After being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress in... Read allAfter being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery.After being mistaken for an actor, a New York thief is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery.
- Awards
- 5 wins & 16 nominations
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAs a show of support for Robert Downey Jr.'s recovery from alcohol and drugs, Val Kilmer refused to drink during the entire production.
- GoofsWhen the camera zooms in on the newspaper article detailing the story about the film crew coming to the small town of Embry, Indiana to film a movie, the website www.embrystar.com is visible under the name of the newspaper. The article supposedly was written and published in 1982, eight years before the first website existed.
- Quotes
Perry: My $2000 ceramic Vektor my mother got me as a special gift. You threw in the lake next to the car. What happens when they drag the lake? You think they'll find my pistol. Jesus. Look up "idiot" in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?
Harry: A picture of me?
Perry: No! The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are!
- Crazy creditsAt the end of the movie, Val Kilmer says not to leave, to stay and watch the credits, and if you're wondering who the Best Boy is, he's someone's nephew. (The actual Best Boy credit is Jack Bauer.)
- ConnectionsFeatured in Great Movie Mistakes 2: The Sequel (2011)
- SoundtracksSleigh Ride
Written by Leroy Anderson and Mitchell Parish (uncredited)
Performed by Al Caiola & Riz Ortolani
Courtesy of EMI Records
Under License from EMI Film & Television Music
For this, we are getting voice-over narration from Harry Lockhart (Downey). He is a petty thief that fled to Hollywood when he ends up in an audition to avoid capture from the police. Now that he is there, he's trying to fit in, but its not working. He was brought there by Dabney Shaw (Larry Miller). Harry spends a majority of the time with Gay Perry (Kilmer) as well as Harmony Faith Lane (Michelle Monaghan). He has an interesting connection with her.
Harry gets mixed up with a murder and then Harmony's younger sister dies. It is just like detective stories he and her used to read. They might be more connected than they realize as they navigate the deadly underworld.
This is an interesting Neo-Noir film. We get the classic roles. Gay Perry is a private investigator who works with Dabney. He keeps him and those that work for him clean. Harmony is a struggling actor who comes off as our femme fatale. What I like here is that Harry is a criminal who plays PI to get close to Harmony. We gets thugs that you'd see from back in the day with Mr. Frying Pan (Dash Mihok) and Mr. Fire (Mr. Fire). This plays well with Harry and Harmony not knowing who they can trust.
What makes this work is Black's ability to make this feel like a modern Film Noir. It has snappy dialogue. Downey, Kilmer and Monaghan play well off each other. They fire back and forth that made me laugh. The mystery was good too. Downey breaks the 4th wall, but there were things that I picked up before me mentioned them. I'm not always a fan of this. It works here though. I'd go as far to say that something like Deadpool doesn't work if we don't have a movie like this first.
The cast is great. Not everyone is well known, but we get good character actors here. Aside from those I've mentioned, I'd give credit to Corbin Bernsen and Miller. There is also Shannyn Sossamon and even a young Ariel Winter. This is a movie that I'm glad I can tick off my list as I enjoyed my time with it. It is a good mystery that has good dialogue and characters for sure. It feels like this could happen while flirting with it being unbelievable at the same time. Even Harry acknowledges that.
My Rating: 8 out of 10.
- Reviews_of_the_Dead
- Jan 9, 2023
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- L.A.P.I.
- Filming locations
- Monumental sculpture "Double Ascension" 1973 Herbert Bayer 505 South Flower St, Los Angeles, California USA(shown through window of Standard Hotel)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $15,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,243,756
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $180,660
- Oct 23, 2005
- Gross worldwide
- $15,785,148
- Runtime1 hour 43 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1