The Snowman (2017)

Ice-cold and grisly Norwegian thrillers are popular among readers but this Jo Nesbø adaptation plays out on screen like it has been hacked to pieces and put back together again by a crazed killer with a piano wire, with scenes appearing out-of-order and side storylines, particularly the ones involving Chloë Sevigny as identical twins, Val Kilmer as a drunk detective, and J K Simmons as the leader of a Winter Olympics Host City bid, built-up elaborately like the serial killer's snowmen only to melt away without consequence.

★☆☆☆☆

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

This pulpy crime comedy has mismatched investigators, one an injury-prone small-time crook, the other a tough guy P.I., hilariously bungling their way through a seedy LA investigation involving long lost sisters, body doubles, setups, and an enormous body count, and features scenes and situations that play out again very similarly in the 2016 The Nice Guys, also directed by Shane Black and it too inspired to some extent by the pulp crime books of Brett Halliday.

★★★★☆

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Top Secret (1984)

Incredibly funny, laugh-a-minute cornball comedy starring a young, svelte Val Kilmer as an Elvis-like all-American singing superstar who becomes embroiled in resistance efforts in Nazi Germany, with sidekicks including Deja Vu ("Have we not met somewhere before?"), and Chocolate Mousse!

★★★★☆

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