's sorely underrated "Seven Psychopaths", "KKBB" is a movie jolted by it, a winning slice of "Chinatown" deceit infused with black wit, electricity and excitement.