It’s amazing how time flies. 2026 marks my 10th year doing the Blind Spot project. It’s also the beginning of my 3rd year doing the podcast coverage for the series with my friend Manda. As much as I enjoyed writing my own thoughts on the movie I have enjoyed even more watching and talking about them with my friend. For this epic year of Blind Spot we have 12 movies picked out for 2026. It’s a diverse and fun list I hope you will all enjoy. Here goes:

January- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

February- Brown Sugar

March- Rambo: First Blood

April- Cleopatra

May- Sweet Charity

June- Housesitter

July- SubUrbia

August- Once Upon a Time in America

October- Single White Female

November- New York, New York

December- Black Christmas

So there you have it! All 12 picks for 2026. What do you think of this list? I hope once I get things finalized with my future with KSL Movie Show I can figure out a  new normal for written reviews as I know I have been woefully negligent in that department this year. Nevertheless, I hope you have a wonderful New Year and look forward to many positive experiences to come.

I think all movie fans (including critics) have directors and writers that while excellent at their crafts just aren’t on our wavelengths or taste. These filmmakers make movies that aren’t bad but will rarely be listed amongst our favorites due to themes and stylistic choices they like to embody. One of these directors for me is writer/director Shane Black.

These feelings about Black’s work is perhaps surprising because he always sets his films at Christmas so you’d think I’d be drawn to him but his aggressively quirky style and mixture of violence and comedy rarely works for me. Such is the case with his early hit Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This is by no means a bad movie but it’s just not my taste.

In the film Robert Downey Jr plays a burglar turned actor who gets involved with a series of crimes in seedy LA by trying to help his childhood friend named Harmony (Michelle Monaghan.) We also see Val Kilmer playing a gay detective named Perry and Corbin Bernsen as the mob boss Harlan Dexter.

The best part of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the editing and action. It is constantly moving from one set-piece to the next. The performances are also a lot of fun throughout with a star-making turn from RDJ.

I guess where the movie loses me is in the aggressively self-conscious script that prefers more about flashy dialogue over authentic characters. It’s distracting when the screenwriter is drawing more attention t themselves rather than the story or characters.

Speaking of the story it’s kind of a mess. Characters are introduced out of nowhere (like the pink haired girl) and then never addressed again. The narrative is all-over-the-place and I’m not sure who the protagonist actually is. One wants to say it is RDJ but we learn more about Harmony and at times it seems like her movie. It’s one of those movies one has to enjoy in the moment because the overall story is muddled.

All that said Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a confident debut feature from Black. It may not be my cup of tea stylistically but at least he has a style and I can see why it was viewed as a promising start for him and his work.

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