My Ten Favorite Val Kilmer Movies

My heart is still heavy over Val Kilmer's death.  I've been rewatching some of my favorites of his movies, and today, I'm sharing the list of my top ten favorites with you.  

1. Tombstone (1993)

A free-wheeling recreation of that one time Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) and his friend Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), plus Wyatt's brothers (Sam Elliott and Bill Paxton), had a showdown with Ike Clanton and his pals, and Tombstone, Arizona never got over it.  This movie is a wildly good time, particularly every scene Val Kilmer is in.  And the score by Bruce Broughton is one of my all-time favorites.

2. Willow (1988)

A small farmer (Warwick Davis) reluctantly teams up with a big braggart (Val Kilmer) to save a baby princess from a wicked queen (Jean Marsh).  Along the way, the braggart falls in love with the queen's daughter (Joanne Whalley) onscreen and off.  It was one of the first fantasy movies I ever saw, and it's still a dear favorite.

3. Spartan (2004)

When the daughter of an important American government official is kidnapped, an impressively capable agent (Val Kilmer) is sent to retrieve her before she's sold into slavery overseas.  It's a tense thriller that makes plain the all-too-real ease with which human trafficking occurs here in the U.S., and the difficulty in rescuing someone from it.  And it's cool seeing Clark Gregg work with Val Kilmer.

4. Real Genius (1985)

A teen genius (Gabe Jarrett) enters a school for the scientifically gifted, where he and his offbeat roommate (Val Kilmer) try to stay sane while also solving a mystery surrounding just what their scientific discoveries and creations are being used for.  My college roommates and I were obsessed with this movie for a while, and we used to wear these funny headbands around campus (even to classes) as a nod to Val Kilmer's character in this movie.

5. Batman Forever (1995)

Bruce Wayne/Batman (Val Kilmer) tries to stop Harvey Dent/Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones) and Edward Nygma/The Riddler (Jim Carrey) from taking over Gotham, while also mentoring an orphan (Chris O'Donnell) and romancing a psychiatrist (Nicole Kidman).  Is this movie a dayglo comic book extravaganza?  Yes.  Does it also have a compelling storyline and some really good character development?  Also, yes.  I just rewatched it this week for the first time in a while, and was excited to find I still really love it.

6. The Saint (1997)

Simon Templar (Val Kilmer) is a professional thief who gets involved with Russian spies and a beautiful scientist (Elizabeth Shue) while just trying to do his job: stealing some nuclear macguffin or other.  The real treat here is all the disguises Templar uses, which lets Kilmer transform himself again and again in ridiculously fun ways.

7. Thunderheart (1992)

An FBI agent (Val Kilmer) with Native American heritage is assigned to solve a murder on a Sioux reservation, despite the efforts of others to either cover up the truth or use the crime to pursue their own agendas.  The fact that Val Kilmer had Native heritage himself (he was 1/8 Cherokee) is a total bonus for how perfect he is in this role.  The story is based on true incidents.

8. The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

A professional hunter (Michael Douglas) teams up with a British engineer (Val Kilmer) to take down two man-killing lions that have been attacking workers trying to build a bridge in Africa.  It often feels like a throwback to the adventure movies of the '50s and '60s, but with more realistic violence.  Maybe that's because the screenplay is by William Goldman, who wrote The Princess Bride (book and screenplay both), as well as screenplays for movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and Maverick (1994).

9. Prince of Egypt (1998)

Animated take on the life of Moses (Val Kilmer), growing up in Pharaoh's household and being tasked by God with leading the Jewish nation out of slavery in Egypt into the Promised Land.  Excellent take on the historical account from the Bible, and the songs are really cool, too.

10. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

An Air Force pilot (Tom Cruise) has to train the wild son (Miles Teller) of his fallen wingman for a dangerous mission.  Val Kilmer gets a small scene as Tom Cruise's former rival and current superior officer, and it's a moving one.

Please note that Tombstone, Spartan, Thunderheart, and The Ghost and the Darkness are all rated R, so you may want to investigate their content levels further before watching them if that is of concern to you.

Good Night, Sweet Prince

We have lost Val Kilmer.  I'm so broken up over this.

