Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Not too much has been going on lately. Megan and I have been trying to get the house winterized. Just stuff like draining the sprinkler system, clearing out another 30 bags of leaves, and cleaning out the gutters. Now, up until a little over a week a go, I had never had the pleasure of climbing around on a roof and digging decomposing black muck out of gutters, but let me tell you it was blast. For anyone who took that last sentence seriously, I suggest looking up the word sarcasm. Anyhow, the experience was made even better by Megan "supervising" my rooftop excursion and encouraging me by constantly shouting motivational phrases up at me like: "Don't fall!"

No shit. Thanks Megan, I don't what I would have done had you not been out there reminding me.

Anyhow, I did have a couple of free hours on Sunday, so I decided to check out Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang with Saldi. I'm sure that several of you are wondering why I didn't see the new Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. Well, as much as I wanted to see Walk, I knew that Megan REALLY wants to see it as well, and that she had no interest in Kiss Kiss, so there you go. Also, I had been reading about it for some time and was interested, but my interest was really piqued after Ain't It Cool News ran an article urging it's readers to see it, as it was dying at the box office. And it wasn't dying because it isn't worth seeing, but because for whatever reason, it hadn't really found an audience. So, since I'm usually in the demographic that actually likes things that can't seem to find an audience (i.e. Arrested Development and Scrubs), I decided to check it out. Man, was I glad I did, too. It's been far too long since I had that much fun at a movie.

Kiss, Kiss something of a satire/homage/satire to old hardboiled detective novels like the ones Raymond Chandler wrote. In a wink to the audience, the movie even features a fictional series of detective novels about a P.I. named Johnny Gosammer, which inform the actions of the characters and often foreshadow events in the movie. And don't worry, the movie is witty enough to be laugh out loud funny even if you've never read a detective novel or seen a movie based on one. In fact, it's sort of like Scream, in that you can enjoy it on it's own, but the experience is definitely enhanced by knowledge of the source material. Interestingly enough, most reviewers seem to have missed this entirely. Most reviews I've read consider Kiss a satire of buddy cop/action movies, but whatever.

The plot of the movie is a little hard to explain, as it's a winding story with twists and turns like any good detective yarn. Basically, it centers around a small-time thief name Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey, Jr.) who, while on the run from police, stumbles into a movie audition and wows the producers with his "method acting." He's subsequently flown out to L.A. for a screen test and is sent on a ride-along with Perry Van Shrike (Val Kilmer) AKA "Gay Perry", so he can learn how to be a detective. Naturally, they get involved in a big mystery and hilarity ensues.

Anyhow, it's great. The performances are great all around, including Michelle Monaghan as the love interest. The dialogue is great. And despite being a satire, the mystery is even great. Hell, it's even got boobs! What else do you want? Go see it already!