I hung on to this for a night when my mom was around because she likes murder mysteries, but she started tuning it out after a while. I should have expected this, because the last time I tried watching Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with my parents, that didn't really work out either. He's operating at a certain pace and with a certain darkness of tone that just doesn't sync up with where my mom and dad are at. Anyway, I enjoyed this well enough, but found myself thinking fondly back to other movies, mostly KKBB.

But you know what? I didn't go crazy about KKBB the first time I saw it, and now I love it. So I'll definitely be revisiting this.

I think part of what happens with Shane Black is, he doesn't cue you when to laugh and when to wince and when to gasp, so I spend a lot of the first viewing playing catch-up. Also, I was all psyched up to find Crowe and Gosling endearing and adorable, and instead I had to contend with the unsettling sense that their characters just weren't very cool. Or nice. I mean, I knew "nice" would be ironic, but... And of course I loved Holly, but find very relatable all the reviewers here who found her presence complicated their sympathies.