KISS KISS BANG BANG

[romanD]

just saw KISS KIS BANG BANG at the Fantasy Film Festival. After an abyssmal year so far with only 1 or 2 really good movies (DESCENT for sure...) this one comes to the rescue. Rarely Ive seen such a clever movie, such hilarious, ingenius dialogues, great performances (if Kilmer and Downey jr don't get oscar nominations for this...) and just an overall great time... man, this movie was so fantastic I couldn't believe it while watching it. The situations are so wacky and many times Shane Black takes the usual e.g. interrogation scene and puts it upside down and gets new fresh takes on them. The russian roulette scene had me laughing for minutes!
I can't really recap the story as it is weird, complicated and in the end not important at all, it is about the characters and the situations they are in and this amazing movie shows you why Shane Black was once the highest paid writer of Hollywood. Still, I never thought he would write something so good, nor that he is a good director!

I hope it gets the success it deserves, though Im afraid it is hard to market and it doesn't really appeal to the mainstream audience (the poster art so far sucks!).

Anyway...
Pure brilliance! Don't miss it! Can't wait for the DVD...

[AndyDursin]

I saw the trailer and thought it was 1989 all over again. Downey and Kilmer top-lining a major studio film -- and from Joel Silver and Shane Black at that?

I hope it's good, and that Ottman does something with the score.

[romanD]

i thought that, too, but don't worry. It's fun right from the start, brilliant in every aspect... so many scenes where you won't stop laughing, the running gag with the finger or the body, even Elvis is in the movie...

the score is rather subtle, works well in the movie, but apart from the movie probably nothing to listen to.

[Torrance]

It's so good to see Shane Black back - truly one of the more talented writers to emerge from the late 80s despite not writing "prestige" movies, he was still one of the best action writers to have ever worked in the genre (Steve DeSouza was up there too, but the less said about his recent output the better) - I still regard The Last Boy Scout as one of the most underrated and funniest films of the 90s, per minute it has more laughs than most comedies of its era, even though it's not strictly (ok, not at all) a comedy - it's a shame that never hit it off with viewers or at the Box office (it was probably far too violent for some audiences to take, far more graphic than the likes of Lethal Weapon and Die Hard) - and The Long Kiss Goodnight, while not up to Lethal Weapon or Boy Scout standards was still damn fine viewing - from Sam Jackson's perfect delivery of Black's one-liners to the often ludicrious but fun action scenes, it was the sort of action movie that Hollywood seems to have forgotten how to make. The trailer for KISS KISS is fantastic - good to see Kilmer and Downey Jr each get a juicy role and Black gets a chance to show off his talents again - i hope it's a hit, but sadly i think it'll get lost ... as Box Office observers always say Hollywood satires rarely go down well with average viewers - but RomanD you're review has me counting down the days until it's release - it's now a must see

[MikeSkerritt]

I still regard The Last Boy Scout as one of the most underrated and funniest films of the 90s, per minute it has more laughs than most comedies of its era, even though it's not strictly (ok, not at all) a comedy - it's a shame that never hit it off with viewers or at the Box office

I feel the same way about LONG KISS GOODNIGHT.

I think Black tends to get unfairly lumped in with the brainless action crowd, and while his scripts can have their share of silly action moments, they're often well grounded, and even more often funny as hell.

LETHAL WEAPON is one of the most underrated films, of any kind, of the last 20 years.

I can't wait for KKBB.

[AndyDursin]

I still regard The Last Boy Scout as one of the most underrated and funniest films of the 90s, per minute it has more laughs than most comedies of its era, even though it's not strictly (ok, not at all) a comedy - it's a shame that never hit it off with viewers or at the Box office

I feel the same way about LONG KISS GOODNIGHT.

I think Black tends to get unfairly lumped in with the brainless action crowd, and while his scripts can have their share of silly action moments, they're often well grounded, and even more often funny as hell.

LETHAL WEAPON is one of the most underrated films, of any kind, of the last 20 years.

I can't wait for KKBB.

LONG KISS has its moments -- wears itself out near the final third, but I was pleasantly entertained by the rest of it. (As memory serves I believe I saw that movie with Lukas!).

Black gets a lot of flack because of LAST ACTION HERO. Let's face it the deal he got on that movie was one of the biggest deals ever for a screenwriter (if not THE biggest at the time)...so when the movie turned out to be a flop (and a deservedly panned one at that -- no offense Torrance), I think it really dragged his reputation down.

[MikeSkerritt]

Though it took forever to get to DC, I finally saw KKBB. What a great time. Val Kilmer proves what the studios have been missing for 20 years: He needs to do more comedy. Downey also did great work making his schlub likeable. And Michelle Monaghan, who I don't remember seeing before, more than held her own with the two guys. Even Corbin Bernsen made a nice turn. You could sense the fun everyone was having making the picture.

Sadly it seems this movie is dying. I hope it finds a new life on video, because I want to see Shane Black writing and directing again.

[AndyDursin]

Warner seems to have thrown in the towel on this movie.

That makes two -- Carroll Ballard's DUMA being the other -- releases in the last few months that have received widespread critical acclaim and WB has essentially decided to send straight to video.

Makes you wonder why they ever bothered to produce the films to begin with, if they didn't have the confidence in the projects (apparently because they lack major A-ticket stars) to give them a full release.

[MikeSkerritt]

Makes you wonder why they ever bothered to produce the films to begin with, if they didn't have the confidence in the projects (apparently because they lack major A-ticket stars) to give them a full release.

In KKBB's case it was because of Joel Silver. When he and Black started developing the film the decision came to either make a $90 million picture with someone like Harrison Ford (ugh) or make a $20 million picture with whomever they want, without studio interference. Silver and Black (now THERE'S a production house name!) decided to go for the cheaper, less interactive route, to make the movie they wanted to make. Silver's made a LOT of money for WB over the years and basically has carte blanche on "little" projects like this. But I definitely wonder why WB didn't put more of a push behind it when they saw what they had. It's a great film worthy of an audience. I'm guessing it had more with how to market it, because it contains aspects of so many different genres. Which is crap, since they could have pushed the buddy film aspects and sold it as an action comedy. Alas, rather than throwing their weight around it seems like they decided to forego marketing altogether.

This'll just be one of those movies I have to show to everyone when they come over.