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FH Mini 94 - Outside the Actors Studio - Val Kilmer

mini Dec 9, 2023 01:00:42
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Transcript

[0:00] Hey, hello, welcome to a Flophouse Mini.
[0:07] This is a mini episode of the Flophouse podcast, a podcast where we normally watch a bad movie
[0:11] and then talk about it.
[0:13] On today's mini, we are stepping outside the actor's studio.
[0:18] That's right.
[0:19] I'm your host, Stuart Studio Wellington.
[0:21] I'm just sort of hanging out outside looking in.
[0:24] I mean, outside the actor's studio is where I am 100% of the time.
[0:27] I'm never inside it.
[0:28] It's true.
[0:29] Absolutely.
[0:30] Because we are the hosts of the Flophouse podcast.
[0:32] I'm Stuart Studio Wellington.
[0:34] Joining me are...
[0:35] I'm Dan Actors McCoy.
[0:37] I thought he was going to say Dan Dancefloor McCoy, and I'll say Elliot Electric Light
[0:43] Scalin.
[0:44] Perfect.
[0:45] And we are three non-professional actors.
[0:49] Don't check my IMDb page.
[0:51] And we are going to be talking about the movies of an actor that we find interesting.
[0:58] That's what we do here in outside the actor's studio.
[1:00] We are going to focus on a single actor whose work we find interesting.
[1:04] We're going to talk about some of their bigger works and some of their smaller works and
[1:09] then do a wrap up.
[1:10] I was waiting for the joke after smaller works because I thought it was going to be a classic
[1:15] one, two, three disruption structure, but it didn't happen.
[1:18] The thing is, this is normally we are a comedy show.
[1:22] Today we are going to be two at least.
[1:26] Watch out.
[1:27] I can imagine a series of clues to bombs throughout the New York metropolitan area.
[1:30] This is going to be a game of cat and mouse.
[1:32] Oh, wow.
[1:33] There's no cat and mouse.
[1:34] No.
[1:35] It's a game of cat and slightly smaller cat.
[1:36] It's adorable.
[1:37] On today's inaugural episode of Outside the Actor's Studio, we're going to be talking
[1:42] about the movies of Val Kilmer.
[1:44] Val Kilmer is an actor who has been on my mind.
[1:48] I think I've talked about his movies with Dan recently because I've caught up on some
[1:53] of them.
[1:54] I just recently watched the documentary that he made, Val, which is filled with amazing
[2:01] footage that he from his entire life.
[2:05] It's wild.
[2:07] And it's kind of an interesting portrait of Val Kilmer, the man and the artist.
[2:12] But we're not really going to be talking about him as a person who is obviously like all
[2:16] of us complicated.
[2:18] We are going to be talking about movies.
[2:19] He's in.
[2:20] Feel free to pull up IMDb, gentlemen, doing it right.
[2:24] I'm assuming you are.
[2:25] You are both familiar with Val Kilmer.
[2:27] I, you know, yeah, I'm familiar with this work.
[2:29] So to get started, we're going to talk about movies from Batman Forever to The Saint.
[2:34] I've seen them somewhat.
[2:36] Before we.
[2:37] The steam experiment.
[2:38] Yeah.
[2:39] Yeah.
[2:40] Well, let's let's talk about some general career stuff.
[2:43] According to IMDb, he has been in seventy nine movies.
[2:48] That includes voice work and whatever criteria IMDb considers to be a movie.
[2:55] And he's also been.
[2:56] I believe you can correct me.
[2:57] He's been in three movies that we covered here at the Flophouse, the theme experiment
[3:03] being one of them.
[3:04] The snowman.
[3:05] Oh, right.
[3:06] We did.
[3:07] Delgo.
[3:08] He was a voice in Delgo.
[3:09] Delgo is a movie I frequently forget exists.
[3:12] And I'm not worse off for that.
[3:14] No.
[3:15] You're able to walk down the street smiling as opposed to frowning.
[3:20] Yeah.
[3:21] Weighed down with a shadow by the existence of Delgo and my knowledge of that fact.
[3:26] Now Val Kilmer's been in some movies that have been hits and some of that have been
[3:29] misses.
