| Back with a 'Bang'
The credits of “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” are a list of former Hollywood locomotives that are now more like little engines that could. Shane Black, who is responsible for the “Lethal Weapon” franchise, directed; Robert Downey Jr. plays the lovable screw-up crook turned actor; Corbin Bernsen is the not-quite-what-he-seems villain; and Val Kilmer is the gay straight man, appropriately named Gay Perry. “I’ve just made a lot of small movies in the last several years and I’m no longer the primary reason a movie gets made,” says Kilmer, seeming content to be a working actor somewhere between superstar and has-been. He leans back in his chair and clasps his hands. His top three buttons are unbuttoned. At 45, he seems comfortable with his place in Hollywood, and pleased with his latest film. “I haven’t done a comedy in so long, and I’ve wanted to,” he says. “One of the catch 22 rules (in Hollywood) is that you can’t be in a comedy unless you were just in a comedy.” It’s been 20 years since Kilmer’s debut in the comedy cult classic “Top Secret,” and that hardly qualifies as recently. “I’d be very happy to do five more comedies in a row now,” he says. Comedy is also new territory for Shane Black. Yeah, “Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang” has the trademark action of all his other films with gun-toting dudes on the covers of the DVD boxes, but with a sense of irreverence that was never evident before. Not only does Downey, as the narrator constantly break the fourth wall with his snarky comments, but Abraham Lincoln has a cameo. “I wanted to have fun with all the various genres that I love,” says Black. “I wanted to do a romantic comedy, but I wanted to combine it with a more edgy detective thriller.” One aspect that makes the romantic portion thrilling is leading lady Michelle Monaghan. As the struggling actress Harmony Faith Lane, she dazzles like a young Laura San Giacomo. Combined with the rest, she's enough to make even a former tough guy like Kilmer go soft. “Shane, Michelle and Robert are really good people and I just feel good being around them and I think that chemistry is very evident in the film,” says Kilmer. Back |
 Val Kilmer stars as Gay Perry in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang." |