|
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen
|
|
| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Kiss Kiss Bang Bang |
|---|
Petty thief Harry Lockhart (Downey) is on the run from the cops when he stumbles into an audition for a Hollywood movie. The producer thinks he's terrific and whisks him off to Southern Cal and teams Harry with a real private detective, Perry Van Shrike (Kilmer) to learn the ropes before his big screen test. Perry is gay and a sharp dresser, so he's known by everybody as "Gay Perry."
Harry runs into a girl he had a crush on back in Ohio, Harmony Lane (Monaghan), who's a not-very-successful actress in LA. Harmony is upset when her younger sister turns up dead, an apparent suicide, and in trying to impress her, Harry pretends to be a detective and tells her he'll look into it. But then Harry and Perry witness a car fly into a lake, and it turns out to have another woman's body in the trunk. Some very large men try, very painfully, to convince Harry to leave the case and go back to New York.
This 2005 film written and directed by Shane Black is a burlesque of film noir and pulp detective novels.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
|
| Analysis of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang |
|---|
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about
books by breaking them down into many different literary
elements, all of which are searchable (click here). |
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 40%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
How difficult to spot villain?
- Challenging
Time/Era of Movie:
- present (2000-2010)
Murder Mystery?
Yes
What % of story relates directly
to the mystery, not the subplot?
- 80%
Murders of set profession?
- actors
Kind of mystery?
- amateur citizen investigator
Romance
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- criminal
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric:
Yes
- deluded
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Unclothed?
- Chest
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Female
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (woman) medium/shoulderlgn wavy
Body type
- ample bosom & buttocks (woman)
Unclothed?
- buttocks and chest
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- businessman, small
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Body type
- average (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
City:
- Los Angeles
- dangerous
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- full of laughter
How many deaths in film?
- 4-8
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- kissing
- seeing breasts
- seeing nude female butt
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 2 (a little)
Kind of violence:
- guns
Unusual forms of death
- perforation--bullets
Any profanity?
- A lot of foul language
|
|
Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 David Loftus
SCHOLARS:
|
|
Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
|
