This year’s meme is, “It’s not Christmas until Hans Gruber falls off Nakatomi Plaza”, so no need to rehash why Die Hard is a great Christmas movie.  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a Christmas movie that gets overlooked.

In 2005, after Ally McBeal and before Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr, was Harry Lockhart. 

Lockhart is a petty thief who was evading the cops when he stumbles into an audition for an acting role in a detective series.  When the casting director is impressed with him, he gets invited to a posh Hollywood party.  It’s a Christmas miracle.

At the party, he meets Gay Perry played by Val Kilmer.  Perry is a glitzy private eye who is to help prep him for his upcoming acting job as a detective.  They meet Faith Harmony Lane, played by Michelle Monaghan.  Lane is an attractive and sassy struggling actress who stumbled into real trouble.

Lockhart and Perry find that helping Lane isn’t as easy as they’d assumed. 

It holds up as a crime/detective/thriller, with good action, humor and an attractive cast.  As a street-smart thief, posing as an actor, working as a private eye, Robert Downey Jr is his usual witty, spontaneous, occasionally baffled, but capable self.  Val Kilmer acts as superficial and cynical as the celebrities and Hollywood big wigs he usually works for, but he is more capable than he lets on.  Michelle Monaghan is a damsel in distress, but not a helpless starlet.

It’s a fun movie.  I’d give it an 8 out of 10, and worth the four bucks it costs to watch it on Amazon Prime or Apple TV.