DVD reviews - The Secret Life of Walter Mitty - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I can accept that a movie from 1947 is possibly due being re-done.

However, when you change the plot and characters, the valid point is whether in reality this is a brand new movie that should have a different title.

With that gripe aside, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty provides a pleasant enough escape for a couple of hours.

Danny Kaye, Boris Karloff and Virginia Mayo starred in the original which was enjoyable enough.

However, you need to dismiss that version from your mind.

Ben Stiller stars in and directs this modern variation.

He plays the title role, a man whose life is going nowhere and who daydreams of more exciting times.

He works for Life Magazine, which is being closed down, and he embarks on a trip to find a missing negative that is due to be the final front cover.

Kristen Wiig plays the love interest and Shirley MacLaine is his mother.

Some of the dream sequences are quite amazing and the whole film is good enough to pass a rainy afternoon.

DVD Re-View - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

The thing I love about movies is that there’s always a great film you’ve missed, waiting in the wings to be discovered.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang came out in 2005 but I only caught up with it this week.

No idea how I missed it - it stars Robert Downey Jnr, Val Kilmer and Michelle Monaghan, all of whom I like and it was directed by Shane Black (who also wrote the screenplay), another firm favourite.

The story is great, with Downey Jnr playing a thief who mistakenly ends up masquerading as an actor pretending to be a private investigator.

Kilmer is a proper PI and the plot has chases, shootings, murder and mayhem and all manner of great comic one-liners and unexpected action.

But the best part is that the ‘fourth wall’ is ignored at times so Downey Jnr’s character ends up talking to us, the audience.

A great film worth seeing a few times.

DVDs courtesy of Gamestar Entertainment Exchange, Sussex.

Entertainment Exchange buys, sells and exchanges games, Blu-rays, DVDs, CDs and accessories. You can find them in Brighton, Hove, Burgess Hill and Horsham. The shops are open from 9am - 6pm Monday to Saturday, and from 10am - 4.30pm on Sundays and bank holidays.