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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

kerraig UK

By kerraig UK,
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kerraig UK

kerraig UK

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Hey there.

I also loved it. It wasnt quite as..."amazing" as I was expecting. I think I built it up to be something it could never live up to in my mind...

But on the whole I thought it was great. Funny, sick, nasty, cool and fucking insane at points.

I hope Black doesnt leave it too long before he makes another movie. I hear this flick did nothing in the US.. But it was made for a smallish budget. So Maybe it will do well on dvd..

I'm gonna go watch it again this week.

Despin out.

I'm glad you liked it. i reckon with repeated viewing it will grow into the film you built it up to be in your mind. i watched it again and it was even better 2nd time round. At no point do i find it too clever. its just really clever, and smart, and funny, and exciting.

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kerraig UK

kerraig UK

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SPOILERS BELOW:

i mean, just run over it in your mind, theres SO much material in there

"Dont quit your gay job!"

the bit with the dog and the finger

the guy at the party "Don't think, just walk away"

Native American Joe pesci

Russian Roulette

The $2000 gun in the lake

The definition of stupid

etc etc etc

Pretty much every minute if the film is chock full of stuff.

And Flicka is too too fit

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11 Herbs 'n' Spices

11 Herbs 'n' Spices

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I enjoyed it but felt that some bits, while obviously poking fun at the ridiculous nature of movies, still felt somewhat... cliched.

The dog eating the finger for example, we've seen that a million times before. Now obviously the film knows this and is constantly breaking the fourth wall with knowing nods, nudges and winks to the audience but that part in particular felt lazy.

Saying that I did enjoy it a lot (just not as much as I'd thought). I wouldn't go as far to call this film of the year as some have but it's in my top ten at least. There's some cracking lines in there e.g. the reference to Drew Barrymore's love of Grunge :)

I don't get why Last Action Hero is so heavily criticised though, even now when it's essentially to action movies what Kiss, Kiss.. is to the pulp crime genre.

I'll definitely be watching Kiss, Kiss again and like kerraig says, I'm sure it'll be more enjoyable without such high expectations.

I would have liked to have seen more of Gay Perry, I was under the impression when going in that they'd get equal screen time so was a little bit disappointed when he wasn't about so much.

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K

K

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I liked the film a lot (and was pleasantly surprised that it's actually a pretty good date film), but I would have liked the bad guys to be a bit more tangible- the only people Perry and Harry really come up against are faceless goons. The main bad guy hardly appears at all, which I thought was a shame- Shane Black films normally have such brilliant baddies- ("Well unfortunately Ms Baltimore, I can't think of a way to fake killing six thousand people. So I guess we're going to have to do it for real." or "Continue dying. Out" spring to mind). Corbin Bernsen seemed a bit underdeveloped.

Still, it was absurdly funny, fast moving, and engaging, and probably one of the best films I've seen this year, so that's just nit picking.

Incidentally, anyone know what the film-within-a-film was that Corbin Bernsen was seen in? I presume it's a real film, anyway.

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kerraig UK

kerraig UK

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Last action hero rules.

My only complaint with kiss kiss was the torture scene. When will writers realise that in order for us to relate to the pain of a torture scene we need to have some frame of reference. Thats why marathon Man is so well remembered, cos we've all been to the dentist.

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K

K

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I suppose that's why the torture scene in Payback works so well (or at least, it makes you wince throughout)- everybody's stubbed their toes at some point.

Still, I liked the way Harry was walking around like John Wayne afterwards- that was a nice touch.

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Distinct muttering

Distinct muttering

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What was crap about the story?

Low life loser comes to hollywood and helps foil an L.A. murder mystery and win the love of his life in the process. i think thats a great story

It just felt really contrived. Although from comments here maybe it was meant to be contrived in a knowing way?

All the funny stuff felt like a bunch of ideas that could of been put in any film. The russian roulette scene etc.

Im gonna hold fire on my final judgement until I see it again.

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11 Herbs 'n' Spices

11 Herbs 'n' Spices

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It just felt really contrived.  Although from comments here maybe it was meant to be contrived in a knowing way?

All the funny stuff felt like a bunch of ideas that could of been put in any film.  The russian roulette scene etc.

Im gonna hold fire on my final judgement until I see it again.

I wouldn't go as far to call it a crap story but you're right, it's definitely contrived and I think it is knowingly so.

It almost plays 'Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free' card because it is unashamedly contrived but it knows it so can't be accused of it. Let's put the heroine in a sexy Santa outfit. Why? Because we can. Any questioning of the film's logic can be answered with "It's a movie". To question it would take away from the fun, which is probably why I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have done on first viewing. In hindsight, I've come to realise a few things. From the moment we accept Downey Jr narrating the film as if he is watching it with us (the rewinding, the self deprecating wit, the referring to inappropriately placed extras), we should accept the film will offer us a bunch of situations, characters and locations that ordinarily would be totally out of place and take us out of the movie. With Kiss Kiss... we are already taken out of the movie as it were because it doesn't pretend to be anything else.

