Buy it... if you enjoyed the playfulness John Ottman's very similar Goodbye Lover and seek the composer's more instrumentally and rhythmically creative work.

Avoid it... if the lightweight nature of Ottman's parody of detective thrillers doesn't appeal to your yearning for the darker shades of Ottman's effective horror scores.

Ottman

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: (John Ottman) It's hard to describe movies in which the creation of the screenplay actually becomes part of the story on screen, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one such entry. Existing in the private eye genre and borrowing from the works of Raymond Chandler, the film is a comedic parody that doesn't necessarily want to make sense; writer Shane Black, known for his sometimes suspect writing for three of the Lethal Weapon films as well as The Long Kiss Goodnight and The Last Action Hero, directs for the first time and tells the story of this film through his primary character's narration. As as conman who moves to Los Angeles to take private eye lessons from a gay detective, solve a murder mystery, and try to win over an old flame, the characters inevitably define the nonsensical plot by simply paying tribute to guns and women (hence, the title of the movie). Whether the film was meant to make sense or not, its off-the-wall humor is a perfect match for the similarly weird humor of composer John Ottman, who by his own confession very much enjoyed writing the music for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. An inherently difficult type of film to score, Ottman approached the task from the point of view of a twisted film-noir comedy, taking a base noir sound from the wet streets of detective novels and films of yesteryear (with a dash of his contemporary Point of Origin score) and infusing some of the funk and personality of Goodbye Lover to poke fun at the wacky characters in the story. When Ottman travels down these roads, he often writes music that is innovative and enticingly fun. Such works usually have one of two things in common: the creative manipulation of a genre's stereotypical sounds, or a rhythmic pace over which Ottman constantly refreshes the thematic ideas that rely on those rhythms to continuously bounce them along. For Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, he would do both, with varying levels of success.

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Compared to his bland superhero work for Fantastic Four earlier in 2005, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a welcome return to the more intelligently subtle styles that have attracted Ottman so many fans. With a limited budget, this score shares more than just the sense of humor with Goodbye Lover, but also the similar sound of accentuated solo performances over a synthesized bed of rhythms. An overdubbed orchestra in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is sufficient to convey the ideas that Ottman had in mind, but the sometimes two-dimensional environment of this score could great have benefited from a full ensemble, especially in the string "mystery theme" and the occasional rips of brass that punctuate the comedy. A delicate piano theme for the love interest plays to the girl's attachment to mystery novels with a playful spin on the detective genre with light choir and harmonious sax (the sax here is reminiscent of James Horner's Sneakers while the trailing end of the theme does the same for Ottman's own Incognito). An electric piano over bass rhythms set the backdrop for wild sax and brass riffs that exist in various levels throughout the score to represent the quirky humor. These three thematic ideas weave in and out with Ottman's usual loyalty to their structures, though none of them stand out as a clear winner in your memory after the score finishes. Overall, the listening experience is cute and fuzzy, with some outward parody of detective thrillers, and in these regards, the score tumbles, rolls, and bounces along with much the same carefree attitude as Bubble Boy, even in its more serious, faux-thriller moments. The highlight of the album is easily the opening two cues; the "Main Titles" were thought so highly of by the director and producer that the film had an animated title sequence made specifically to the cue. The fair-weather album ends with an unfortunate, unrelated light rock song co-written and performed by the star of the film, Robert Downey Jr. Overall, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a lightweight, but offers Ottman at his most comfortable. ***   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Ottman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.22 (in 32 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.03 (in 17,523 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.