Val Kilmer was my first modern Hollywood crush, thanks to Batman Forever (1995).  I was fifteen when that came out, and I fell for him immediately, and then watched both it and Willow (1988) repeatedly throughout my teens, followed by a deep obsession with Tombstone (1993).  Over the years, I have loved so many of Val's movies.  I also really enjoyed his memoir, I'm Your Huckleberry.  

I'll be posting a list of my top ten favorites sometime soon.  For now, I'm just really sad.

"Real Genius" (1985)

Real Genius (1985) always reminds me of college and my friend Ed.  That's because she and I discovered it together during our sophomore year there.  (Yes, Ed is a she -- E and D were her initials, and Ed was her nickname.  We called her Lady Ed on formal occasions.)  I'm pretty sure I nabbed a used VHS copy of it at a going-out-of-business video store sale, buying it solely because I loved Val Kilmer.  But Ed loved '80s comedies, the zanier the better, so it's possible she'd seen it before and suggested we rent it because she liked it and knew I liked Kilmer.  And then I bought a copy after seeing it with her.

Either way, we became obsessed with this movie.  We watched it over and over during our sophomore year.  We were living with two other girls in an apartment that year, and one of them also enjoyed the movie, though she didn't get quite so deeply involved with it as Ed and I did.

By "deeply involved," I mean we quoted it endlessly.  "It's a moral imperative" became a kind of mantra for us, our best reason for deciding to do anything from trying a new shampoo to staying up until 2am on a Friday night/Saturday morning to watch one more movie before crashing.  We quoted a lot of other lines too.  "Rue the day?  Who talks like that?" was another favorite, mostly because WE were the sort of literary nerds who talked like that.

And Real Genius inspired the three of us to buy "alien antennae" like Chris Knight (Val Kilmer) wears in his first scene.  We found them at a Halloween store, I think, or at least during Halloween, and we wore them to classes and all around campus.  Not all the time.  Not every day.  But every couple of weeks, for the rest of that year and on into the next, we'd decide one night that tomorrow would be Antennae Day, and we'd all three wear them to class, the cafeteria, choir practice, everywhere.

Wearing those antennae taught me the power of costumes.  Ed was already an outgoing person, but our third Musketeer and I were both quite shy.  I don't know how it worked for my fellow shy roommate, but for me, wearing those antennae gave me a boldness I usually lacked.  Somehow, knowing that people would be looking at the antennae on my head, not just at me, made me willing to be a little more outgoing.  Not a lot -- they didn't change my personality.  But if a basketball player stopped me to ask if I was a bug or an alien, I'd make some funny or cute remark back about it being a secret, so I'd have to kill him if I told him.  Ordinarily, I probably would have mumbled something, but knowing he was staring at the antennae gave me some kind of inner spark of energy or something.

Anyway, rewatching Real Genius to review it this week flooded me with nostalgia.  I didn't just remember the movie, I remembered all our good times watching it, using the movie to psych ourselves up before a big test or something difficult.  It always had a sort of empowering effect on us like that, filling us with confidence.  

The movie is honestly pretty standard '80s teen comedy fare.  There's a geeky genius named Mitch (Gabe Jarret) who gets accepted to a prestigious science school.  

His new roommate Chris (Val Kilmer) is an unconventional charmer who glides through life (and school) with an insouciant swagger, tossing off funny quips and profound nonsense at every turn.  Also, he wears bunny slippers a lot.  

There's also a mysterious man who comes and goes via the closet in their room.  Mitch eventually learns this is Lazlo Hollyfeld (Jon Gries), who was once the smartest, youngest student at the school, but now is a recluse who lives in the steam tunnels.  (If he looks familiar, Gries played Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite...)

Together, Lazlo, Mitch, and Chris discover that a professor (William Atherton) is going to use their research and inventions to build a laser weapon for the military, so they decide to sabotage his project.  The sabotage involves filling the professor's house with popcorn, which he hates, in a pretty spectacular and memorable finale.

The science in the movie ranges from flimsy to just barely plausible.  The school is laughably unrealistic.  The ease with which Chris and Mitch sneak onto a military base and sabotage a top secret project is nonsensical.  But that doesn't matter.  Because... Val Kilmer sells the whole thing, one swaggering bon mot at a time.

