Val Kilmer Movies
Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert's recollection of Val Kilmer's performance in the 1992 Thunderheart provides a fitting introduction to this intuitively gifted yet oft-underappreciated actor, by zeroing in on the strength at the core of Kilmer work. "Only... twenty minutes into the movie," Ebert writes, "...did I recognize... I had been watching Kilmer all along... [His] anonymity was not a trick of makeup or lighting... [there] is something inside Kilmer that seems to conceal him; he is this straight-arrow, conservative, by-the-numbers FBI agent [in Thunderheart], just as in The Doors he was the Dionysian rock druggie Morrison... [and] there is no common reference between the two characters. He is so inside the one... you cannot get a glimpse of the other. If there is an award for the most unsung leading man of his generation, Kilmer should get it. In movies as different as Real Genius, Top Gun, Top Secret!, and Billy the Kid, he has shown a range of characters so convincing that it's likely most people, even now, don't realize they were looking at the same actor."Indeed. Kilmer's chameleon-like ability to plunge fully and breathlessly into his characters represents both the gift that catapulted him to fame in the mid eighties, and that which - by its very nature of anonymity - held him back from megastardom for some time. (Compare it with the work of his Hollywood mentors from earlier generations, such as Paul Newman, Jack Nicholson and Clint Eastwood, who developed trademark personae onscreen and can be instantly recognized in almost any role). Such an ability - doubtless, the result of exhaustive, heavily-disciplined training and rehearsal - also explains Kilmer's alleged on-set reputation as a perfectionist (which caused a number of major directors to supposedly tag him as 'difficult'), but the results are typically so electric that Kilmer's influx of assignments has never stopped. He is also extraordinarily selective about projects. Trying valiantly to maintain a firm hold on his career, he turned down offers for box office blockbusters including Blue Velvet, Dirty Dancing, and Indecent Proposal for personal and artistic reasons.
A Los Angeles native, Kilmer acted in high school with friend Kevin Spacey before attending the Hollywood Professional School and Juilliard. He appeared on the New York stage and in Shakespeare festivals before his cinematic debut as the rock idol Nick Rivers in the Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker spy spoof Top Secret! (1984). An absurd role which Kilmer plays with complete sincerity; it reveals genuine musical talent and Kilmer achieves complete credibility as a rock star. Throughout the eighties, Kilmer played as diverse an assortment of roles as could be found: he was the goofy, playfully sarcastic, egghead roommate and mentor to Gabe Jarrett in Martha Coolidge's Real Genius, the cocky "Ice Man" in Top Gun, and warrior Madmartigan in the Ron Howard/George Lucas fantasy Willow (1988).
Kilmer's cinematic breakthrough arrived in 1991, for his portrayal of rock icon Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's The Doors; some speculated that Stone hired Kilmer solely on the basis of the musical gifts showcased seven years prior in Top Secret!. As the philosophical, death-obsessed rocker (and druggie) Morrison, Kilmer performed a number of the Doors songs on the soundtrack, sans dubbing. He played other American icons in his next two films - gunslinger Doc Holliday in Tombstone and the spirit of Elvis in True Romance; both did remarkable business at the box office. Due to his persistent need for an on-set dialogue with his directors, Kilmer clashed with Michael Apted on the set of Thunderheart (1992) and Joel Schumacher on the set of Batman Forever. He openly refused to repeat the Bruce Wayne role for Batman and Robin (1997) (which would have re-united him with Schumacher) and thus broke his superhero contract.
Instead, Kilmer headlined Michael Mann's 1995 Heat with two legends, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. This time around, he met with a more accommodating (or at least more tolerant) director, Michael Mann. Working with another acting veteran, he co-starred with Michael Douglas for the hunting adventure The Ghost and the Darkness. Unfortunately, his next few films were disappointments, particularly The Saint and The Island of Dr. Moreau. He switched gears a few times with little success, turning to romantic drama in At First Sight and to science fiction in Red Planet, but neither fit his dramatic intensity. He was especially ill-suited for the role as the drunken dad in Joe the King.
