20 Years Ago, Robert Downey Jr. Teamed Up With Val Kilmer For A Perfect Crime Movie

Key and Peele said it best when they called "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" the best movie of all time, as the point of both Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer's careers where they finally met, reigniting the career of the latter and catapulting the former to superstardom. There is a reason Robert Downey Jr. and Shane Black were brought into the Marvel Cinematic Universe because of this movie, as "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau went to bat for Downey Jr. after seeing him as the unforgettably earnest, hilariously goofy thief who is pretending to be a method actor in what remains Shane Black's best movie.

In "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," we follow Downey Jr.'s Harry Lockhart, a bumbling thief who is mistaken for an actor and then sent to Los Angeles to train under private eye "Gay" Perry van Shrike (Kilmer) for a big detective movie. Harry rolls with it and accepts the role reluctantly, constantly clashing with Perry, but even if they hate each other, they are forced to work together as they find themselves embroiled in an actual murder mystery in Hollywood.

The movie is a phenomenal parody of film noir, one of the best Christmas-set movies of all time, and a great showcase of Downey Jr. and Kilmer's comedy chops. It should come as no surprise that Shane Black, who penned the original "Lethal Weapon," knows how to write buddy movies, and the pairing of Downey Jr. and Kilmer is mesmerizing. It's no wonder that Kilmer's favorite part of making the movie was riffing insults with his co-star.

Much like Black's buddy cop movies, which work because they are not only effective action films but also funny comedies, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" is both a clever detective story and also a parody of them. The mystery, the finding of clues, interrogations, the femme fatale and the twists and turns all would work even if the movie had been played straight. Still, when combined with a tongue-in-cheek tone and great sense of humor, it makes for something fresh.

A big part of the humor comes from not only Downey Jr.'s physical comedy skills. Of course, this being a Shane Black joint, there is plenty of action here, but it's the way the action is framed that makes "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," as Shane Black once called it, "an anti-action movie." That's because the action is often awkward, with people making mistakes, shooting when they don't mean to.

Sadly, despite how brilliant the film is, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was a flop. Though a critical darling even at the time, with the cast in particular receiving a lot of praise, audiences did not show up for it. Still, its legacy is big, as it is the movie that help give us Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and kickstarted the second act of his career. Even if Black had to wait nearly a decade to get another big studio credit, he made one of the best MCU movies in "Iron Man 3," and then blessed humanity with the gift that is "The Nice Guys."