I really wonder what filming this was like for Kilmer.  After all, he was a bit of a boy genius himself -- the youngest student ever accepted to the acting program at Juliard.  I wonder if he's so very, very effective at mentoring Mitch because, in a way, Kilmer saw a bit of his own past situation in Mitch's story.  Boy genius, youngest student at a place filled with talented people, lots of pressure to succeed... it must have felt familiar, don't you think?  I wonder if Kilmer exudes such actual kindness and care through this character because he's playing the sort of mentor he once needed.  Or maybe I'm just reading way too much into this fluffy bit of tomfoolery!

Is this movie family friendly?  Ummmmm, welllllll, not exactly.  It's only rated PG, but I really think it should be PG-13, due to the innuendo and sexual references scattered throughout, mostly in dialog but also some implied visually.  But the PG-13 rating was still very new in 1985, so I guess they decided not to apply it here.  I won't let my kids watch it yet, but I probably will when they are in their upper teens.

This review is my contribution to the fifth So Bad It's Good Blogathon hosted by Taking Up Room.  I'm so glad it gave me a reason to revisit this movie, which I do love even though it's cheesy and unrealistic and ridiculous and goofy.

My Ten Favorite Fantasy Movies -- 2022 Update

I made my first list of ten favorite fantasy movies almost ten years ago -- in 2013!  It's high time for an updated version.

I'm defining fantasy here as involving magic or something supernatural somehow. So these aren't necessarily all swords-and-sorcerers stuff, but they do all involve non-real, magical things happening.

You'll notice that I'm counting the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy as just one film each.  Otherwise they'd take over way too much of the list, and that would be silly.

1. The Lord of the Rings (2001-03) Nine companions from the four races of Middle Earth journey to Mount Doom destroy the One Ring and thus defeat evil Lord Sauron and his plans to take over the world.

2. The Princess Bride (1987) After Buttercup's (Robin Wright) true love Westley (Cary Elwes) is murdered by pirates, she agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), but gets kidnapped before the wedding. I'll never forget the first time I saw this movie -- it changed my ideas about humor and fantasy forever.

3. The Hobbit (2012-14) Fourteen companions from three races of Middle Earth journey to the Lonely Mountain to destroy the dragon Smaug and regain the dwarvish treasure there.

4. Willow (1988) Two reluctant companions (Warwick Davis, Val Kilmer) journey to protect a baby princess and thus defeat the evil queen and her plans to take over the world.

5. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), noted professor of archealogy, spends more time out chasing down antiquities that have mystical powers (or are worth lots of money) than he does teaching classes. Who can blame him?

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) resorts to commandeering, raiding, pillaging, plundering, and otherwise pilfering his weasely black guts out, all to regain his beloved ship. More fun than a barrel of undead monkeys!

7. Cinderella (2015)  Ella (Lily James) treats her stepmother (Cate Blanchett), a prince (Richard Madden), and her fairy godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) with courage and kindness. It's a fabulously faithful retelling of the classic fairy tale, and it delights me.

8. The 13th Warrior (1999) An Arab exile (Antonio Banderas) joins a band of Norse warriors in their bold attempt to defeat the freaky bear-men-things that are attacking a bunch of small villages. Swords and danger and glory galore!

9. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Arthur (Charlie Hunnam) grows up lean and mean on the Londinium streets, not learning he's the son of the late king (Eric Bana) until he's an adult. He reluctantly agrees to take on his uncle, Vortigen (Jude Law), who killed Arthur's father and usurped the throne. This one is a fun ride.

10. The Mummy (1999) A librarian (Rachel Weisz) and her brother (John Hannah) convince an adventurer (Brendan Fraser) to lead them on an archaeological expedition that quickly gets way more exciting than they ever expected. I like the sequel almost as well.

I've only reviewed a couple of these, sorry.  For those ones, I've linked my reviews to their titles here.

Saw it in the Movies Tag

Movie Critic tagged me with this, and you know I like tags, so here goes :-)

The rules: 
+ Pick at least 3 things that you have done from a movie. It can be any movie, anything you did.
+ Tell how the event worked out.
+ Link back to the tag's creator and the person who tagged you.
+ Have fun.
+ Tag 4 people.
+ Use the header.

