kiss kiss bang bang

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a 2005 crime film/comedy. It is based in part on the novel Bodies Are Where You Find Them by Brett Halliday. The screenplay was written by Shane Black who also directed the film. It was produced by Joel Silver, Carrie Morrow, Susan Levin and Steve Richards. The cast includes Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan as well as Corbin Bernsen, Dash Mihok, Larry Miller, Rockmond Dunbar, Shannyn Sossamon and Angela Lindvall.

It was filmed in Los Angeles between February 24 and May 3, 2004. After debuting at the Cannes Film Festival in France on May 14, it received a limited release in cinemas in late October and early November of 2005.

• Tagline: A bad week in a tough town
• Sex. Murder. Mystery. Welcome to the party.

Plot

The movie is narrated by small-time crook Harry Lockhart, played by Robert Downey Jr. Harry is self-aware and talks to the audience at various times through the movie. (See also the theatre concept of the fourth wall and metafiction). In the final scene, Lockhart and Gay Perry, played by Val Kilmer, speak to the camera; the latter says that the Best Boy is "someone's nephew".

Harry finds himself caught up in an acting audition by mistake when he is running away from police after a failed robbery. Posing as an actor, he is brought to Hollywood for an audition, where he meets private-eye Gay Perry, who is there to aid Harry in research for his role in the movie.

Harry is introduced to Hollywood parties and meets his childhood dream-girl, Harmony Lane (played by Michelle Monaghan), who in fact, back in high school, had sex with everyone but Harry. The story sees all three finding themselves involved in murder cases similar to the detective stories which Harry and Harmony grew up reading.

Cast

Reception

Critical

The film was significantly praised but, due to its limited release, was overlooked for major awards and was voted "Overlooked Film of the Year" by the 2005 Phoenix Film Critics Society on December 20, 2005.

Many critics admired the film for its sharp and clever comedy, as well as alluding to Black's directing and Downey Jr. and Kilmer's performances. Mike Russell of the Portland Oregonian observed that, "This is one of Downey's most enjoyable performances, and one of Kilmer's funniest. It's a relationship comedy wrapped in sharp talk and gunplay, a triumphant comeback for Black, and one of the year's best movies".^[1] Jeff Otto, an IGN critic, wrote that "It takes a bunch of genres and twists them into a blender, a pop relic that still feels current...one of the best times I've had at the movies this year."^[2]

Box office

Despite the film's mainly positive reviews, it failed to garner much attention at the United States or international box office.

The film opened on October 20 in the United States, with a limited release. From its release until mid-November, the film's distribution increased every weekend due to its favourable critical reviews. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang stayed in release in the United States until early January.^[3] The film earned a total of $4,243,756^[4] in the United States.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang grossed far more outside the United States, accounting for just over 70% of the film's worldwide gross, accumulating $11,357,375.^[4] The film ended up earning $15,601,131^[4] worldwide.

Trivia

• The title is a reference to James Bond, who was dubbed "Mr. Kiss-Kiss, Bang-Bang" by an Italian journalist in 1962. It is also a phrase uttered by Robert Downey Jr. in 2003's The Singing Detective.
• The film was originally titled You'll Never Die in This Town Again
• The working title of the film was LA, P.I.
• The best boy on the film was a man named Jack Bauer.
• In the scene where Protocop breaks into Harmony's apartment, she's wielding a bat inscribed "Wonder Girl", a reference to the famous movie The Natural, starring Robert Redford. Redford's bat, carved from a tree struck by lightning, was named "Wonder Boy".
• Gay Perry's name is a play on the phrase "Gay Paris" (pronounced peh-REE).
• Gay Perry's name also bears resemblance to Hall of Fame MLB pitcher Gaylord Perry.
• The voice of the Genaro's Bear is an uncredited Laurence Fishburne. Producer Joel Silver's connections to Fishburne were the source of him lending his voice to the character.
• The actor who plays the NYC audition cop (Bill McAdams, Jr.) later appears as an entering bar patron in the scene where Harry reconnects with Harmony in Los Angeles.
• The actress who has allegedly been fucked more times than she's had hot meals appears in the Genaro's Beer commercial at the end of the film.
• On the DVD commentary, Val Kilmer stated that his website will run a contest to see how many name drops he gives in the commentary. He wasn't exactly sure what the winner would receive as a prize, but later says "maybe... like, 500 bucks" followed by a chuckle.
• At the end of the DVD commentary, Shane Black mentions that he would like to make another film with Val Kilmer and Robert Downey Jr. in these roles, to which Kilmer and Downey both reply that they are willing.
• Richard Grieco makes a brief cameo appearance.
• The "titles" of each of the days in the movie are also titles of classic works of Raymond Chandler: the short story Trouble is My Business; the novels The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister and Farewell, My Lovely; and the essay The Simple Art of Murder.

Goofs

• In the van, Harmony refers to the body in the casket as Veronica's body. In reality, that was the "ringer" or Pink Hair Girl, Mia Fry (Shannyn Sossamon).
• When the casket with the Pink Hair Girl flies from the van, it's trajectory and speed would make it impossible to be stuck on top of the road sign.

Notes

Links

• Official Site (Warner Bros.)
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at the Internet Movie Database
• Kiss Kiss Bang Bang at Rotten Tomatoes
• List of films that break the fourth wall