Even though it basically foundered in theatrical release, the 2005 comedic thriller Kiss Kiss Bang Bang marked a notable career comeback for stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer. Downey’s years of drug problems had left him close-to-unemployable for a while, and Kilmer had a reputation for being difficult to work with that made him quite unpopular with many of his prior directors and co-stars. (Kilmer had also recently come off a few major box office disasters, including The Island of Doctor Moreau, Red Planet, and Oliver Stone’s historical epic Alexander. I happen to like the latter, but pretty much no one else does.)
Both actors were in need of a hit at that moment. While they didn’t get one, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang scored many positive reviews from critics and word-of-mouth from those viewers who made the effort to see it. The film then became something of a sleeper success on home video. Downey capitalized on that goodwill and launched into a major career resurgence within a couple years. Although Kilmer wasn’t quite fortunate enough to land a lucrative Marvel contract or eventual Oscar (and was sadly sidelined with health issues later on), this movie was a big step in rehabilitating his image through the rest of his life, up to his untimely death last week.
| Title: | Kiss Kiss Bang Bang |
| Year of Release: | 2005 |
| Director: | Shane Black |
| Watched On: | HD DVD |
| Also Available On: | HD Blu-ray Various VOD rental and purchase platforms |
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang also marked the directorial debut for Shane Black, screenwriter of the original Lethal Weapon and a popular script doctor in Hollywood circles who’d done last-minute rewriting work (sometimes credited, sometimes not) on films including Predator, The Hunt for Red October, and Last Action Hero. Very loosely based on a 1941 pulp novel originally called Bodies Are Where You Find Them, Black’s choice of new title was a direct reference to the James Bond franchise, whose famed character had once jokingly been dubbed “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” by an Italian journalist.
The movie version of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has some kissing and some shooting, but decidedly stays more in the lane of detective mystery than international espionage. Downey stars as Harry Lockhart, a small-time Los Angeles thief who inadvertently gets mistaken as an actor and winds up cast (or at least used as a negotiating pawn during casting) for an upcoming detective movie. Kilmer plays Perry van Shrike, a private investigator who consults for Hollywood studios and is hired to train Harry how to behave like a real P.I. in a convincing fashion. Perry was given the potentially demeaning nickname “Gay Perry” because… well, because he’s gay… but he decided to own it and often makes sarcastic, self-deprecating jokes about his own sexuality.
As part of his training, Harry tags along with Perry on what should be a simple surveillance job, but turns out to be a much more complex mystery involving murder, blackmail, and mistaken identity. Wrapped up in all this is Harmony Lane (Michelle Monaghan), an aspiring actress and former childhood friend of Harry’s. Harmony happens to have an obsession with old pulp detective novels whose stories strangely mirror and may in fact play an indirect role in the one unfolding before them.
Designed as a calling card to become a filmmaker in his own right and not just a fixer for others who’d take the lion’s share of glory, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is an undiluted expression of Shane Black’s voice as a writer. The script is filled with witty dialogue and character banter, as well as many meta fourth-wall-breaking references to the movie business and this particular story’s own obvious trappings as a piece of fiction. The twist-heavy plot is convoluted in a way that would never work in reality, but is a lot of fun for an audience to attempt to decipher in a movie.
Recognizing both its cleverness and its potential for their careers, Downey and Kilmer are very engaged with the material and operate at their peak magnetism as movie stars. Kilmer, especially, is funny as hell with his deadpan and sharp-tongued delivery of Black’s dialogue. In an early breakout role of her own, Michelle Monaghan is radiant as Downey’s love interest and maybe/maybe-not femme fatale.
Looking back at it for the first time in a while, I’m not sure how to feel about the movie’s many gay jokes. Most of them are delivered by a character who’s supposed to be gay and acknowledges their offensiveness in an effort to defuse the homophobia. However, as a viewer, I full well know that both screenwriter Black and actor Kilmer are actually straight men. I’m left feeling that, aside from the pun of the character’s name, this entire aspect of the script serves little purpose and has aged poorly.