Um, yeah, so I do a lot of stuff because of movies.  Mostly I just say particular words and phrases in specific ways because of movies or because of actors.  Like I tend to say the word "horrible" like Gene Kelly does -- more like "harrible."  Just because.  Or instead of saying "something like that" to reply to someone, I always say, "Something like this, yes," like Illya (Armie Hammer) in Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015).

But sometimes I DO things because of movies too.  Like these:

I spent countless minutes as a child practicing my fast draw.  Because all my cowboy heroes had a fast draw.  I learned two important lessons:  1. If your gun doesn't fit in your holster, it's not going to work very well, and 2. I'd better not get in any gunfights where the speed of my draw is going to matter.  I'm a pretty good shot with a rifle and an okay shot with a pistol, but I do not have anything you could even pretend was a fast draw.  At least not with plastic pistols that don't really fit in my fake-leather gunbelt.

I got super excited when I was a newlywed because my husband bought liverwurst at the grocery store one day.  See, there's a little scene in White Christmas (1954) where Bing Crosby tells Rosemary Clooney that if you eat liverwurst before bed, you'll dream about liverwurst, and I spent a lot of my adolescence wondering if that was true.  And wondering what liverwurst tasted like.  My mom hates all things liver, so she never bought us liverwurst.  Well, I'm here to tell you that I really enjoy liverwurst sandwiches, especially if they have thinly sliced onions on them, but I've never actually dreamed about liverwurst after eating one.  Maybe I need to eat them closer to bedtime.

I once ran down my parents' driveway yelling, "I'm going on an adventure!" like Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012).  I was like 35 at the time.  My mom thought I'd gone mad.  Again.

I used to spend a lot of time trying to learn how to roll a coin between my fingers like Val Kilmer does as Doc Holliday in Tombstone (1993).  So much time.  Never did figure it out.  My brother did, though.  I think the trick might be to use a bigger coin than a quarter.

Okay, that's four things.  Good enough.  I hereby tag:

Anna & Irene at Horseback to Byzantium
Eva at Coffee, Classics, and Craziness
Grace and Katherine at Maidens of Green Gables
Kate Gabrielle at The Films in My Life

Play if you want to!

My Ten Favorite Movies Set in Texas

My love for westerns and my enamoration with Texas are so tangled up together, I don't know where one begins and the other ends.  Texas has a mystique that has long enchanted me.  How long?  So long, I can't remember a time when I didn't wish I had been born there.

So here are my ten favorite movies that take place (at least partly) in Texas.  Astonishingly enough, two of them aren't even really westerns!  As usual, if I've already reviewed a movie, I'll link the title to my review.

1. The Sons of Katie Elder (1965) Four brothers (including John Wayne and Dean Martin) reunite at their mother's funeral and work together to find out how their parents lost their ranch. My favorite John Wayne movie!

2. The Magnificent Seven (1960) Poor Mexican villagers hire seven gunfighters to defend them from the bandit who's been oppressing them for years. Steve McQueen, Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn... magnificent, indeed!  (This starts off in Texas, and Texas gets mentioned several times, but the bulk of it takes place in Mexico.)

3. The Lone Ranger (2013) John Reid (Armie Hammer) returns to his Texas hometown after years away at law school.  Bad guys ambush him, his brother, and a company of Rangers -- everyone else dies, but a renegade named Tonto (Johnny Depp) saves John Reid's life, and together they try to bring down the greedy men responsible for the deaths of their family members.  It's a twisty, fable-like origin story that I never tire of.

4. Rio Bravo (1959) A sheriff, a recovering alcoholic, an old man, and a young gunslinger fend off a host of bad guys bent on springing a murderer from jail. John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, and Ricky Nelson play the four heroes. Angie Dickinson plays the love interest.

5. The Rare Breed (1966) A British widow and her daughter accompany the prize bull they've sold on its way to its new home in Texas, convinced it will revolutionize the cattle industry. James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Don Galloway, and Juliet Mills -- their characters are like my dear friends.

6. Giant (1956) A spoiled East Coast beauty (Elizabeth Taylor) marries a stubborn Texas rancher (Rock Hudson), and they spend twenty-five years trying to figure each other out. One of the first movies I can remember seeing, and my favorite James Dean movie.

