Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Some movies don't try to be anything but entertaining. Usually, these movies are base and retarded. Other movies try to be intellectual and witty. Usually, these movies are snobby, and suck ass. But, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an exception, because it attempts to be both kinds of movies while managing to not suck or be retarded, but actually very funny and enjoyable.


Robert Downey Jr., aside from being brutally attractive, always impresses me. Drugs and personal scandals aside, he's always fun to watch, even in that crappy movie from like ten years ago with Meg Ryan where they like spy on each other and fall in love and shit. How he manages to play a "regular guy" is beyond me, but he does it here.

Also, genius casting of Val Kilmer as the straight man (who's actually gay, but you know what I mean). Paunchy and hilarious, my favorite combo.

I tend to hate things that are this self-referential, with a narrator who is aware that he's narrating a film about himself, but in this movie, it works. I won't say that this film has any lasting power, but why should it? Like the pulpy detective novels it's modeled after; Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is quick and satisfying.