After lending his booming voice to the part of Moses in the Dreamworks animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998), Kilmer appeared in The Salton Sea (1991) as a tormented drug addict. In 2003, he lined up quite a few projects, including the crime thriller Mindhunters and the drama Blind Horizon. In the same year he earned a starring role as another aggressive American icon, John Holmes ("the John Wayne of porn"), for the thriller Wonderland (2003). That project (inspired by Holmes's autobiography Porn King and other accounts of the actor's sordid life) had rolled around Hollywood for many a year; it recounts the drug-related Wonderland murders in which Holmes was implicated, but does so Rashomon-style, from numerous vantage points. Dreary, unspeakably depressing, and confusing as well, the picture alienated all but the least discerning of viewers. The Washington Post's Stephen Hunter asked, "Why does this film exist? Sometimes there is no why, there's only a how. This is how: overblown, overheated, overdirected, overacted, overlong and over here, in the local bijoux. "
That same fall, Kilmer re-teamed with Ron Howard for the director's lackluster Searchers retread, The Missing (2003). He also re-collaborated with Oliver Stone (for the first occasion since The Doors) in the director's disappointing historical epic Alexander (2004), opposite Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, and Colin Farrell. He returned to form (and a leading role) in 2005, with the comedy-thriller Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang. Kilmer (per his trademark ability) once again cut way against type, this time as a flagrantly (and aptly named) homosexual detective, Gay Perry, who lives and works in Tinseltown. When it opened in October 2005, the picture drew an avid response from critics and lay viewers alike, and brought in solid box office returns.
The actor packed in an astonishingly full schedule throughout 2006, with no less than six onscreen appearances through the end of that year, in large and small-scaled productions - all extremely unique. He returned to his 1998 Dreamworks part with the lead role of Moses in Robert Iscove's stage musical The Ten Commandments, mounted at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Then, in a most unusual move that recalled Richard Gere's work for Akira Kurosawa and Burt Lancaster's work for Luchino Visconti, Kilmer went cross-cultural, by joining the cast of Polish director Piotr Uklanski's Summer Love (2006), screened at the Venice International Film Festival. It marks the first "Polish spaghetti western" and gracefully sends up the genre; Kilmer appears as "The Wanted Man." The Disney studios sci-fi-action thriller Deja Vu teams Kilmer and Denzel Washington (under the aegis of Kilmer's former Top Gun cohorts, Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer) as feds who travel back in time to stop a terrorist's (Jim Caviezel) attempt to blow up a ferry. He also voiced the character of Bogardus in Marc F. Adler and Jason Maurer's family-friendly animated adventure Delgo.
In 2008, NBC revived the classic series Knight Rider, and needed a distinct voice to play the super-intelligent car. Kilmer stepped in to play the iconic role, but he also signed on for numerous other simultaneous projects. He signed on to appear in The Dirt and The Steam Experiment, as well as Werner Herzog's remake of Bad Lieutenant.
Kilmer met British actress Joanne Whalley on the set of Willow in 1987; they married the following year and teamed up onscreen in John Dahl's Kill Me Again (1989). The couple had two children before the marriage ended in 1996.
~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
A man is forced to go against his family and his principles in the name of serving his country in this drama inspired by actual events. Tommy Santoro (James Marsden) was just a boy when his father was murdered, and young Tommy quickly discovered his dad was a high-ranking member of the Philadelphia Mafia. Tommy grew up determined to stay on the right side of the law, but his brother Vincent (Brad Renfro) and cousin Joey (Giovanni Ribisi) had other ideas and ended up joining "the family business." Tommy enlisted in the Army and served in Operation Desert Storm, but when he impulsively stole a jeep, he was arrested by the military police. However, Tommy finds he's not questioned by MP's, but by Horvath (Brian Dennehy), an FBI agent who knows all about his past and family history. Horvath has learned that Sicilian mobsters have been taking over the Philly rackets, and persuades Tommy to join up with Vincent and Joey in order to infiltrate the Mafia and serve as an informant to the FBI. Tommy grudgingly agrees, but he's uneasy about betraying his family and following the path that killed his father -- especially when he discovers his actions have put Vincent and Joey in grave danger. Also starring Dennis Hopper, Piper Perabo, and Lesley Ann Warren, 10th & Wolf was the directorial debut for Bobby Moresco, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for Crash. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Marsden, Giovanni Ribisi, (more)