7. Logan (2017) An aging, angry Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) tries to save his dying mentor (Patrick Stewart) and a young mutant (Dafne Keen) with striking similarities to himself by shepherding them across the country.  It's a poignant, aching meditation on loss, aging, generational gaps, family, and love.  But also brutally violent.  (This one also only takes place partly in Texas.)

8. The Searchers (1956) Bitter, angry Ethan Edwards (John Wayne) spends years and years searching for his niece (Natalie Wood), who was kidnapped by Indians as a child. He intends to kill her to end her shame and misery from being forced to marry an Indian. Probably John Wayne's finest performance. Even if you don't like westerns, you should see this once because it's a masterpiece.

9. Texas (1941) Two young Civil War veterans (Glenn Ford and William Holden) have a series of adventures in Texas as they try to make their way in the world, one of them on the right side of the law and one on the wrong.  It's a romp with a few serious parts.

10. The Alamo (1960) Based on true events, of course, with lots of famous actors playing the roles of real-life heroes like Davy Crockett (John Wayne), James Bowie (Richard Widmark), and William Travis (Laurence Harvey).  It's sad, of course, but also glorious.

This is my first contribution to the Texas Blogathon hosted by The Midnite Drive-In this weekend.  Tomorrow, I'll be back with a movie review!

My Ten Favorite Superhero Movies

Probably not a lot of surprises on this list, other than possibly what order I put them in.  And yes, there are really just three sets of superheroes here, I know.  I love the X-Men, I love the Avengers, and I love Robin -- what can I say?

I waited until now to post this because I wanted to see The Wolverine a second time once it came to DVD, to decide whether or not I would include it here.  And I decided that although I have issues with the final act... it's Wolverine.  I love him too much to leave it off.

And before I get lots of outraged comments about the fact that the Dark Knight trilogy does not appear here, let me be clear:  I love Robin.  I merely like Batman.  Also, Christian Bale ain't no Val Kilmer.  Also, playing the Joker basically killed Heath Ledger.  So while I do own Batman Begins, I don't love it.  Remember, this is my favorites, not what I think the best movies are.

1.  The Avengers (2012)

Six talented people assemble to save the world from Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) desire to show Thor (Chris Hemsworth) he can be cool too.  And no one writes about groups of lost creatures like Joss Whedon -- this is what a superhero movie should be.

2.  X2:  X-Men United (2003)

Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magneto (Ian McKellen), and their followers join forces to keep William Stryker (Brian Cox) from destroying all mutants.  Until I saw The Avengers, I thought this was what a perfect superhero movie looked like.  It's still magnificent.

3.  X-Men (2000)

The X-men help wandering mutant Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) rescue Rogue (Anna Paquin) from Impending Doom.  And to think that I refused to see this at first because I thought Hugh Jackman was all wrong for Wolverine!  What kind of fool am I?

4.  X-Men Origins:  Wolverine (2009)

Wolverine squares off against his half-brother Sabretooth (Liev Schreiber) and a younger Stryker (Danny Huston this time), and gains his adamantium skeleton in the process.  This is the origin story I've always wanted.

5.  Iron Man 3 (2013)

Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) takes on a terrorist named The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).  Also known as the movie where Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) finally gets to wear the Iron Man suit.

6.  X-Men 3:  The Last Stand (2006)

It's the X-Men versus Magneto's bunch again, with a back-from-the-dead friend turned into a foe.  Actually a better movie than X-Men, but I don't love it as much.

7.  Iron Man (2008)

Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) escapes from captivity and hunts down the people who kidnapped him.  And builds a really cool flying suit that shoots stuff.

8.  Thor:  The Dark World (2013)

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) team up to save the Nine Realms from angry elves.  Not as twee as that sounds.

9.  Batman Forever (1995)

Batman (Val Kilmer) acquires a girlfriend (Nicole Kidman), a protege (Chris O'Donnell), and two enemies (Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carrey).  The first superhero movie I ever truly loved.  It looks dated and wacky now, but it was extremely cool when I was an extremely uncool fifteen-year-old.

