R0BTRAIN's Bad Ass Cinema: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

A few weeks ago, my column revolved around The Last Boy Scout.While I was actually watching the movie just because I was desperate to watch everything even remotely associated with the Die Hard films, I ended up rediscovering my fondness for the work of Shane Black. Black, who Action fans may only remember for his most famous starring role as Hawkins, the first of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s commandos to fall victim to the alien menace in Predator, is a screen writer with a particular gift for cracking wise in his dialogue. With film’s such as the first two Lethal Weapon movies, The Long Kiss Goodnight and the aforementioned Last Boy Scout to his credit, Black has amassed a resume of Action films that have made us laugh with their dark wit as much as they’ve thrilled us with their ridiculous action scenes.

Just this week, I re-watched a movie co-written by Black that I hadn’t seen in decades, and I was shocked as to just how good the dialogue still was. Back when I was a kid, I loved Monster Squad after I saw it on HBO, and while the makeup and the general fun of the flick is just as good as it ever was, its astounding that a film from that period could contain the amount of off-color humor that it does. From peeping at women to some of the most profane teenagers ever in a PG-13 movie, the picture has a real life to it that many of the period just simply don’t, and a lot of that has to do with Black’s writing.

Now Black hasn’t always had winners, as The Last Boy Scout is an awesome guilty pleasure, but didn’t exactly set the world on fire, and the writer also has Last Action Hero on his resume, which could really only be considered a guilty pleasure at best. On the other hand, the man is just so gifted at looking at some of the harshest points of reality and somehow making us laugh at it, that it makes one wonder why he hadn’t been offered more directing jobs. This becomes even more puzzling when watching Black’s first foray behind the camera in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a hysterically funny Buddy Comedy/Action/Adventure/Private Investigative Thriller that may not have found its place in theaters, but hopefully will find its real audience on home video.


Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Starring Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, and Michelle Monaghan. Directed by Shane Black.

One of things that I really love about The Last Boy Scout is that instead of just being another Cop movie it really tries to rekindle the love for old school Private Detective movies and the Noirs of the 1940’s and 50’s, while at the same time updating the traditional formula by infusing it with Black’s penchant for looking at the seedier portions of those subjects. With Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Black was able to take this love for the works of Raymond Chandler and others even further, presenting us with a film that winks at us as it picks apart and lovingly caresses the parts of that formula that we know and love. The result is a film that is razor sharp with its wit and dialogue, but in no way feels dated or insulting to its audience.

Almost immediately Black immerses us in this pseudo-Noir world. The film’s chapter titles are even named after Raymond Chandler novels, such as Farewell, My Lovely and Trouble is my Business, and then when we’re introduced to our main character, Harry Lockhart, Black makes very good use of voiceover, which any fan of the genre would immediately recognize. Then again, Black’s use of the narration is anything but traditional.

Played by Robert Downey, Jr., Harry Lockhart is lovable, but definitely a big loser. He’s a wannabe thief with a penchant for screwing up whatever he does, but with plenty of flair. This would include his inner monologue, as Lockhart constantly references incidents and then forgets to tell you about those until later. He points out problems with the plot and hopes you’re keeping up, even if he hasn’t necessarily done his job properly. This is all part of the charm that Downey is able to convey as Harry.


Onscreen, the Harry Lockhart we see is even less confident. He makes up bad lies to women, that they’re never really impressed with, which ends up making him feel worse. Early on in the movie, protecting a woman’s honor ends up only getting him beat down for his troubles, and then he watches as the same woman walks out with the same jerk that just kicked the crap out of him. Thing is, its this unending losing streak that keeps us on Harry’s side, despite the fact that he’s not necessarily the best of guys.

