It’s not often that I come here and gush about a movie. In fact, most times when I do a movie “review” (c’mon, we all know they aren’t REVIEWS so much as me stating my brief opinion about a movie) I say something like ‘It was okay – didn’t hate it, didn’t love it. It was mildly entertaining,” and then I give it 2 1/2 to 3 stars and move on.
But with “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop gushing about how great it was. The movie starred Robert Downey Jr. (who also wrote the script) and Val Kilmer in a noirish murder mystery/comedy. Downey plays a petty thief from NYC who, while escaping the cops, accidently ends up in a movie audition and is sent to Hollywood as the Next Big Thing.
Now, I’ve complained before about movies that are so self-referential as to become cloying and boring. And “KKBB” does the same thing but in such a way that I loved it. Maybe it’s because “KKBB” had such an independent feel to it despite the great casting and hilarious writing.
Run out and rent this movie, or zip it to the top of your Netflix list. You will NOT be disappointed.
4 narrators out of five.
That’s my husband’s blog – he’s a way better writer than I am….
Do you ever give a movie 5 out of 5? I’m not sure we like the same kind of movies, so I’d be interested in knowing which movies you’d rate the highest!
Thanks.
hey jennifer, thanks for commenting! Yes, I’ve given movies five out of five. I don’t have it anymore but I used to have a page set up specifically to show my movie ratings. I also just flipped back through about a year’s worth of movie reviews and have given a lot of 4s and 4 1/2s. The only true fives I can think of off the top of my head is the Lord of the Rings trilogy and a few classic movies like West Side Story, My Fair Lady and Mame (the Rosalind Russell version). Others I can think of are Das Boot, Finding Nemo, Unforgiven, and Arthur. I’ll see if I can find that old movie rating page and let you know some other 5 star movies that I liked.
Thanks, Jaynee. My favorite movie from the past year or so is “In Her Shoes” – it’s about two sisters and their love/hate relationship.
Congrats on your move to SC – I’m a little jealous! It was very brave of you! I’m in the DC area – maybe not quite as hectic as NJ, but still pretty hectic… maybe some day we’ll make our departure. =)
I read and loved the book “In Her Shoes” – in fact, the author Jennifer Weiner’s blog is in my blogroll (it’s called SnarkSpot).