The fourth film to chronicle the life of fourth-century B.C. ruler Alexander the Great, Oliver Stone's Alexander stars Colin Farrell as the titular Macedonian conqueror. The film follows the young king as he leads his forces on a bloody empirical conquest across the known world, taking large parts of Asia and the Middle East to amass a giant empire, all by the time he turned 25. Anthony Hopkins co-stars as Ptolemy I along with Rosario Dawson as Roxane, Angelina Jolie as Olympias, Jared Leto as Hephaistion, Val Kilmer as King Philip II, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Cassander. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, (more)
- 2009
- NR
An agoraphobic heroin addict seeks redemption by growing the rare and beautiful flower that will help him win the town's Garden of the Year contest in this off-beat black comedy featuring Rip Torn, Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, and Cloris Leachman. Ethan Inglebrink (Ronnie Gene Blevins) lives in a homogeneous California town where nothing ever happens. A misfit clad in a powder-blue tux, he's convinced his poker buddies and surrogate moms Roe (Diane Ladd), Sandy (Leachman), and Lou Anne (Lin Shaye) that he's a diabetic, and his needles are for insulin rather than heroin. His next-door neighbor is his landlord and former high school football coach Trevor O'Hart (Torn), who wants nothing more than to kick Ethan out on the street. Complicating matters even further is that fact that Ethan's older brother Todd (Kilmer), the local sheriff, is convinced that his brother can only be saved by an act of God, and recruits the family priest (Peter Falk) to get the job done. Meanwhile, as the Garden of the Year competition draws near, Ethan becomes convinced that he can take the 10,000-dollar top prize and pay off his delinquent rent if he can just grow the perfect American Cowslip. Little does Ethan realize that salvation may lie not in the money he could win for growing a rare flower, but with the kind companionship and understanding offered by his 17-year-old neighbor Georgia (Hanna Hall), who longs to escape her abusive father (Dern). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronnie Gene Blevins, Rip Torn, (more)
Filmmaker Justin Hunt leads viewers on a cross-country journey straight into the heart of the American methamphetamine epidemic in this illuminating documentary narrated by actor Val Kilmer. Troubled by the proliferation of methamphetamine addiction in recent years, Hunt traveled from the arid planes of New Mexico to the inner-city squalor of Portland in order to explore the toll that the drug has taken on American families and show that it's never too late to try and rescue a loved one. The voyage takes a decidedly personal turn as Hunt visits with meth addicted parents James and Holly, whose four children speak candidly about the effect their parent's addiction has had on their upbringing. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer
New York architect Amy Benic (Mira Sorvino) meets blind masseur Virgil Adamson (Val Kilmer) and falls in love. As she learns his lifelong blindness may be curable through experimental surgery, she convinces him to undergo the operation. Virgil then learns vision may not quite be what he expected. At First Sight is directed by Irwin Winkler and also stars Bruce Davison, Nathan Lane, and Kelly McGillis. At First Sight is a romance adapted by writer Steve Levitt based upon the story To See and Not See from noted writer Dr. Oliver Sacks' collection, An Anthropologist on Mars. Dr. Sacks' work is also the basis for the Penny Marshall film Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams and the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Michael Morris with music by Michael Nyman. In his original story, Dr. Sacks tells of receiving a call in October 1991 from a retired minister in the Midwest. His daughter was about to marry a fifty-year old man, Virgil, who had been blind since early childhood. He had thick cataracts and been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a disease which slowly eats away the retinas. As he could still make the distinction between light and dark, it was found he was misdiagnosed and simple cataract extraction could possibly restore his sight. While surgery was a success, Virgil, like his cinematic counterpart, found he would have to learn to use his vision much like an infant would, even though he was adept at relating to the world through touch. In his A New Theory of Vision, written in 1709, George Berkeley concluded there was no necessary connection between a tactile world and a sight world; a connection between them could be established only on the basis of experience. This same story was also adapted into the play Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel. ~ Ron Wells, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Mira Sorvino, (more)
Abel Ferrara's cult crime drama Bad Lieutenant is given a sister film with this Werner Herzog-helmed production that takes its inspiration from the original, but focuses on new characters and plotlines. Nicolas Cage steps into Harvey Keitel's mold of a corrupt and drug-addled police officer, with the scummy setting moving from New York City to New Orleans. Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, and Xzibit co-star in the Nu Image/Millennium Films picture. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, (more)
