When I came across a movie that had the honor of being directed by the same man who brought us the "Lethal Weapon" franchise (Shane Black), I jumped at the opportunity to see it. Those were the ultimate buddy flicks, successfully combining crime, drama and action like had never been done before. It turns out he did it again. Enter "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang".
Robert Downey Jr. plays Harry Lockhart, a failed actor, failed crook and failed detective who finds himself in LA. He happens upon a sticky situation that gets out of control quickly. His stint in the city of angels escalates from bad to worse much faster than he would have hoped.
Downey's unwilling partner in this is Val Kilmer who is yet another asset to this movie. As usual, he's coming across as a smug, wisecracker in this role. It's what he does best. He and Downey work extremely well together with seemingly perfect comedic timing.
The crime drama portion of this piece is a little flimsy. As with the "Lethal Weapon" flicks, there are some actions scenes here that are so improbable that they add moments of unintentional comedy. It doesn't matter though because the overall humor of the movie allows you to overlook the few action sequence flaws.
Downey doing periodic narration throughout was a nice touch. Despite what shortcomings he's had outside of acting, his work has been on point ever sine "Less Than Zero". A team composed of him, Black and Kilmer has now proved you'll get more bang for your buck.
My rating: A-

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Posted by: air max shoes | 17 December 2010 at 01:53 AM