[3:31] Can you guess which movie he has been in has had the highest box office?
[3:36] This is a pretty easy one.
[3:37] I think the highest box office is his Batman movie, whichever one that it is not.
[3:43] Elliot, you want to you want to throw a guess?
[3:45] I would guess like Top Gun or Top Gun Maverick, Top Gun Maverick by a landslide.
[3:51] That's what I think.
[3:53] One point five billion dollars in the box office.
[3:55] I was I was confiding myself to ones where he stars, which is not.
[4:00] Yep.
[4:01] That is not the criteria.
[4:02] Yeah.
[4:03] I didn't say that.
[4:04] Now that is not adjusting for inflation.
[4:05] Right.
[4:06] Uh, that is not adjusting for inflation.
[4:07] I think he's exclusively what it says on if you just if you just for inflation, I think
[4:11] you'll find that the ghost of the darkness was by far the biggest thing.
[4:15] No, I'm just kidding.
[4:16] It wasn't his second place was Top Gun.
[4:20] And then after that, like just after that was Batman, Batman forever, forever as a Batman.
[4:26] Yeah, it's Batman forever, which is ironic.
[4:28] I never played the part again.
[4:30] That's true.
[4:32] That was intended by the title, right?
[4:34] Yeah.
[4:35] Yeah.
[4:36] I can just tell.
[4:37] Yeah.
[4:38] Yeah.
[4:40] I mean, forever is really just a kiss by the Rose delivery system at this point, right?
[4:45] Kiss from a rose.
[4:46] Yeah.
[4:47] Yeah.
[4:48] Look, I mean, I was thinking of karaoke.
[4:50] Yeah.
[4:51] The rose is giving you a kiss, but it might not be performing the kiss.
[4:56] Yeah.
[4:57] And the kiss from a rose is happening either at or on on the gray.
[5:01] Which I don't know if that's your body or a place.
[5:04] It's on the gray.
[5:06] So the kiss from a rose is much like the book A Kiss for a Little Bear, where the kiss
[5:11] is transferred from animal to animal, from Little Bear's grandmother to himself and back.
[5:15] That's the situation that we're talking about.
[5:17] Exactly.
[5:18] A common reference we're all familiar with.
[5:19] I get kisses from little bears all the time.
[5:22] I mean, it's a book about animals and it's a song performed by an animal.
[5:25] His name is Seal.
[5:26] So.
[5:27] That's true.
[5:28] Oh, wow.
[5:29] Okay.
[5:30] Probably a bear's natural enemy.
[5:31] Yeah.
[5:32] Yeah.
[5:33] He showed up with the receipts this time.
[5:35] Okay.
[5:36] So I have I have selected five movies that have Val Kilmer in them that I think kind
[5:41] of cover different aspects of his career.
[5:44] Obviously, it's not going to cover everything.
[5:46] After we go over these five, you'll have a chance to talk about movies that I did not
[5:50] mention that you particularly liked.
[5:52] So number one, the first one is also his first movie, Top Secret.
[5:57] Now, this was a huge one for me.
[5:59] Zucker Brothers, have you guys do you have any general thoughts on the movie Top Secret?
[6:06] This was one that I mean, I saw this as a kid, but I saw it later than Airplane and
[6:13] Naked Gun.
[6:14] They're more successful movies box office wise.
[6:20] And I was kind of like, wait, there's a there's another one that no one talks about.
[6:25] And I.
[6:26] It's a top secret, Dan.
[6:28] Yeah.
[6:29] I enjoyed it a lot.
[6:30] I remember laughing a lot as a kid.
[6:32] I saw it again recently, like, like, not recently, recently, but maybe four or five years ago,
[6:39] there was like a rep screening.
[6:40] I'm like, oh, that'd be fun.
[6:41] I'll go see Top Secret and watching it.
[6:43] I'm just like, I remember all of these jokes.
[6:46] None of it's funny to me because I just remember all of these jokes.
[6:49] But at the time, it was very funny.
[6:51] Yeah.
[6:52] I thought you were watching.
[6:53] You're like, I can't believe they made Omar Sharif the butt of a joke.
