This is a very sad day when im doing this blog post after hearing that actor Val Kilmer passed away at the young age of 65 years old this week. Since i was a lot in VHS rental stores during the 80´s of my childhood i remember seeing Val Kilmer on VHS shelves in films such as Top Secret! and Real Genius. By that time i had seen Top Gun of course and let´s be honest, without Val Kilmer as his iconic character Iceman this film would have never been the same. Iceman was the man every man wanted to be and will always be one of the true 80´s legendary characters. In 1988 it was so awsome to see Val Kilmer take on the role as Madmartigan in legendary director Ron Howard´s high fantasy adventure Willow. I remember seeing this film on VHS after it was released here in Sweden renting the film with my grandfather. Seeing Val Kilmer as a swordsman was really fun and he had great chemistry with actor Warwick Davis as the main character Willow Ufgood. Willow had everything you could wish for in an 80´s sword fantasy film and this is a film you simply have to see. For me personally it was in the year of 1991 when Val Kilmer proved his incredible acting abilities in legendary director Oliver Stone´s American biographical film The Doors. A film that tells the story of the legendary American rock band The Doors where Val Kilmer gives an amazing performance as The Doors singer Jim Morrison. To really understand what a great actor Val Kilmer really was you simply have to see The Doors. In my opinion no one could play Jim Morrison other than Val Kilmer, he was the perfect casting choice for this character. In the 90´s he continued delivering unforgettable films such as Thunderheart, Tombstone, True Romance ( this is one you simply have to see ), Heat and of course playing Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever. This is a film that have divided a lot of Batman fans, some fans love it while others have issues with it. I personally feel that Val Kilmer did what he could with his Bruce Wayne character and i do think he did a good job acting in the Batman suit. The cast in this fim with Chris O´Donell, Nicole Kidman, Jim Carrey, Tommy Lee Jones and martial arts legend Don "The Dragon" Wilsson in a smaller rolle, all of this makes Batman Forever a fun ride with the unique style of director Joel Schumacher.
After releasing several films during the late 90´s i feel that Val made some interesting choices regarding different characters and different genres of films. For example in the year 2000 he played the character Robby Gallagher, an engineer in the sci fi action film Red Planet. A film that didn´t do well at all at the box office but found an audience on VHS and DVD instead. In fact i actually bought a DVD copy of Red Planet to several of my movie nerd fans back in the day. Red Planet is actually not a terrible film, i think the film has a cool look and i do like the acting performances from actors Carrie Anne Moss, Benjamin Bratt, Simon Baker, Tom Sizemore and legendary actor Terence Stamp. If you are a Val Kilmer fan i think you should check this film out, seeing him do a big budget science fiction film like this is a fun reminder of his diversity in trying different genres. In the year of 2002 we saw Val Kilmer play the wild character Danny Parker in the neon-noir crime thriller The Salton Sea. This is quite different film experience in Val´s career and this film almost have some Quentin Tarantino vibes in the style of this film. Another really good performance by Val and i have to appreciate how bizarre this film is in certain places from director D.J. Caruso. Let´s move forward to the year of 2003 when Val Kilmer got some positive reviews not only for his performance as the adult film character John Holmes, but the film Wonderland did get some positive reviews as well ( except from some, for different reasons ). I think Val did a great job playing legendary adult film actor John Holmes and this film have a very impressive cast with actors such as Kate Bosworth, Carrie Fischer, Lisa Kudrow, Josh Lucas, Christina Applegate, Tim Blake Nelson and Janeane Garofalo. The look of the film matches with the time period and captures the look of the adult movie insudstry as well the crimes that were commited during this time. A film worth picking up on DVD if you are interested in the story of adult actor John Holmes and what a crazy life he lived. Just 2 years after Wonderland came out Val Kilmer released one of my personal favourite films in his career in the film known as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang with legendary actor Robert Downey Jr. This is such a fun neo-noir black comedy crime film from director Shane Black and the acting performances between Val and Robert are both brilliant and you simply have to see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ( i know the title is silly but i promise this is a really good film ).
We can go on for hours talking about some of the amazing films Val Kilmer did in his long movie career but you might have some good advices now of films you should check out. The memories of Val will always be with us and we are grateful for the cinema magic he gave us for so many years. Let´s all check out his different films and remember the good times and i will be doing a special movie tribute review of Val Kilmer to one of his films called Spartan from 2004, directed by David Mamet ( who directed the 2001 crime drama film Heist with Gene Hackman ).
R.I.P. Val Kilmer
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