Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Petty thief, but basically decent guy, Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.), stumbles into an audition for a Hollywood detective story while escaping the police. Whisked off to L.A. Harry is teamed up with tough-guy private eye, Perry van Shrike (Val Kilmer), aka Gay Perry, who is supposed to help him prepare for his screen test.
Suddenly bodies are turning up everywhere and people are trying to kill them as they become embroiled in a real-life murder mystery.
This is clearly a film that everyone involved threw themselves into. Downey Jr. is fantastic as the hero and narrator, a twitchy, cynical but basically wide eyed petty thief caught WAY out of his depth. He spends a proportion of the film wandering around with a severed finger and trying to figure out what's going on.
Kilmer as the Gay Private Detective is cutting and brutal without resorting to camp or stereotypes - unless of course you actually know many LA queens, in which case he has it on the money.
Shane Black, the writer of the Lethal Weapon films, The Last Boy Scout and The Long Kiss Goodbye, has made his debut as writer/director in this film. He uses every bit of cheekiness in directing the film, winding back, interrupting scenes when Harry gets things out of order.
This was a movie that I knew little about and had next to no expectations of - and I really loved it. Its smart, funny, cynical post-modern take on the Detective genre and its a laugh out loud rollarcoaster ride.
