A good movie

For many people, this is the movie with which Robert Downey Jr. really made his comeback. The other interesting feature about this flick was the fact that it was Shane Black’s directing debut. Shane Black was once in the 90’s one of the most expensive screenwriters (he wrote among other things ‘Lethal Weapon’ at only 26 years old). Anyway, even though this movie was barely seen when it was released, it still managed to become a cult classic so I was really eager to check it out. Eventually, I thought it was indeed pretty good but I was still not completely blown away by the whole thing. First of all, Downey Jr. got (deservedly) a lot of credit for his performance in this picture but we shouldn’t forget Val Kilmer who was just as brilliant and, together, they made hands-down one of the best couples I have ever seen. Michelle Monaghan, in her break through performance, was really good as well. Furthermore, the dialogues were quite hilarious, something expected from Shane Black, and the intro was very strong. So, why wasn’t I completely sold? In my opinion, the story was pretty far-fetched. I mean, since it is a neo-noir, it is not surprising that the whole thing was far-fetched since a film noir is not about the plot but above all about the mood. Still, towards the end, when they started to explain the whole thing, not only was it difficult to follow but above all, I really had a hard time to care about the damned thing. Still, most of it was very entertaining and it remains a solid flick, no doubt about it. To conclude, even though I don’t think it is really that great, it remains a pretty good neo-noir feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

7/10