10.  The Wolverine (2013)

A mourning, angry, lonely Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) goes to Japan.  I didn't mind the final act nearly as much the second time around, though why on earth he doesn't just slice up those arrows-on-ropes and get the heck outta Dodge still stymies me.  Oh well.

What do we learn here?  That the year 2000 ushered in the Golden Age of Superhero Movies!  Only one movie on this list was made before then.  Wow!

Interestingly, I love 5 of these movies mostly because of one character:  Wolverine.  Yeah.  He's that important to me.  And unlike the Avengers movies, where I love Thor the most, but really like Tony Stark and Steve Rogers and Bruce Banner so, so, so very much, in the X-Men movies, I mostly love Wolverine.  Oh, I'm quite fond of Professor X, Rogue, and a few others, but not at all to the degree that I like Stark/Rogers/Banner.  Professor X would come the closest, but would I watch a whole movie about him?  Maybe, but only if he was played by Patrick Stewart and not what's-his-name who plays the younger version.

My Ten Favorite Fantasy Movies

I define fantasy as involving magic or something supernatural somehow.  Which is why you'll find Raiders of the Lost Ark here -- it has all that stuff about the Ark of the Covenant melting people's faces off.  So these aren't necessarily all swords-and-sorcerers stuff, but they do all involve non-real, magical things happening.

Sorry it's taken me like two months to do another of these -- I was going to do superhero movies next, then decided to wait until I'd seen Thor:  The Dark World, and now I think I need another viewing before I can decide if that one goes on the list or not, so... silly me, I can do a genre other than superheroes!  Some of the titles link to previous posts about those movies.

1.  The Princess Bride (1987)

After Buttercup's (Robin Wright) true love Westley (Cary Elwes) is murdered by pirates, she agrees to marry Prince Humperdinck (Chris Sarandon), but gets kidnapped before the wedding.  I'll never forget the first time I saw this movie -- it changed my ideas about humor and fantasy forever.

2.  The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Nine companions from the four races of Middle Earth begin the journey to destroy the One Ring and thus defeat evil Lord Sauron and his plans to take over the world.  But you knew that already, didn't you.

3.  Willow (1988)

Two companions from the two races of someplace-or-other journey to protect a baby princess and thus defeat the evil Queen Bavmorda and her plans to take over the world.  Basically George Lucas' version of The Lord of the Rings, but Val Kilmer is so awesome it doesn't really matter that it's kind of a rip-off.

4.  The Return of the King (2003)

The final battle for Middle Earth results in the (very spoily) title.  But you knew that already, didn't you.

5.  Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Dr. Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), noted professor of archealogy, spends more time out chasing down antiquities that have mystical powers (or are worth lots of money) than he does teaching classes.  Who can blame him?

6.  Pirates of the Caribbean:  The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) resorts to commandeering, raiding, pillaging, plundering, and otherwise pilfering his weasely black guts out, all to regain his beloved ship.  More fun than a barrel of undead monkeys!

7.  The Two Towers (2002)

Eight of those nine companions keep trudging around Middle Earth, trying to destroy the One Ring and defeat Sauron, etc, etc, and so forth.  But you knew that already, didn't you.

8.  The 13th Warrior (1999)

An Arab exile (Antonio Banderas) joins a band of Norse warriors in their bold attempt to defeat the freaky bear-men-things that are attacking a bunch of small villages.  Swords and danger and glory galore!

9.  The Mummy (1999)

A librarian (Rachel Weisz) and her brother (John Hannah) convince an adventurer (Brendan Fraser) to lead them on an archaeological expedition that quickly gets way more exciting than they ever expected.  I like the sequel almost as well.

10.  Jack the Giant Slayer (2013)

Peasant Jack (Nicholas Hoult) and career soldier Elmont (Ewan McGregor) rescue a princess (Eleanor Tomlinson) and defeat a race of giants.  The best of the recent spate of updated fairy tales that I've seen.

"Iron Man 3" (2013) -- Initial Thoughts

If I had to choose one word to describe this movie, it would be "unimprovable."  Which my computer says is not a word, but phooey on it.  I can't think of one thing I would change in this movie that would make it better.  Not a different casting choice, director, visual style, plot change... nothing.  I liked it better than the first Iron Man and much better than Iron Man 2.

