The Best of Val Kilmer

1959-2025

                                        "There are a thousand ways to play any role"    

                                                                                                                                   1)     Tombstone                      George P. Cosmatos, etc.                          1993

 2)     Heat                                    Michael Mann                                          1995

 3)     Kiss Kiss Bang Bang                   Shane Black                                  2005

 4)     Top Secret!                                 Abrams - Zucker                              1984

 5)     Alexander                                      Oliver Stone                                  2004

 6)     True Romance                                Tony Scott                                   1993

 7)     The Doors                                      Oliver Stone                                 1994

 8)     Red Planet                                   Anthony Hoffman                          2000

 9)     The Salton Sea                                D. J. Caruso                                2002

10)    Wonderland                                    James Cox                                  2003

It is remarkable, beginning with his debut in Top Secret!, how many of Kilmer's top-billed films were flops or financial disappointments. Even in an industry notorious for its worship of mammon, though, the respect for his obvious gifts meant that he never lacked work. Not that he made it easy on himself, as he himself copped to in a loopy memoir entitled I'm Your Huckleberry. Certainly. his on set contretemps with directors, especially with Joel Schumacher on Batman Forever, hurt his reputation in the industry. His filmography after 2005 is dotted with almost as much direct to video dreck as those of Nicolas Cage and Bruce Willis. 

Still, even in such mindless entertainments as Red Planet and Kill The Irishman, Kilmer could provide astonishing moments. He did not have the career of a Tom Cruise, but he is a much better actor than that empty vessel. I also enjoyed Kilmer's work in Real Genius, Willow, Kill Me Again, The Ghost and the Darkness, The Saint, At First Sight (in which he plays a blind masseur...), Spartan, Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, The Snowman, and both Top Gun films.