Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I wonder what the purpose of my life is. I wonder what my purpose in this world is. I wonder what the purpose of most of the components inside my computer is. I do not wonder what the purpose of a movie trailer is. The purpose of a movie trailer is to make me want to buy a few scanty hours in the theatre with a given film.

This trailer does not do that.

This trailer highlights some jokes that aren’t all that funny, and some characters that aren’t all that lively, and some plot points that seem both tired and unrelated. I notice that by the end of this trailer, it seems to have forgotten the initial device: a small time crook accidentally gets cast in a movie. If the voice-over (dreadful, incidentally) were to address that, it may sound something like this:

“Harry was a small time crook….who got cast in a movie and then did some other things that were totally unrelated to this initial plot hook.”

Based on other things I’d seen and heard about Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I was under the impression that it was going to be a fairly likable film. I was looking forward to it. This trailer heaps some evidence on the “crap pile,” so to speak.

Of course there are some comical explosions and accidental deaths, all things we should expect from “the creator of Lethal Weapon and The Long Kiss Goodnight.” Shane Black, it would seem, finds high comedy in unlikely pairings with tragic results.

Ultimately, this just feels like a retread of the things he did in the Lethal Weapon movies (of which there were four, in case anyone reading this wants to compile them for a weekend film fest that will start funny and end tragically). [As an aside, anyone looking to define the phrase “phoning it in” needs only to watch Lethal Weapon 4] You have two characters who are put together in difficult circumstances and yell at/punch each other ‘til the problem is solved. Sounds like Americana to me.

Trailer (Apple)