I enjoy Val Kilmer in some roles but lets face it, most of his movies were stinkers to mediocre at best.
Then he'd release a movie and be brilliant. Doc Holiday and Jim Morrison come to mind and he plays those characters mesmerisingly. Top Gun and Batman were just blockbuster fodder and not worth fawning over as some reviews would have you believe. I would have loved to have seen him as Mark Twain, what little was shown at the end looked amazing. He does real characters with such passion, that in these films he is head and shoulders above any other actor, perhaps with the exception of Daniel Day-Lewis who really did pick his roles with thought.
But the majority of his work appeared mailed in perhaps for the paycheck, who knows. I still have memories of a bloated Val Kilmer stumbling around in an action movie and wondering 'what happened?'. This part of his life was never mentioned as was the cause for his throat cancer, more than likely smoking. And the not so good interviews were conveniently ignored. The actors mentioned in the line up were his cast mates, no more. There are no in-depth interviews with fellow actors or very much of anything from behind the scenes. So we have no idea what other actors thought of him.
The whole documentary was shot by Val himself (taken from a room full of VHS tapes apparently), and he always wanted to be in movies. So he always knew when the camera was on and acted accordingly. There were very very few actual candid moments. In his later home videos (post cancer treatment) he comes across as a man-baby, not the serious actor he tried portraying in earlier home videos. A shame, the man definitely had talent.
I gave him a 5 because he was a talent once, he didn't show us the real Val, I am guessing that's still locked up with his other VHS videos. Shame really, very little shown from such a vast collection and no in-depth interviews with his fellow actors, directors and producers. And, a 5 for his mum, a real treasure and you can't help but love her.
This just felt sanitised.
Then he'd release a movie and be brilliant. Doc Holiday and Jim Morrison come to mind and he plays those characters mesmerisingly. Top Gun and Batman were just blockbuster fodder and not worth fawning over as some reviews would have you believe. I would have loved to have seen him as Mark Twain, what little was shown at the end looked amazing. He does real characters with such passion, that in these films he is head and shoulders above any other actor, perhaps with the exception of Daniel Day-Lewis who really did pick his roles with thought.
But the majority of his work appeared mailed in perhaps for the paycheck, who knows. I still have memories of a bloated Val Kilmer stumbling around in an action movie and wondering 'what happened?'. This part of his life was never mentioned as was the cause for his throat cancer, more than likely smoking. And the not so good interviews were conveniently ignored. The actors mentioned in the line up were his cast mates, no more. There are no in-depth interviews with fellow actors or very much of anything from behind the scenes. So we have no idea what other actors thought of him.
The whole documentary was shot by Val himself (taken from a room full of VHS tapes apparently), and he always wanted to be in movies. So he always knew when the camera was on and acted accordingly. There were very very few actual candid moments. In his later home videos (post cancer treatment) he comes across as a man-baby, not the serious actor he tried portraying in earlier home videos. A shame, the man definitely had talent.
I gave him a 5 because he was a talent once, he didn't show us the real Val, I am guessing that's still locked up with his other VHS videos. Shame really, very little shown from such a vast collection and no in-depth interviews with his fellow actors, directors and producers. And, a 5 for his mum, a real treasure and you can't help but love her.
This just felt sanitised.