Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Sometimes you just have to revisit an old favorite, and tonight I loaded up the old DVD player with this little sleeper from 2005, to share with a friend and love all over again. I readily admit that Robert Downey, Jr. is an actor that I'd love to hate for being the poster child of the inequalities of our justice system ( if he were a poor black boy from LA he'd be doing life for all those little indiscretions,) but he's just so damn talented. But I digress.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a gleeful little bit of film noir, cheesy detective novel fun, complete with that annoying voice over narration - only this annoying voice over is Downey doing his best deadpan, mile a minute stream of consciousness. Harry Lockhart (Downey) is a two-bit crook who falls into a Hollywood screen test complete with detective training from real PI Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer.) Van Shrike is slick, tough as nails and very, very gay. Enter lovely damsel in distress Harmony (Michelle Monaghan,) Harry's high school crush, add a reappearing dead girl, and let the mayhem begin.

This is the sort of comedy to relish - with great memorable lines and every hackneyed trick in the book. Harry backtracks and talks to the audience constantly so we're all in on the joke, the story is told in labeled vignettes. The humor is black and there's lots of moments that might offend, but it's all done with such evil glee and the boys are having SO much fun. If you make it past the peeing on the corpse scene without laughing out loud, check your pulse. Visit the equally cheesy website here.