Scribblerchick's Movie Dish

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

A few months ago, I ordered a film from Netflix that I had heard about, but never saw an ad for in the theater, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [KKBB]. It stars Robert Downey Jr. and it's not only as good as Iron Man, it's better in a lot of ways.

It's got incredibly funny writing, interesting visuals, and it's fast-paced. It was probably low budget, and sometimes the scenes feel that way, but that doesn't distract from the film's great qualites.

Here's a confession. I decided to write my tiny review here after reading a much better on here. If you click on that you also get to watch video clips which I, being a computer idiot, cannot reproduce here.

The only big detractor for me, as a parent, was the amount of cussing in the film. There was also some nudity, but nothing major.

I hate politically correct warnings about films. I hate "parents' guides" to films. I just find them silly. I don't want to read something like "Entertaining, but children under 5 might find the sight of a woman's naked behind too much, and the frequent use of the word 'piss' is distracting." Oh puh-leeze.

However, in the interest of fairness, I have to say: If you are the average, typical, politically-correct yuppie parent you will probably be horrified and pissed off at me if you show KKBB to any child under 16.

If you are a religious conservative do NOT see this film.

If you don't fall into either of those categories, rent KKBB. It's a smart, funny film. 

Iron Man

I've been watching Robert Downey, Jr. with great interest for many years, always intrigued by his ability to be both a movie star and an actor.

By "Movie star" I mean he has that indefinable quality that compels you to want to watch whatever he does on film, like Gary Cooper or John Wayne. Those titans were "stars" in every good sense of the word, but they were not actor's actors. When John Wayne played a character he was John Wayne, no matter what his name was in the film. [My favorite John Wayne film is The Quiet Man, however, and he was more of a character then, and deserves full credit for it.]

Then there are actor's actors like Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino. They become their characters.

Robert Downey Jr., [RD for short, because I don't want to keep typing that long name]  has staged a renaissance for himself in Iron Man, and it's impressive. He manages to combine elements of his usual wisecracking, self-deprecatory characters [see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for a terrific, funny view of that] with the action hero genre, and he makes it work.

Tony Stark, the character RD plays in Iron Man, is a fascinating combination of Hugh Hefner and Bill Gates - a playboy genius, a high tech weapons designer. He goes to Afghanistan to show the military a nifty new missile and gets kidnapped. He builds the iron suit to escape. I didn't like Tony Start, but I didn't dislike him, either. I fully expected to dislike him, because I knew ahead of time the basic plot, and I was wary of the political references.

It's interesting to see how RD shakes up the typical action here stereotype. Like Batman's Bruce Wayne, Stark is a millionaire. He's not that smooth though - several times in the film he is seen inventing his iron man suit and glitches cause him to get bounced around and break things a lot, looking very un-cool. He also has embarrassing encounters with former lovers whose names he can't recall. 

The one thing I didn't like about the Stark character is that he's not very likable. He does nothing to be likable. He's just on his little ego tripping ride, really. He talks about a change of heart borne out of his captivity, but we don't see much of that. He's still rude to his assistant, and thoughtless when it comes to his old friends. I don't think genius or money are good substitutes for manners.

Gwyneth Paltrow is a suprise. I am amazed she took on the girl sidekick part in this film. She is such an excellent actress that she nearly yanks the film away from RD when she's onscreen. The one thing I hated, though, was her wardrobe, particularly the final action sequence in which she is wearing 3 inch spike heels. I kept waiting for her to fall on her ass, because in a life-threatening situation with a giant robot, any normal woman WOULD fall right down in those idiotic shoes. I'd like to see her in a pair of Crocs, acting more like a Princess Fiona than a bimbo.

Jeff Bridges has always been a favorite actor of mine, and he gets the chance to play a complex role here. I won't spoil it, but it's a doozy. He is always fun to watch. Here he is playing against type, in that his character is not in any way easygoing.

My children loved the film, of course. There are lots of cool effects and they didn't notice the subtle political messages.

I hate politics so I won't get into a rant here, but the subtle message seems to be that in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, the American soldiers who use the big bad weapons are the bad guys. Since I have a brother actually in Iraq at the moment, I resent that implication. However, given the liberal mindset of Hollyweird, it doesn't surprise me.

I sensed when I was watching Iron Man that RD has a tiger by the tail, and he's going to hang on for dear life and probably have fun doing it. I fully expect to see several sequels. I certainly hope they don't make the military out to be horrible, though, and exploit that angle. Besides being offensive to me, it's trite and unimaginative.

My favorite RD movie will probably always be Chaplin, and I will show my kids that film again one day, so they can see a full portrait of a real man.

Mr. Woodcock

I saw the previews for this film and I thought it looked interesting - a quirky little movie about a kid who grows up and watches his widowed mother get involved with his sadistic former gym teacher. Cool. I once had a sadistic gym teacher. Didn't we all? This movie fell flat on its face, though.

Maybe my expectations were too high. Billy Bob Thornton plays the gym teacher, and he usually chooses good roles in intelligent films. Susan Sarandon is also in it, as the mom, and she, too, usually picks good material. I guess everyone screws up once in a while.

This movie wasn't sure what it wanted to be. It looks like a little indie film, done in a small town in Nebraska. No flashy special effects. Yet, Billy Bob and Sarandon are major "stars." The problem is, it didn't have the slickness of Hollywood, BUT it didn't have the cleverness or uniqueness of most indie films [the ones I've seen that were any good, anyway].

Is Mr. Woodcock  a comedy or a drama? Or a "dramedy"? I don't know. I laughed out loud only about 4 times. My kids laughed out loud maybe once.

WARNING - THIS CONTAINS A SPOILER!

I so WANTED to see John, the main character, exact revenge on Woodcock. The audience is set up for that from the beginning. After all, John was personally brutalized by Woodcock as a child. There's no payoff, though. [In a Hollywood film, there would be a what the writers call a "payoff" scene - where a character gets what's coming to them.] No such scene in this film.

No, instead of a payoff, the film goes all mushy. It's about John making peace with the fact his mother is marrying Woodcock. Instead of getting her away from the monster, he caves in. I wanted him to sit down and patiently explain to her all of the awful things Woodcock did to him as a chubby, unathletic child. I wanted him to tell his Mother how Woodcock hit kids in the testicles, made them run until they collapsed, etc. There's one scene that LOOKS like it's going to go there, then doesn't.

Woodcock is a one-dimensional character, only getting 1% nicer by film's end. I hated to see John's mother with him. I wanted to see him beaten to a pulp and run out of town.

No wonder this came out and quickly died. I was hoping to watch it and discover an overlooked gem of a movie. Instead, I felt like I'd just wasted my time.