I was lucky enough to catch Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang in the theater during its all-to-short run. I’ve been waiting impatiently for the DVD ever since. Watching the movie the first time really caught me off guard and it’s just as pleasantly surprising on the small screen at home. I originally got excited due to the extreme lack of publicity that this “secret” Val Kilmer flick was getting. Kilmer’s low-key projects seem to be some of his best work. Remember The Salton Sea? What I didn’t expect was to be blown away by an awesome story, incredibly fun (and funny!) dialogue, and fantastic performances by Kilmer, Robert Downey Jr., and a pre-MI:3 Michelle Monaghan.

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is a murder mystery in the best old-fashioned, pulp detective story sense possible. Taking that into consideration, I naturally can’t give away too much of the plot here. It should be sufficient, however, to say a few things. A guy makes his living as a petty thief on the east coast. One night, a job goes bad and he gets chased by cops. During the chase, he decides to duck into a building and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a movie audition. The thief aces the audition and immediately gets whisked away to the west coast to become a big star. The studio execs assign him to shadow one of L.A.’s finest private detectives to research his new part. After witnessing a murder, the detective, the struggling actress, and the thief (who’s pretending to be an actor who’s pretending to be a detective) must solve the mystery or they’ll end up dead.

Confused? I wouldn’t blame you. The “movie, within a movie, within a movie, wrapped in an enigma” would be incredibly hard to keep track of without the superb narration by Robert Downey Jr. as the thief. Not only does the narration provide the glue that holds this convoluted story together, its exceptionally witty asides are the cherry on top of the delicious sundae that is Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang. It seems that Hollywood in general has become too afraid to use narration as a storytelling device these days. A good narration provided by one of the film’s main protagonists can be a great source for inside information about the character’s thoughts and motivations. I think it’s a terrible shame that this device isn’t used more often, but perhaps it is that very rarity which creates such a pleasant surprise when it is used.