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Dom Robinson reviews
Warner Home Video
- Cert:
- Cat.no: D 058671
- Running time: 98 minutes
- Year: 2005
- Pressing: 2006
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 29 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English (plus hearing impaired), Hebrew
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £18.99
- Extras: Audio descriptive track
Director:
- Shane Black
DVD: 
HD-DVD:
Blu-Ray:
Producer:
- Joel Silver
Screenplay:
- Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Last Action Hero, The Last Boy Scout, Lethal Weapon, The Long Kiss Goodnight, The Monster Squad)
Music:
- John Ottman
Cast :
- Harry Lockhart: Robert Downey Jr
Gay Perry: Val Kilmer
Harmony Faith Lane: Michelle Monaghan
Harlan Dexter: Corbin Bernsen
Dabney Shaw: Larry Miller
Mr Frying Pan: Dash Mihok
Mr Fire: Rockmond Dunbar
Pink Hair Girl: Shannyn Sossamon
Flicka: Angela Lindvall
Protocop: Chris Gilman
Once thing we’re informed of early on in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is that the narration comes from the lead character Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr), although it’s done in a less-than-conventional style which sets the lackadaisical tone this movie follows from start to finish.
Harry is rather an accidental actor. Thanks to an altercation I’ll leave you to discover, Harry’s either going to end up in custody or on his way to Hollywood. His agent, Dabney Shaw (Larry Miller), hires him to play the part of a private eye in a new movie and for the purpose of method acting, he’ll tag along with a real life detective, Perry Van Shrike, aka Gay Perry (Val Kilmer).
At a party, hosted by Hollywood mogul Harlan Dexter (Corbin Bernsen), he meets aspiring actress Harmony (Michelle Monaghan) and is smitten, but the meeting that involves this trio is one that starts off a chain of events involving murder, double-crossing, a girl with pink hair (A Knight’s Tale‘s Shannyn Sossamon) and a finger getting cut off, much to the dismay of its owner.
Beginning with a scene of Harry as a young boy, pretending to be a magician and doing the old standard of the “sawing a lady in half” circus trick, part of his story when he comes to be an adult is seeing Harmony and her reminding him of the girl he knew at school but never managed to date, while she has her own short back-story which involves being addicted to old Jonny Gossamer detective novels where each story had to seemingly-unconnected cases that fused together by the end and also leaving her sister back in her home town, claiming she’ll come back for her later once she makes it big in Hollywood.
In a story that’s told day-by-day, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is complex and quite entertaining while it’s on, keeping your attention for the full duration, but it isn’t gripping and won’t leave a lasting memory in your brain. It tries to be ‘knowing’ but just comes across, ultimately, as ludricous and forgettable, including scenes such as those where we learn Harry has kids he hardly sees, but despite the journey his character goes through, there’s little here to connect with the situation when looking back on it.
There are good, if not career-challenging, performances from all the cast members. Robert Downey Jr is his usual, likeable self while Val Kilmer looked set to be an A-list star after a performance as Jim Morrison in 1991’s The Doors, but then threw it away by appearing in tripe like Batman Forever and 1997’s movie version of The Saint, but this film looks set to putting him back a road that will make sure he can’t ruin a film again.
Michelle Monaghan looks hot in this film and certainly looks to be one to watch as she handles herself well in what is practically a lead role. Strangely, the cover of the DVD shows her smoking but not at all in the film, even though Downey Jr does frequently. I wonder what prompted that?
Larry Miller and Corbin Bernsen fulfil their roles without complaint and Rockmond Dunbar, as one of two henchmen, Mr Fire, has a noteable presence because he also currently stars in tense drama Prison Break as escaped convict C-Note.
The film is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen with few problems to the print, and looking good but not particularly outstanding throughout. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundmix has a couple of moments that utilise split-surround sound while the rest is merely standard fare so it certainly will not be one to use as a demo disc.
There are subtitles in English and Hebrew only, plus a ‘hard of hearing’ version for the former. The disc contains 29 chapters which is a good amount for a film of this length, but once you load up this disc, you have to go through four pages of language selections to choose “UK”! This is then followed by one of those stupid ‘anti piracy’ trailers which, thankfully, can be skipped through but do you really need that once you’ve bought the damn DVD?
Then, you STILL don’t get to the film as you get a 2.35:1 letterboxed trailer for V for Vendetta before finally arriving at the actual menu, which shows clips from the film amongst the meagre options of languages, scene selections and ‘play movie’. Wot – no extras? No – unless you count an audio descriptive track that runs throughout the film, which I don’t.
Don’t be fooled by the retail price stated above. Although companies like Warner are trying to add an extra quid or two onto the RRP of a DVD, give it a bit of time and the prices drop like a stone. At the time of writing, just a few months after release, this one’s down to costing just under a fiver, so if you like the actors in this film it’s certainly worth a purchase.
That said, anyone with money to burn might like to know that as Christmas approaches Warner are releasing this in both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats, more info on which can be accessed at the links above.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
0 OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.