So if you've been considering going to see it, but haven't been real sure if it's any good or not -- go!

In fact, go right now, and don't read the rest of this review until you're back, because I am going to discuss plot twists and character development and all kinds of stuff that you Do Not Want To Know before you see it.  So don't read the rest of this post until you've seen the movie.  Please.  I'm serious.  I'm putting three yummy pictures right here so the rest of this post won't appear on your screen without you scrolling down, so you won't accidentally read any spoilage.

So.  What I'm gonna do here is not so much just review the movie as discuss the fact that, basically, it's a remake of Batman Forever (1995).

Please don't leave!  I'm serious.  I love that movie -- it's my favorite Batman movie.  Sure, it's so hammy and cheesy it could be a diner sandwich.  Sure, its effects look really clunky now.  But it's got some great acting (and some of the craziest scenery chewing of all time, I will admit that), a fun plot, and some kickin' music.

But more to the point, Batman Forever has a lot in common with Iron Man 3.  First off, both Bruce Wayne (Val Kilmer) and Tony Stark (Robert Downey, Jr.) are insanely rich and the heads of powerful corporations.  Both movies begin with a nerdly, genius scientist approaching the lead character with a brilliant idea they want to share.  Both Edward Nygma (Jim Carrey) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) have long, stringy hair and bad glasses.

Jim Carrey in Batman Forever

Both Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark turn down the overeager scientists, though Bruce lets Nygma down way more nicely than the way Tony deals with Killian.  Because Nygma and Killian idolize the people who rejected them, they both take this very personally and, naturally, plot revenge.  This is how nemeses are born, after all.

Incidentally, both Nygma and Killian's ideas?  They involve mind-control.  Nygma goes on to create The Box, a silly-looking device that lets TV viewers feel like they're inside the show they're watching, meanwhile sucking their brainwaves and feeding all their thoughts to Nygma.  Killian's idea is more vague and science-y, but it involves harnessing unused brain space to help subjects grow and change.  (I really need to see IM3 again to really figure that part out).

Both Nygma and Killian strike out on their own after being rejected.  They find success, clean up beautifully, and make a move on the star's girlfriend.  And they try to get their idols to join them once again, which results in yet another round of rejections and anger and vengeance-plotting.  Both then join forces with Homicidal Maniacs, Nygma with Two-Face (Tommy Lee Jones), who wants to destroy Batman, and Killian with The Mandarin (Ben Kingsley), who wants to destroy America.  (Yes, yes, I realize that was a ruse, or so they want us to believe....)

Another similarity?  The girlfriends.  Both reddish-blonde knockouts with distinctly comic-book-y names.  Bruce Wayne woos Dr. Chase Meridian (Nicole Kidman), and Tony Stark is still having a combustible relationship with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).  

And both Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark acquire a protege, a younger male character in need of a father-figure.  One is newly orphaned Dick Grayson (Chris O'Donnell), a trapeze artist whose parents were murdered by Two-Face.  The other is Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins), whose dad walked out eight years earlier and whose mom never makes an appearance in the movie.  

There's a big emphasis in Iron Man 3 on the idea that you create your own enemies.  Tony Stark brushed off Killian, and Killian spent years figuring out how to get back at Tony and take over the world while he was at it.  Bruce Wayne refused to develop Nygma's idea, and also failed to prevent the accident that transformed Harvey Dent into Two-Face, and the two of them spend years figuring out how to get back at Bruce and take over Gotham City while they're at it.  Both movies seem to be saying that a little kindness goes a long way, and so does the lack thereof.  Not terribly profound, but important nonetheless.

Do I really think Iron Man 3 is a remake of Batman Forever?  Nah.  Iron Man 3 is far more serious, after all.  But they do have a similar plot arc, one that clearly resonates with me since they're both my favorite entries in their individual movie series.  Why does it appeal to me?  I know I'm drawn to the idea of proving yourself, that you can do what others say you can't.  It's the bad guys who are proving themselves here, but I do know I felt so very bad for Killian when Tony lied to him -- I could have slapped Tony.  Other than that, I'm not quite sure yet -- I'll have to think on it some more.

