Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an under-appreciated gem: Shane Black is the master of Hollywood hard-boiled and this movie shows his love for the genre - a girl addicted to pulp crime stories, an unreliable narrator, verbose goons taking turns to beat up the anti-hero… even the chapter format employed uses Raymond Chandler book titles (The Lady in the Lake, The Simple Art of Murder, etc).
It marked the return of Robert Downey Jr, perfectly cast as a petty thief drawn into a typically labrynthine intrigue. There’s so much to like, you can forgive its indulgencies (that beer commercial, or the brief cameo by Abraham Lincoln, anyone?).
The movie also taught me to keep my hands off the frame if someone’s about to slam the door in my face. If you’ve seen it, you’ll know what I mean.
Oh, and there’s this killer title sequence…
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