In other respects, fortunately, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang remains a fun and funny noir-ish thriller and a very appealing showcase for its stars, who elevated the material and were elevated by it.
The HD DVD
At the start of the High-Definition Format War back in 2006, Warner Bros. (one of the few studios neutral in that conflict) released Kiss Kiss Bang Bang as an early title to both the Blu-ray and competing HD DVD formats. I purchased a copy of the latter, and was pretty impressed with its picture quality by the standards of the time. A lot of progress has occurred to the world of home video since then, but not for this particular movie, which has never been remastered nor reissued in the meantime. It’s not even currently available on any subscription streaming platforms as I write this, just VOD rental and purchase outlets.
For this viewing, I pulled out the old HD DVD with some trepidation. I still own a player, but rarely have cause to watch anything on the format anymore. Physical media fans have no doubt heard recent horror stories about Warner Bros. DVDs and HD DVDs from that time period experiencing widespread failure rates. If some sources were to be believed, every single disc Warner released back then is 100% guaranteed to be rotted and unplayable today, no exceptions under any circumstances. Period. End of story. Don’t even try them. Just throw them directly into the trash.
Even if you don’t entirely buy into that fear-mongering, the copy of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I own is a Combo format disc, with HD DVD one one side and regular DVD on the other. Those were notorious all along for having problematic playback on most compatible players.
With all that in mind, I put my copy of the disc into my HD DVD player fully expecting it to be a coaster. However, at some point along the way, I participated in a “Disc to Digital” upgrade program and wound up also owning a streaming copy of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in my digital library. Rediscovering that came as a relief. Should the HD DVD fail (which it undoubtedly would, I felt sure), I knew I’d have a backup ready to watch without having to spend any additional money.
As it turns out, the HD DVD – Combo disc and all – still plays fine for me. I watched the movie start to finish, no problems whatsoever. I wish I could say the same for a few much more recent 4K Ultra HD discs I’ve bought.
On the other hand, the HD DVD launches with a very annoying format promo trailer and then jumps to auto-playing the movie with no main menu screen. I kind of hate that.
Per the studio’s practice at the time, I assume that the Blu-ray edition of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang comes from the same 1080p master as the HD DVD, if not the exact same VC-1 encode. Watching it again a couple decades later, the disc’s video quality is still acceptable, though not exactly stunning. The 2.39:1 image is rather soft, with weak resolution of fine details and little to no visible film grain texture. Colors lack depth, and incur occasional banding artifacts. Made at the height of the teal-and-orange fad, the movie’s photography is also awfully teal throughout, of which I’m not a fan.
After finishing the HD DVD, I pulled up my digital copy on Fandango at Home (VUDU) and was very disappointed to find the film presented in the wrong aspect ratio, with a full-screen 16:9 transfer that has extra image on the top and bottom (more on the bottom) and a little cropped from the sides. Thankfully, accessing the title through Movies Anywhere instead restores the correct aspect ratio. The 2.39:1 version looks much better balanced to my eye. Other picture quality attributes of the streaming copies are roughly comparable to the HD DVD, perhaps a little worse due to extra compression.
The movie’s soundtrack is encoded in Dolby Digital+ 5.1 format on the HD DVD, or regular Dolby Digital 5.1 on streaming. They sound about the same. The mix has sporadic moments of nice bassy thump during gunshots and other loud moments, but I’ll be honest that I find John Ottman’s musical score here pretty dull and monotonous.
Bonus features on the HD DVD (or comparable Blu-ray) are sparse. Stars Val Kilmer and Robert Downey, Jr. join writer/director Shane Black for an audio commentary. Other than that, all we get are a lame gag reel and a trailer.
Related
- Val Kilmer
- Michelle Monaghan
- Shane Black
Note: All screenshots on this page were taken from digital streaming editions of the film captured via a web browser and are used for illustration purposes only.
The Video File Blog 
A firecracker of a movie that just hasn’t aged well for the reasons you mentioned. We watched it again recently and enjoyed -most of it. But I can’t recommend it to my gen-Z kids.Clearly you need to cover The Nice Guys in an upcoming review. I had to watch that a second time to decide if I actually liked it (I did).
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