Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) **

There's no reason that “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” shouldn't be a perfectly delightful noir comedy, with stars like Val Kilmer and Robert Downey, Jr. Unfortunately, all that talent is wasted on a tale that doesn't really amount to much.

Downey plays Harry, a small-time thief who stumbles into an acting opportunity. He is whisked out to L.A. to rub elbows with pretty people, and there he stumbles into a murder mystery, or a pair of murder mysteries, to be precise. The first involves the daughter of a famous actor ( Corbin Bernsen). The second involves the sister of his old, schoolboy crush (Michelle Monaghan) from Indiana, whom Harry randomly runs into at one of those L.A. parties. Helping Harry sort through all these corpses is Gay Perry (Val Kilmer), a private-eye/tough-guy-for-hire, who is...you guessed it, gay. For some reason this is supposed to be hilarious. “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” is full of more gay jokes than a junior high locker room. Maybe this sort of thing was funnier in 2005.

Even with the dated gay jokes, this movie should be a good time. Kilmer and Downey are both witty as hell, and play well off each other. Michelle Monaghan is pretty as can be (although it's the typical Hollywood bullshit to cast a woman 11 years younger than Robert Downey, Jr. as his high school classmate.) The story just never earned my interest, however, and at the end of the second act, I seriously considered just popping the DVD out of the player and going to bed. It's sad when you've watched more than half of a movie, and don't really care about how it ends. I did stick around for the ending, though, and it wasn't worth it.

“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” expends tremendous effort being clever, and no effort on an interesting plot, or building characters we can care about. It tries to be a winking parody of noir cinema, with its Raymond Chandler references and pulp fiction plot, but I think it's mostly a mess. If you want a more genuine homage to the noir genre, check out another film from 2005, Rian Johnson's "Brick" or the outstanding 1973 Chandler adaptation, "The Long Goodbye".

2 stars out of 5