My Ten Favorite Westerns

Inspired by the Flowers of Quiet Happiness post listing Kara's favorite rom-coms, I've decided to do a series of posts listing my ten favorite movies in various genres.  I think I'll go in the order in which I've arranged my movies on my shelves (I have them organized first by genre, then by alphabet), which means I'll start with my favorite movie genre of all, westerns!  If I've previously done a post about a particular movie, I've linked the title to that post.  I'm also including my own one-sentence synopsis of each movie, and any thoughts I might feel like adding.

1.  The Man from Snowy River (1982)

Jim Craig must clear his name after he's accused of freeing his employer's most valuable horse in retaliation for being told he can't court the boss's daughter.  Sometimes I don't consider this to be a western, but it's about guys riding horses and rounding up cows, so... that makes them cowboys, right?  It's about Australia, not the American West, but oh well.

2.  The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)

Four brothers (including John Wayne and Dean Martin) reunite at their mother's funeral and work together to find out how their parents lost their ranch.  My favorite John Wayne movie!

3.  The Magnificent Seven (1960)

Poor Mexican villagers hire seven gunfighters to defend them from the bandit who's been oppressing them for years.  Steve McQueen, Yul Brenner, Charles Bronson, James Coburn... magnificent, indeed!

4.  Rio Bravo (1959)

A sheriff, a recovering alcoholic, an old man, and a young gunslinger fend off a host of bad guys bent on springing a murderer from jail.  John Wayne, Dean Martin, Walter Brennan, and Ricky Nelson play the four heroes.  Angie Dickinson plays the love interest.

5.  Gunfight in Abilene  (1967)

A Civil War veteran agrees to resume his job as sheriff out of guilt for accidentally killing the brother of the man who runs Abilene.  My favorite Bobby Darin movie.

6.  Silverado (1985)

Four outcasts set out to rid Silverado of the evildoers who sent one of them to prison unjustly, stole another's horse, and debauched another's sister.  The best "modern" western, IMHO, and has a knockout soundtrack.

7.  Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)

Jason McCullough (James Garner) uses unorthodox methods to clean up a town and woo the mayor's daughter.  The funniest western spoof I've ever seen, and possibly the movie my father quotes more than any other.

8.  Tombstone (1993)

Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and his pal Doc Holliday face off against the outlaw band called The Cowboys and bring them to justice.  Val Kilmer's turn as Doc Holliday is mesmerizing (and so quotable!), and he's really the whole reason I love this movie.

9.  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

A young lawyer faces down a notorious outlaw, and what everyone believes happened during that shoot-out launches his political career that takes him far.  I love the way John Wayne and James Stewart engage each other in this, bringing out some great acting in each other.

10.  The Rare Breed (1966)

A British widow and her daughter accompany the prize bull they've sold on its way to its new home in Texas, convinced it will revolutionize the cattle industry.  James Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Brian Keith, Don Galloway, and Juliet Mills -- their characters are like my dear friends.

I did a list of my favorite westerns about six years ago, and I see that my ordering has changed a bit since then.  The old list is here.

Have you seen any of these?  Did you like or dislike them?  What are your favorite westerns?  Maybe you'll recommend some I haven't seen, and I'll discover some new favorites!

Time for some lists. Haven't done any of those lately, have I? These are prompted by a discussion on Cowboy's family's chatboard site.

First, here are what I believe are the very
Best Westerns
(not necessarily in any particular order)

The Magnificent Seven
The Searchers
Silverado
Rio Bravo
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Shane
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
3:10 to Yuma
Stagecoach
Winchester '73
High Noon

Those are all movies that practically transcend the Western genre, actually. They're not just good Westerns, they're good movies overall.

Here, on the other hand, are
My Favorite Westerns
(in a very particular order)

1. The Sons of Katie Elder
2. The Magnificent Seven
3. Rio Bravo
4. Silverado
5. Tombstone
6. A Fistful of Dollars
7. The Lone Ranger
8. The Mask of Zorro
9. North to Alaska
10. Tall in the Saddle
11. The Rare Breed
12. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
13. Support Your Local Sheriff
14. The Fastest Gun Alive
15. El Dorado
16. The Quick and the Dead
17. Texas
18. Hondo
19. Texas Across the River
20. Maverick