Rating: 
Summary: A classic...but oh, so grim.
Review: Kiss Me Deadly is stylish and moves along nicely but whichever ending you choose, its unrelenting in its grimness. I disagree that Meeker portrays Mike Hammer as a bad guy. He gives everybody what they've got coming; its just that he enjoys it. Don't want to give away the ending but let's just say it has more in common with science fiction than film noir. Those expecting a happy ending should get a different DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant realist late film noir
Review: Kiss Me Deadly seems light years ahead of the studio made film noirs of just ten years earlier. Seventy-five per-cent of it is shot on location in Los Angeles circa mid fifties. Likewise the performances by Ralph Meeker and company are gritty and disturbingly honest. Meeker is the master of understatement and his Mickey Spillane is by far the quintessential reading of this pulp detective. Meeker inhabits his roles so thoroughly it's hard to pick him out in his various screen performances. The great fun of this cienimatic ride is following Spillane thru seedy L.A. and meeting the underworld characters, B-girls, and working-class joes that populate his world. Hold on to your hats for the surprise ending as Spillane follows the links to the contraband he was hired to find.
Rating:
Summary: Kiss kiss bang bang with a message
Review: Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me Mike, mouths the blonde with the gun just before the bitch plugs our hero. Well, he had it coming. First of all he picked up a blonde hitchhiker (cup size C). Then he wants to find out why she gets done over, why this happens, and why that happens. He is not very well read, though he gets to read some poetry by Christina Rossetti and listen to a bit of classical music and wander through an contemporary art gallery. There seems to be a subtext that evil is associated with culture and wealth whilst the ordinary good guy schmuck ends up with a bullet in the belly and a brunette cup size B. Nothing boring about this very well photographed, well written, kiss kiss bang bang film, with a message for the masses - there are some things best left in the box, including plutonium. Great characters in every role too, including what may be one of Jack Elam's earliest efforts.
Rating: 
Summary: There's nothing quite like it
Review: Maybe I just didn't get this one. It's pretty campy and over-the-top which makes it fun and fascinating in a strange way but if you're looking for a noir classic, look elsewhere. This one's more of an odd (if oddly influential) curiosity.
Rating:
Summary: A valentine to '50s nuclear paranoia
Review: Mike Hammer calls the shots in this odd, hard-boiled valentine to '50s nuclear paranoia. The stark black-and-white photography and the low production values give this film a studied brutality, as sadistic crooks chase after a case filled with a glowing radioactive isotope(this case ended up a pop reference in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction"). Sure, the plot is inaccurate regarding the properties of radiation, but if you're expecting to get a lesson in physics from Mickey Spillane then you should probably be watching fewer videos and reading more books. The French New Wave directors loved this film, but see it anyway. And see how long it takes you to spot a young Cloris Leachman. Longer than you think, I'm guessing.
Rating: 
Summary: Very cool
Review: More violent than just about any movie of its time. Stunning ending. Mike Hammer learns a big lesson in this one, and Ralph Meeker is the best film Hammer ever.
Rating:
Summary: Noir Means Dark, and This One Is Really Dark
Review: Most unaccountably, "Kiss Me deadly" has been long underated or neglected, like its director Robert Aldrich, whose best is probably "The Dirty Dozen" or "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane." Though "Kiss Me Deadly" does not feature the incredibly campy battle between Bette and Joan, it still gives us a dynamite opening where a frantic girl is desperately running, with her foot naked, on the deserted highway at midnight. She needs a help, she says to detective Mike Hammer, who happened to be driving there. This is the start of another long day for this LA private eye. Then follow some deaths, and threats from government agents and secret organization alike. Hammer's investigation is, as is the case with the genre, full of plot twists, but Aldrich never gets us bored with his rather laid-back direction and occassional shock materials provided for the fans. The violence (such as torture) is all suggested, not directly depicted, but the power is still there after half a century. The dialugues or situatons are all intentionally clunky, as if Aldrich is telling that the events are all happening on another planet. But his tactics work, giving the entire picture some strange feelings like another world. We must remember that the film is made soon after the WW2, and the world is haunted with the images of nuclear age, and the conflicts between two superpowers. Clearly the weird touch of the film reinforces the uneasiness of these times found in the film, and the fears of the days are conveyed to us even now. So, nothing is fully explained; everything is suggested. You find a box, but you don't know what it is (but can guess). And the "shock" ending has not lost its power yet. Actors are comparatively unknown except the prolific Cloris Leachman (later wins Oscar for "The Last Picture Show"), but that doesnot matter. Just watch it, and enjoy its stylish camerawor, and shocks that its audiences saw years ago. And find the possible inspiration for the "box" which Jules and Vincent had in a coffee shop in "Pulp Fiction."