Director Joel Schumacher inherited the Batman franchise from Tim Burton and began steering it in the campier direction of the Sixties television show with this third installment. First-time Batman/Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer), in his only outing as the Caped Crusader, is effectively brooding as he ponders strange dreams about his parents' death and escapes his own near-demise at the hands of Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), a former district attorney driven insane and turned into a master criminal when a gangster throws acid in his face. Meanwhile, as sexy psychologist Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman) tries to analyze and seduce both Bruce Wayne and Batman, Wayne Enterprises employee Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) reacts badly to getting fired, using his self-invented mind-energy device to transform into the super-intelligent Riddler. The Riddler teams up with Two-Face to bring down Batman and drain the minds of Gotham City residents with his device, while Batman gets some much-needed help in the form of circus performer Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), out for vengeance after being orphaned by Two-Face. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
A man with no memory struggles to make sense of the troubling details that are still stuck in his mind in this psychological thriller. Frank (Val Kilmer) wakes up in a small town in the New Mexico desert with a severe head wound and most of his memory wiped away. However, Frank is somehow convinced that someone is planning to assassinate the President of the United States, and that Chloe (Neve Campbell), the woman who is claiming to be his girlfriend, is some sort of imposter. When Frank learns that the president is indeed passing through town that day, he tries to warn Sheriff Kolb (Sam Shepard) that something sinister if afoot; as it happens, Kolb believes him, though he's more than a bit busy dealing with a hard-fought election campaign against former Deputy Cash (Noble Willingham). Blind Horizon was screened at the 2004 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Neve Campbell, (more)
A thief seeks to get back together with his ex-wife while working to keep a young boy out of harm's way in this action thriller starring Val Kilmer. John Cologne (Kilmer) has just pulled off the heist of a lifetime, and now he's got exactly one hour to make the ultimate deal. He's convinced that he can win back his ex-wife now that he's soon-to-be rich, but after meeting a young boy in the park the deal starts to unravel. With time running out, John must protect his young friend, outsmart the police, and avoid the wrath of a seriously unhinged gangster while finding a way to meet up with his family in Florida. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer
This epic western starring Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn, Linda Cardellini, and Rachel Griffiths was adapted from Larry McMurtry's sprawling novel of the same name, and actually constitutes a prequel to Lonesome Dove. Texas Rangers Woodrow Call and Agustus McCrae may be getting up there in years, but their determination to capture Comanche war chief Buffalo Hunt, Comanche horse thief Kicking Wolf, and an elusive Mexican bandit king certainly hasn't faded with age. Now, as Gus attempts to resolve his personal issues with longtime love Clara Forsythe and Call comes to terms with his feelings for local prostitute Maggie Tilton, fellow Texas Rangers Deets, Jake Spoon, and Pea Eye Parker do their best to safeguard the advancing western frontier from the legions of Comanches who have vowed to defend their land to the death. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Steve Zahn, (more)
A wounded United States Marine discovers a corporate conspiracy designed to run illegal aliens out of an Arizona border town by any means necessary in this tense revenge thriller starring Val Kilmer, Jennifer Esposito, and Gary Cole. MacPherson (Kilmer) was one of the best soldiers in the United States Special Forces, but after being wounded on the battlefield he is deemed no longer fit for combat. Subsequently invited to join a former fellow solider on his sprawling Arizona ranch, MacPherson reluctantly agrees. Upon arriving at the ranch, however, MacPherson is troubled to find that his friend has vanished, and that no one in town will admit to ever even knowing him. Later, as evidence of a malevolent corporate conspiracy comes to light, the former soldier decides to put his military training to good use back on the homefront. The men with the money are on a mission to rid this town of illegal immigrants even if it means resorting to murder, and MacPherson isn't about to let their heinous crimes go unpunished. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Jennifer Esposito, (more)
Val Kilmer stars as the corpse of a wanted man in this western exploring the greed and iniquity of the lawless frontier. When a stranger rides into a small town toting the lifeless body of a noted outlaw, his intentions are to collect the bounty and be on his way. But the situation becomes complicated when the stranger sits down for a high-stakes card game with the drunken sheriff. With nothing to wager but the body he arrived with, the stranger calls the sheriff's bluff and goes all in. Later, despite the fact that he lost the game, the stranger vows to keep the corpse at all costs. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boguslaw Linda, Karel Roden, (more)
Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Anne Bancroft, and Val Kilmer all lend their voices to this animated fantasy adventure set in a magical world divided by fear. As two dueling civilizations prepare to unleash the dogs of war, it's up to one troubled adolescent and his unlikely friends to save their world from unspeakable destruction. Chris Kattan, Malcolm McDowell, Michael Clarke Duncan, Eric Idle, Burt Reynolds, Kelly Ripa, and Sally Kellerman co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Freddie Prinze, Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, (more)
Adrenaline loving director Tony Scott teams with iconic action producer Jerry Bruckheimer for this high flung sci-fi action thriller concerning a New Orleans based maverick ATF agent named Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) who is brought in on a top secret government program to catch the terrorist (Jim Caviezel) responsible for a ferry bombing that kills hundreds. Able to do what most law enforcement officers only dream of, Carlin is now able to look back in time at the perpetrator's movements, and at the life of the innocent woman whose death would set the events into motion. Carlin's instincts tell him that something is amiss, however, and while the government agent who tapped him for the job (Val Kilmer) and the team of ultra-cool scientists who run the project (Adam Goldberg, Erika Alexander) tell him one story about the quantum physics behind this marvel of technology, the hotshot agent suspects that there is a greater power at their fingertips--one that might not just solve the crime at hand, but prevent it. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, (more)
- 2004
Vince romances a vegan with ties to a Los Angeles sherpa; Eric is enthusiastic about a script that's set in Queens; Drama is concerned about his friends' new relationships. ~ Joe Friedrich, All Movie Guide
A loving husband and father finds his promising future transformed into a waking nightmare when he's convicted of involuntary manslaughter after accidentally killing the burglar who broke into his home in this gritty prison drama starring Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer. Wade Porter (Dorff) would have done anything to protect his family, and when they were threatened he did what any caring family man would have done. But somehow everything went wrong, and now Wade has been sentenced to spend three years in a maximum-security prison. It's a place where the rules of society have been all but forgotten, and in addition to sharing a cell with a notorious mass murderer (Kilmer), Wade somehow incurs the wrath of the sadistic head prison guard (Harold Perrineau). Now, in order to survive the series of vicious beatings orchestrated for the amusement of the guards, Wade realizes that in order to survive the block and get back to his family he will have to become the toughest felon of them all. But even if Wade does manage to live through this harrowing ordeal, what will be left of that loving family man once he's finally released back into civilized society? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Dorff, Val Kilmer, (more)
- 1989
Gore Vidal's 1955 TV play and 1958 film The Left-Handed Gun discreetly explored the hitherto untapped homosexual subtext in the saga of gunslinger Billy the Kid. Vidal's 1989 reworking of the same material, the made-for-cable Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, is just as discreet, but no less top-heavy with 20th-century psychoanalysis. In relating the tale of New Mexico Territory outlaw William H. Bonney, Vidal once again postulates that Billy (described as a "homicidal moron" by one less sentimentally inclined historian) was a misunderstood kid who fell in with bad company. Val Kilmer, on the verge of bigger things, stars as Billy, while Duncan Regehr portrays sheriff Pat Garrett, the Kid's onetime crony and ultimate executioner. Gore Vidal himself shows up in a bit as a minister. "Pursued by his enemies, betrayed by his friends, ruled by his passions" read the ad copy when Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid premiered over the TNT Cable Channel on May 10, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this action-adventure story, Thomas Taylor (Christian Slater) is a master thief who was caught red-handed during a robbery and ended up in prison. Convinced he was pushing his luck, Taylor began pursuing a new career on the other side of the law as a paramedic when he's approached by one of his old partners and brought in on a robbery that could earn them a million dollars in cash. However, after Taylor and his cohorts pull the job, they discover the cash has been marked, and they find themselves at the mercy of Mark Cornell (Val Kilmer), an FBI agent gone bad. Produced under the title In God We Trust and shown on television as Run for the Money, Hard Cash also features Daryl Hannah, Bokeem Woodbine, and Balthazar Getty. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Christian Slater, (more)