What Downey and Black are able to do with this character is simply amazing and outlandish. In flashback, we learn about Lockhart’s criminal past and how during a botched robbery, he gets his partner shot. While on the run from the cops, he accidentally stumbles into a Hollywood casting call, where he reads for the part of a criminal who’s just gotten his partner killed. Harry inadvertently wows them at the audition and is flown out to L.A. to tryout for a new Hollywood production. While this would be completely ridiculous in any other film, Black’s sense of humor, complimented by a sudden burst of humanity by Downey makes the scenario completely believable.

Reminding me of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Harry’s gifts are that he’s more determined and lucky than he is smart or talented, making him a great example of a Noir character in a lot of ways. Often Hammer would just fall into situations and criminal plots, and that’s exactly what happens here. Paired with an actual Private Detective named Perry (Val Kilmer), Harry stumbles onto a murder plot, and he and Perry have to put the pieces back together to figure out whodunnit?


While Harry is a more classic Noir-ish character, Perry is the exact opposite. In a genre rife with tough guys, Perry’s actual full name in the film is Gay Perry, and Kilmer seems to be having a whale of a time playing the part. What’s funny is that in a classic Noir, being gay would have almost always made you a villain instantly, such as the implied homosexual nature of Peter Lorre’s Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon. Here Kilmer and Black turn Perry into your favorite character in the movie.

Kilmer gets virtually all of the film’s best dialogue, such as

Perry: Look up idiot in the dictionary. You know what you’ll find?
Harry: A picture of me?
Perry: No! The definition of idiot. Which you f*cking are!

or

Perry: Rule number one: this business, real life, it’s boring. Do you have to smoke?
Harry: You want me to put it out?
Perry: Yeah, soon as you find a large, brown clump of shrubs, just throw it in there.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg as far as Perry’s dialogue goes, as we get a never-ending stream of wisecracks and insults. Kilmer’s character is so much fun that you almost want him to be the main character instead, but Black wisely keeps the focus on Harry and his troubles.

This goes especially for his reunification with his long lost crush, Michelle Monaghan’s Harmony Faith Lane. As bad as Harry is with every other woman in this film, he somehow has this connection with Harmony, a connection he’s always had with this woman, though only as a confidant and never as her lover. Through this relationship with Harmony, we’re able to identify with Harry even more, as knowing how it is to want that girl that always seemed to get away.


The real star of this movie though, is Black himself. It’s the Writer/Director’s knowledge of when to stick to Noir and when to play with the formula that makes this film so enjoyable. A scene in which Harmony stands dripping wet begging Harry to help her is classic in its simplicity, but when he goes to the bathroom in the same scene and inadvertently pees on a dead body, that is all Black playing with your expectations. A scene in which Perry and Harry are tortured is very Chandler or Hammet, but I doubt that the writer of The Simple Art of Murder or The Big Sleep would have included as many gay jokes.

Then Black does us one better by not only giving us entertaining wordplay and a spirited plotline, but then throws in an absolutely insane action sequence. Featuring seemingly dozens of henchmen, a crazy car chase, narrow escapes, and Harry hanging on an overpass clinging onto the arm of a dead body, the sequence is laced with adrenaline pumping awesome and Black’s insane drollness. Robert Downey Jr. has never been as bad ass as he is in this scene, though I hope he’s able to top it by the time Iron Man rolls around.


By letting us in on the joke, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is escapist cinema at its best. The film does everything it can to entertain you by making you laugh with its second to none dialogue, and then thrilling you with its unique brand of heroics. Though it didn’t do particularly well in theaters, I hope this is not the last we see of Shane Black in the director’s chair. The man has a voice like no other in Hollywood and hopefully its one that won’t die down for a long time to come.

Picture Credits: cinema.com, impawards.com

Robert Sutton feels the most at home when he's watching some movie scumbag getting blown up, punched in the face, or kung fu'd to death, especially in that order. He's a founding writer for the movies section of Insidepulse.com, featured in his weekly column R0BTRAIN's Badass Cinema as well as a frequent reviewer of DVDs and Blu-rays. Also, he's a proud Sony fanboy, loves everything Star Wars and Superman related and hopes to someday be taken seriously by his friends and family.