Rating:
Summary: Stylish and exciting despite some quirky elements
Review: OK, I mention quirks, so let me get right to them. One involves the way the bad guy gets it in the end, so I can't say anything about it without giving away a major plot element. But it is perhaps the oddest way any character has died since a character in Charles Dickens's BLEAK HOUSE died of spontaneous combustion. Just watch the movie; you'll see what I am talking about. The other endearing quirk is some of the "hot" technology you find in it. Without any question, this film features the first answering machine in the history of cinema. A full two decades before the breakout of the answering machine in American life, there is a reel-to-reel tape machine answering machine in Mike Hammer's apartment. Despite a hokey ending, this is a really cool film. Ralph Meeker never had the kind of career he should have had. He was charismatic, a good looking guy, and a talented actor, but had only a few roles that were plum parts. In particular, he had a very fine role as a rogue ex-calvary officer in Anthony Mann's THE NAKED SPUR, and he had a great part in Stanley Kubrick's anti-war classic PATHS OF GLORY. All things considered, his finest role was, however, playing Mike Hammer in this film. The film has great atmosphere, a fine story (until the bizarre end), and fine acting. Stylistically, it is film noirish with a hipper edge. Mike Hammer may be a detective, but he likes to have fun as well. Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler's novels always has a sense of the tragic element of life as well as its absurdity. His stance towards many of the events of his books is ironic. There is no sense of irony with Mike Hammer. He has a chip on his should just for the heck of it. He may lack Philip Marlowe's depth and complexity, but he probably gets more enjoyment out of life. He probably would also make a better dinner guest. There is a great period feel to the film. It was made and set in the mid-1950s, but rarely have I seen a film that gives such a great sense of when it was made. It also features a great case. In particular, it is amazing to see Cloris Leachman play a part when she was young and very cute. I thoroughly recommend this movie. It has a lot of energy, a lot of style, and tells a great yarn. And even though the ending is scientifically iffy, it is still a lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: Noirs Noir
Review: One might have noticed the opening credits which scrolled from the bottom of the screen upwards. Have you ever seen a film do that? Ralph Meeker plays Hammer at his nastiest. Albert Dekker as Dr. Soberin plays it for effect. There are metaphors here galore..in the end she had to open the box of the great whatsit..what does that imply to the viewer.? Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides..and its a corker..
Rating:
Summary: Hammer time!
Review: One of the most necessary, and dare I say, IMPORTANT film noirs ever made. Director Robert Aldrich and screenwriter A. I. Bezzerides display, among many other great things, such a vast contempt for their source material (a "Mike Hammer" novel from Mickey Spillane) that it can be a bit overwhelming at times. Their hero, as portrayed by Ralph Meeker, is a rather dim-witted cannon who, when he isn't enjoying his luxurious apartment, cars, and clothes, enjoys slamming dresser-drawers on some guy's fingers. (But the guy deserves it, being a scumbag like everyone else in the film.) The movie opens with Cloris Leachman (in her first screen role) running and panting on a deserted highway, naked under her trenchcoat. From there, it just gets weirder: a violent, ugly trip through a 1950's Los Angeles that we're not used to seeing in the movies, especially old ones. But in *Kiss Me Deadly*, one feels as if one's getting a true glimpse of the city, with its petty crime, its immigrants uneasily trying to coexist, its underground bars, its debauched crime lords, its evil antiques dealers, its bathing-suited sluts. Even the ostensible comic relief -- the Greek mechanic who worships Hammer and his cars and who's bellowing "va-va-voom-POW!" about every 10 seconds -- is so calculatedly annoying that we're rather more glad than not when he comes to a bad end. For some more surrealist touches, the main "villain" (a meaningless noun for this movie) makes references to Greek mythology . . . the poetry of Christina Rossetti is prominently featured . . . Mike Hammer displays familiarity with Grand Opera . . . the Manhattan Project becomes the "Great Whatzit" of the plot . . . on it goes. The crowning touch is the maguffin itself, a heavy box that emits blinding light whenever it's opened (Quentin Tarantino gave this bit of business a nod in his own *Pulp Fiction*). As for the apocalyptic finale, it's shocking but not surprising -- after all, what in the world of *Kiss Me Deadly* is worth saving, anyway? This movie's a furious counterpoint to 1950's complacency that I can't recommend strongly enough. [The DVD has great sound, and has the restored ending, putting to rest a lot of confused debate. You can access the original theatrical ending from the menu.]
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