This device could easily be construed as a cheap one and in someone else's hands, it probably would be but Black manages to pull it off, even if it does edge dangerously close to smugness at times. It's a device I wouldn't want to see used too often – part of the fun of watching movies is to become immersed in the story and characters after all – but used sparingly, it makes for some great entertainment.

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kerraig UK

kerraig UK

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Great post there 11 herbs. I agree 100%. Too often and it would make the true art of movies redundant, but as a fairly unique singular movie it works wonderfully. Its almost like a screenwriting lesson. its like "ok, we know our movie is cliched and unoriginal. In fact, we're even going to point out the flaws for you". And in doing so it becomes a refreshing and fun ride with tonnes of knowing humour.

it plays almost like a rllmuk thread about a movie

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11 Herbs 'n' Spices

11 Herbs 'n' Spices

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Great post there 11 herbs. I agree 100%. Too often and it would make the true art of movies redundant, but as a fairly unique singular movie it works wonderfully. Its almost like a screenwriting lesson. its like "ok, we know our movie is cliched and unoriginal. In fact, we're even going to point out the flaws for you". And in doing so it becomes a refreshing and fun ride with tonnes of knowing humour.

it plays almost like a rllmuk thread about a movie

Cheers fella.

And yeah, the "flaws" don't feel like they are there due to laziness, more a spin on Hollywood convention.

Know what you mean about RLLMUK: The Movie, especially after the cliche thread. A mate of mine and I are always saying we should write a script but are so devoid of ideas, we come up with the most cliche ridden script ever. Funniely enough, this month's Empire has a feature on movie cliches.

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V3zna

V3zna

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Watched this tonight. The raport between Downey Jnr and Kilmer was immense and they had some side splitting scenes together. Also loved the narrator style start with rewinds etc. It all kind of ran out of steam 2/3rds of the way through with a slightly over complicated story. Not a classic noir by any stretch of the imagination but a damn good way to spend 1hr 40 minutes.

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V3zna

V3zna

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I'd say its an absolute bona fide classic noir. i reckon it'll take its place alongside Last Seduction and L.A. Confidential as the best of the new generation of noir.

I don't think all the pieces slotted in logically enough to be considered a classic. A classic noir should leave you gobsmacked when it all comes together but this didn't for me.

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MDK

MDK

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Saw this last night, cracking film, made me laugh much more than I imagined it would. Full of quality lines. I'm so gonna watch it again today and I don't think I've ever watched a film two days in a row.

Funny enough I got the impression it was a action film with comedy bits when I first heard about it, not sure how that happened. Oh yeah, Robert Downey Jr needs to do more films also. He does the George Clooney type roles really well.

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Goose

Goose

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Fuckin' loved it! The dialogue was absolutely spot on, Downey & Kilmer couldn't have been more pitch perfect if they tried. Even the throwaway lines where brilliant.

I'll admit to watching a screener of the movie (will become a full purchase) and every 15 mins the film went black and white for about 20 seconds or so. My wife turned to me and said "the funny thing is, this works just as well, if not better, in black and white!" :P

Damn enjoyable and highly recommended. Loved the scene at the party with Downey talking tough.....

Didn't realise until the end that Shannyn Sossamon was in the movie as the red haired girl. She must have taken a fall from grace, she was the female lead in Knights Tale, Rules of Attraction and 40 Days & 40 Nights, then playing a non-named little dialogue role in this.

Pure genius

Harry Lockhart: Don't worry, I saw Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to end this 17 times.

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11 Herbs 'n' Spices

11 Herbs 'n' Spices

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Didn't realise until the end that Shannyn Sossamon was in the movie as the red haired girl. She must have taken a fall from grace, she was the female lead in Knights Tale, Rules of Attraction and 40 Days & 40 Nights, then playing a non-named little dialogue role in this.

Hardly. It's not the first time an established actor has taken a small, barely existent role in a movie, particulary if the director is someone who is well respected. For example, Liv Tyler features in U-Turn for all of 12 seconds and barely says a word. I really doubt she or Sossamon are struggling for the work.

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holly

holly

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I saw this last night and really enjoyed it, very entertaining, but I couldn't make out about a third of the dialogue either. Maybe it's just our telly? Did anyone else have this problem? Frustrating cos I thought the stuff I could hear was very funny...

the cast are absolutely spot on. And it has possibly the funniest scene of any movie i've seen this year. you'll know it straight away.

Was it the first scene (the magician)? My favourite scene in the whole film :lol:

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Fierce Poodle

Fierce Poodle

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I enjoyed it, but couldn't help but feel that it was a little bit too clever for its own good. Towards the end, the whole self-referencing, post-modern thing was starting to grate slightly.

As for the (ridiculously convoluted) story, I didn't even bother trying to follow it, just sat back and enjoyed the banter between the main characters. Which was probably the point.

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Strawp

Strawp

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I watched this last Thursday. I was getting steadily more drunk throughout the evening and was talking through a lot of it but it's clearly a brilliant film. I may watch it again this week.

I loved all the self-referencial stuff in it, the knowing humour about Hollywood like the "Mexican Billy Bob Thornton" bits in the bar and the chatty narrative. The end shootout scene is simultaneous one of the clumsiest and most graceful I've seen in any film ever. It's like John Woo after a night out on the piss.

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