A Terrific Review
You may or may not agree with Matt Zoller Seitz‘s take on Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, but regardless, I think that Seitz shows great insight on the less than thrilled perspective, making the review well worth a once over even if you disagree. To wit:
“The result is an oddly underachieving movie. Black balances mayhem and silliness so expertly that he could have taken us much further from the beaten path if he’d wanted to. But it seems he didn’t want to. Kiss Kiss is rudely amusing but never dangerous; it’s as self-aware as Hollywood action movie screenplays can get without actually being smart. The title is misleading; while there’s bang-bang galore, there’s not much sex and even less sexual chemistry. The real excitement comes from the sight of Harry and Perry and Harmony busting each other’s chops while Los Angeles explodes around them
Black still writes the smartest, most energetic dialogue in town, but curiously insists on every character getting their share fair of it. Like a symphony with just harps, it enters the head nicely but gets old fast (probably because you start to expect it).
Interestingly enough, while most filmmakers seem to have lost interest in the art of throwaway surface pleasures, be it sexual tension, raw suspense or crackling jokes, it looks to be Shane Black’s primary focus. Hey, I can respect that in a way.
KKBB is clever smart and brilliant.
Thus Warners throws it away.
I am Spam Dooley and I feed my people.
Just for the record, perfecting that Hope character is no small thing.
I disagree, while I think he does a good job I don’t think Downey does perfect it. The closest thing to the Hope character was Woody Allen in “Bananas” and especially “Love and Death”
I guess it’s a well-written review. Here’s what I don’t get, esp. coming from MSZ, who I think is one of the better reviewers out there: where is the love for a first directorial effort? Fine, Black’s been a white-hot, mega-successful writer, but that certainly doesn’t guarantee he’ll be a good director. While this movie doesn’t hit on all cylinders, it hits on most of them, and Black should be applauded for that. Sure, the plot is dense, but isn’t that a good thing? Reviewers in general bitch when the plot is formulaic, and then when someone attempts to mix it up a little, they complain it’s too hard to follow and makes no sense. Maybe the bar gets set a little higher for Black because of his previous writing success, but he still has to direct the movie. Why don’t we give him a chance to make a very good first directorial effort, before we expect his “mildly subversive commercial thriller that combines escapism with self-critique.” Of course Shane Black has commercial instincts – he wants to make another movie. Black is clearly smart, and will only grow as a director. I think that reviewers like MSZ sense this, and so they want more from him (a good thing) but they expect it too soon. Give the guy a chance to grow.
What’s best about KKBB is how Shane Blacky it feels. He’s really the only guy who could have written it. It really makes no sense in a few scenes, it totally goes for broke with the Groucho Marx comedy and it probably strives more to being likable than coherent.
For people my age it’s hard to not get a little sentimental at Black’s quasi-macho stories, and judging from your rockin’ nickname, tuck, you remember that time well.