Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: Arty. Noir. Sick. Surreal.

O.k., I gotta stop reading those advertising blurbs they write on netflix and stick with my gut. I like my movies as straight up stories. Kiss Kiss indulged in talking with the viewer and pulling little tricks like rewinding the film and messing around in general. It annoyed me as did the story. We engage in an improbable tale of the seamy side of Hollywood (as if it's anything but) as told in an old fashiondey, pulp fiction kind of way. There's murder, fistfights, booze and broads. It's very tongue-in-cheek and Robert Downey Jr. is convincing in his twitchy, alcohol-gulping way. Val Kilmer plays a gay private investigator but is not convincing in his gayness. He says the words but his eyes don't say he loves men. He could also use some slimming down although his man-shaper helped. Sorry, Val.

There's also a quirky beautiful woman sidekick named Harmony is who is embroiled in the drama. She is annoying. The bad guys aren't afraid to bat a woman around and she takes her lumps. I almost shut the movie off ten times or so but having it sit on my shelf for three weeks guilted me into finishing it.

Kiss Kiss was a movie that was way more clever than I. It's half a send up of old-style noir films and a serious story. The twists were sometimes sick, such as the door-slamming incident, and the love story tinny. Unless you're a serious movie buff who likes to be titillated by clever directors I would skip this one.