The Retina Assassin (Mr Hat’s film review column)
Kiss kiss bang bang ****
I hate going to the movies with Mr Hat, I have to create a distraction so he can sneak into the cinema and I always end spending the night in jail (t-bone ill see you next Friday).
Mr hat decided to start his film review section with Shane Black’s directorial debut kiss kiss bang bang. KKBB proves Godard right when he said, “all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun” Its not the first time that Black explores sex and violence. These are recurring themes in most of his scripts like lethal weapon; the last Boy Scout and The long kiss good night. And he is not trying to be subtle about it. The tagline of the movie reads: Sex, Murder, Mystery, Welcome to the party. (Take away the mystery and it sounds like Mr Hats kind of party all right). According to Mr Hat the Movie delivers, Big Time.
Small time crook turned actor Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr plays the character, with charm to burn) moves to L.A. to prepare for an Audition and Partners with detective Gay Perry (they call him that cos he is gay) for “role research” until of course they get involved in a real murder investigation and Hilarity ensues. Val Kilmer plays Gay Perry and Mr hat had no idea he could be that funny…. on purpose (remember when he played batman?) Serious change of pace. Gay jokes aside, and trust me there are plenty of those, the dialogue is witty, smartassy, and self-aware and obviously tailor made for Downey Jr.
The Jokes play very well (Mr Hat almost chokes on his Mix of M&M’s and Popcorn) but there is a downside to this, the hardcore laughing doesn’t help you follow a plot that’s pretty dense to begin with. The plot revolves around Harry’s High school sweat hart, her sister getting Killed and one of Gay Perry’s clients being involved in all this……a frickin Tangle if you ask me .Mr Hat’s advice don’t worry too much about the plot just let go and enjoy the ride.
The movie is divided in 5 chapters each chapter taking its name from a Raymond Chandler novel. Paying homage where homage is due.
Harry narrates the movie from the start and according to Mr Hat this maybe one of the greatest narrations of the history of film (of course Mr hat doesn’t know crap about the history of film). This movie is in limited release right now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to expand into a lot of other theatres so if you are a Shane Black/Val Kilmer/Robert Downey jr fan (he hast been this great since Wonder boys) you MUST CHECK IT OUT!! (Mr Hat says: There are also some Boobies). Mr hat liked the movie so much he is giving it 4 hats out of 5.
