Last night we finally got around to watching a movie that had been in our house forever. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stars Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan in a bizarre murder mystery that has great twists, awesome turns, more than a little humour, and a gimmicky narrative reminiscent of “Ferris Beuller's Day Off”. This is one of those movies that if any piece of it was off it would be an utter failure. I watched the entire thing waiting for the sucking to begin, and it never did.
Downey Jr. plays the role of Harry Lockhart, a thief with a heart of gold who accidentally becomes an actor. Val Kilmer plays a detective who is hired to teach Downey Jr. how to act like a detective. Michelle Monaghan is a struggling actress, and all of them are thrown together in this wacky story.
The narration is awesome, it's self-aware but never cute. Director Shane Black (who previously wrote the Lethal Weapon movies as well as Last Boy Scout, and the very underrated Last Action Hero) does some very clever tricks with the way the narration is told to make it campy and yet at the same time not trite.
The film is very much a send-up to Film Noir, but it's more of an homage than a comedy, and while the situations are funny on occasion, there's a good mix of drama to the story. The murder mystery is awesome with tons of twists and tricks, and just when you think you've got it all figured out, another nugget of information is dropped in your lap and you realize you don't know Jack.
This is an awesome movie, and gets my highest recommendation.