Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

UK Release: 11th November 2005

Watched on DVD: Saturday 3rd - Sunday 4th March

Rating: 15

Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime 

Runtime: 1hr 43mins

Tagline: SeX. MurdEr. MyStery. Welcome to the party.

IMDb Plot Synopsis: A petty thief posing as an actor is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl and a detective who's been training him for his upcoming role... 

My Review: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one heck of a complicated film. I was intrigued to see this and after it being discussed in media class as being a good Postmodern example for our essays I went out and bought it right away. 

And... I’m glad I did. This film is much more intelligent than I’d expected and the many postmodern elements such as the jumping about in the narrative and Robert Downey Jr’s character talking directly to the audience, definitely made it fun to watch. Not only was the plot clever but so was the film medium as it uses lots of brilliant techniques that, as a big film fan, made it really funny to watch. And the banter’s great too between Downey Jr and Val Kilmer as one thing after another happens to them. You don’t think it could get any (delete as applicable) stranger/thrilling/ridiculous but, boy, it does! There are so many twists and turns it is literally impossible to predict the outcome which is great fun to watch. I adored the film noir elements to it with the sexy jazz soundtrack but if I had to pigeonhole it into a genre (which is difficult with this film) I’d put it as a crime/mystery thriller. 

I must mention Michelle Monaghan who shined as the love interest and you could feel some real chemistry there between Downey Jr and her. This wasn’t at all your typical romance as they spent most of the time screaming at one another, but it worked really well. 

Overall a fantastically put together, funny energetic film!

Score: 8/10