A successful career criminal considers getting out of the business after one last score, while an obsessive cop desperately tries to put him behind bars in this intelligent thriller written and directed by Michael Mann. Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a thief who specializes in big, risky jobs, such as banks and armored cars. He's very good at what he does; he's bright, methodical, and has honed his skills as a thief at the expense of his personal life, vowing never to get involved in a relationship from which he couldn't walk away in 30 seconds. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is an L.A.P.D. detective determined to catch McCauley, but while McCauley's personal code has forced him to do without a wife and children, Hanna's dedication has made a wreck of the home he's tried to have; he's been divorced twice, he's all but a stranger to his third wife, and he has no idea how to reach out to his troubled step-daughter. While McCauley has enough money to retire and is planning to move to New Zealand, he loves the thrill of robbery as much as the profit, and is blocking out plans for one more job; meanwhile, he's met a woman, Eady (Amy Brenneman), whom he's not so sure he can walk away from. The supporting cast includes Val Kilmer as Chris, one of McCauley's partners; Ashley Judd as his wife Charlene; Jon Voight as Nate; Hank Azaria as Alan Marciano; and Henry Rollins as Hugh, who is beaten up by Hanna. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, (more)
Actor Frank Whaley makes his directorial debut with Joe the King, a downbeat drama about a 14-year-old boy coming of age in an abusive and uncaring environment. When he was nine, Joe Henry (Noah Fleiss) lied to his friends about his father's job because he was ashamed that his father was the school janitor; in turn, he was humiliated in front of his class. Five years later, things are much worse; his father (Val Kilmer) has become a violent alcoholic who can't hold a job, while his mother (Karen Young) is harsh and unloving. Joe works illegally as a dishwasher to help support the family, but resorts to petty theft when it's clear his salary alone won't pay his father's debts. Eventually Joe attempts to steal the restaurant's cash box to get his father out of the red -- with tragic results. Whaley, who claims this story is "loosely autobiographical," assembled a strong cast for his first turn behind the camera, including Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, and Austin Pendleton. Joe The King premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, (more)
In his film debut, novice director John Dahl (who would later make The Last Seduction), weaves a quirky tale of love, murder and deception. Jack Andrews (Val Kilmer), a seedy private detective is hired by Fay Forrester (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer), to help her fake her own death in a clever scheme to escape from her mob pursuers, whom she double-crossed stealing money she had been sent to pick up, and are now intent on killing her. There then ensues a series of complicated plot-twists, double-crosses and surprises as Fay and Jack race each other to escape the mobsters, who have found them, and to get the money before the other does. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Val Kilmer, Joanne Whalley, (more)
A thesp-turned-crook gets a chance at career in movies as well as crime scene investigation in this offbeat action comedy with nods to Raymond Chandler. Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a struggling New York actor who high-tails it to Los Angeles. Once there, Lockhart winds up at the posh home of the aptly-named homosexual private eye Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) amid a lavish Hollywood party, hoping to score a life-changing role in a Hollywood feature. Harry becomes reacquainted with Harmony (Michelle Monaghan), a girl he had a major crush on in his small-town Indiana high school, who may be a bit more interested in him now than she was years ago. He takes both her and her girlfriend home with him, but - in a moment of drunken stupor - accidentally sleeps with the wrong woman. Meanwhile, when a series of female bodies turns up across L.A., Harry slowly breaks into detective work, mentored by Perry. The biggest twist? Black riffs Adaptation and other films by having Harry (via satirical narration) write the movie while he is living it. Harry assures the audience that unlike Lord of the Rings, this one won't have seventeen endings. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang marks the first directorial credit for Shane Black, who created the Lethal Weapon franchise. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Downey, Jr., Val Kilmer, (more)
- 2008
Based on the 1980's series starring David Hasselhoff, Knight Rider follows the adventures of Mike Traceur (Justin Bruening), the estranged son of the original series' main character Michael Knight. After inadvertently becoming involved in the top secret work of his father - whom he never knew - Mike finds that his tremendous expertise as a soldier just happens to make him the perfect candidate to become the new Knight Rider: the driver of a super enhanced car with tremendous intelligence known as KITT (voiced by Val Kilmer). Now, tasked with tracking down mercenaries, busting top secret drug rings, and tracking down powerful people, Mike finds himself behind the wheel of a life he never even knew existed though his biggest challenge might be reigning in his cowboy attitude. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Justin Bruening, Deanna Russo, (more)
