Bang Bang You're Dead

Chris Orr has the dual talents of being both an accurate predictor of my cinematic taste and a fantastic writer. He’s always entertaining and insightful, and on the rare occasion in which I disagree with him, it’s usually for what he omits, not for something he gets outright wrong. He’s so persuasive, in fact, that when I do see him offer up an alternative view on a movie, I have to pause for a moment to recheck my original thoughts.

But when it comes to the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the action/crime spoof by Lethal Weapon creator Shane Black, it seems that Orr approves of just about everything I dislike. His primary argument—that the film is best taken as a collection of great scenes—is almost convincing. Taken individually, there are indeed some great scenes: the morose, drunken robot falling off the balcony; the poolside introductory sequence; pretty much any scene with Val Kilmer. But the problem is that these disparate elements just don’t work together. The contrasts of tone between grisly violence, semi-heartfelt cinematic emotionalism, and snarky ironic posturing are too jarring, and Black makes no attempt to weave them into a coherent whole. Orr, of course, sees this as a virtue:

Yet for all the wisecrackery and in-jokes, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is true enough to its hard-boiled origins that it never plays as mere spoof. The death of Harmony's sister, the way Harry's sexual gallantry is sometimes indiscernible from misogyny, the quiet suggestion that some people may have compromised themselves too much ever to be made whole again--all of these echo the pitiless tone of Chandler and his successors.

After this, he claims that star Robert Downey Jr. “seamlessly integrates the sweet and sour in Black’s script,” which is true in a sense. Downey’s performance is remarkably even, but even his charming, hyperactive slacker shtick can't tie the entire film together. Black’s ideas are interesting, but he has no knack for consistency, and thus, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang comes off as an uneven patchwork of too many ideas going in too many directions.