Kiss Me Deadly

Rating:
Summary: Hammer drives Kiss home in style
Review: THIS is the real Mike Hammer! As his name suggests, he's as cold as steel and hits twice as hard. A streetsmart dick who drives his point home through the barrel of a gun or his fists. When you see Ralph Meeker's gritty portrayal of Mickey's Spillane's famous detective (dappled in the seedy gloss of film noir), you'll never go back to the tamer, slower made-for-t.v. Hammer. In Kiss Me Deadly, Hammer is one hundred percent mercenary. He's out for himself, but finds more, as he bobs and weaves his way through the duplicity that is L.A. in search of a killer. In many ways, Kiss plays like a hard-edged episode of James Bond, with Hammer's sporty car and his to-die-for bachelor pad. For whatever reason though, Kiss Me Deadly is sort of hard to find, and rarely comes on t.v. anymore. Not many of my friends have heard of it, but it's well worth the effort to see. It's one of the best detective movies made, and sadly, one of the last good films noir.