Who’d-a-thunk the Geeky Guy from Predator would amount to anything more than a 2nd-rate character in an action flick? Writer and the directorial debut for Shane Black does a great take with this neo-noir detective flick, the basic fish-outta-water story under the neon lights of L.A.
New York somewhat bumbling thief Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr. [post Back to School, pre A Scanner Darkly]) gets “lucky” and escapes a robbery collar and ends up in L.A. as an “actor” to be trained for a potential movie role. Private Investigator “Gay” Perry (Val Kilmer) is hired to train him up a bit on the basics for said role, but circumstances end up presenting an old acquaintance and a lot of fuckery that plays out just like an old-timey detective novel, except with a lot more swearing, a bit of gay shit and an inquisitive dog.
This movie is pretty damn good, from the great dialogue all the way throughout to the exceptionally cute Michelle Monaghan as the kinda damsel in distress. I dunno, Harry is in a lot more distress though through most of the movie, so that’s kind of a wash, I guess. Some pretty messed up plot points (which seems requisite for a lot of these kindsa flicks, especially the West Coast ones, go figure), but some good tensiony kinda scenes throughout to make the movie fly through without being lame or boring. Director Shane Black, whose previous writing credits started with Lethal Weapon and continued with LW2, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero. Absolutely nailed it here. Nice to eventually see its brethren follow-up eleven years later with The Nice Guys. Here? Good dialogue, good murders, good black comedy. Author Donald E. Westlake would be proud.
Note: I don’t know how exactly this film got put on my radar back in the day, but I do remember actually going to see this with my brother in the theater. I’m sure it’s not because of the promotional budget. Just seemed like it would be a good one to see. And it still stands up almost 20 years later. Great jobs by all involved.