[6:56] No, I mean, I feel like as a, you know, as a budding comedy genius, Top Secret had a
[7:04] huge effect on me.
[7:06] And there's fucking jokes in that that I think about, like, I think about to this day the
[7:09] fucking bit where he's he has a dream where he shows up to school and he hasn't prepared
[7:15] for the test.
[7:16] And then he wakes up and he's being whipped and he goes, oh, thank God, like, I think
[7:21] about that and laugh at myself all the time.
[7:24] That was I think the joke that I that I think about that because it really kind of bothered
[7:27] me as a kid is when the man has the magnifying glass up to his face and he pulls it away
[7:32] and his eye is still enormous.
[7:34] He's got this enormous fake eye that it wasn't that the magnifying glass was making his eye
[7:38] look big, but that he's just it has this hideous facial feature.
[7:42] Yeah.
[7:43] They have like I mean, not that they don't have amazing sight gags in the like airplane
[7:49] in Naked Gun, but I feel like the sight gags are more sort of technically complex in Top
[7:55] Secret.
[7:56] Like, you know, they've got that whole backwards scene and everything.
[7:58] Yeah.
[7:59] I think that's what the the the the spyglass is from.
[8:01] That was.
[8:02] Yeah.
[8:03] Yeah.
[8:04] I believe it is.
[8:05] And or opening of the scene and the fucking underwater saloon fight.
[8:06] Yeah.
[8:07] Like, it's crazy.
[8:08] It's a real I it's I never found it quite as funny as I did that Naked Gun movies.
[8:14] But it's a it's more of a yeah, there's parts of it that are real technical achievement
[8:18] in terms of a comedy movie in that way.
[8:20] Although it does involve a scene right where a man dressed as an animal is assaulted by
[8:25] a horny animal, which I'm never a fan of.
[8:28] Do not do not like them.
[8:29] Yeah.
[8:30] Yeah.
[8:31] I did a PowerPoint once years ago that I have never been able to perform again.
[8:34] I've never had the guts to do it again about my about those those types of scenes and my
[8:39] dislike of them.
[8:40] You know.
[8:41] Yeah.
[8:42] I think it's because specifically Gorillaz usually.
[8:43] You said the word rape too many.
[8:44] You're like wait a minute.
[8:45] I said the word because he's the phrase a rape many times in the in the presentation.
[8:48] I remember doing it once and as soon as I done as I was done, I was like, oh, I can't
[8:52] believe I did that.
[8:53] I don't I can't do that.
[8:54] Never again.
[8:55] Yeah.
[8:56] And it has that scene where the it looks like the train is leaving the station and it's
[9:02] that the platform is moving away and that blew my little mind.
[9:07] I mean, I feel like we're picking out gags in a movie that is like ninety nine percent.
[9:13] Oh, it's all gags.
[9:16] I mean, there's nothing there's nothing else really to it other than gags.
[9:18] Right.
[9:19] The now I think I mean, I think we're all at least we're all fans of this movie on various
[9:25] levels.
[9:26] But how do you how do you feel about Val Kilmer in it?
[9:29] This is like his first this is his first movie and he's the star.
[9:34] I mean, I think that pardon me.
[9:37] I think that he's good in it.
[9:40] He's good in it.
[9:41] He's got a comic flair that to me, I don't want to I don't know what you're going to
[9:45] talk about next or whatever, but like I prefer him in real genius comedy wise.
[9:52] I think that the that what makes Airplane and Naked Gun work so well is that it's.
[10:00] actors being so serious and like Kilmer has like an impish flair that like is
[10:07] weird that that is what he comes out of the gate with because later on I would
[10:12] argue that the problem with some of his performances is he becomes more humorless
[10:16] but that's I like his performance in it for that reason that it shows that side
[10:21] of him that we don't otherwise get to see in many other movies and which he
[10:25] could have very well been like a handsome comedy star which at the time
[10:29] was not as common as it is now where even comedies have to star people who
[10:34] are incredibly handsome they can't start it's like have you been a professional
[10:37] wrestler before I don't think you could start in this company bench 225 because
[10:44] if you can't you can't start in this company oh we're casting a comedy can I
[10:47] see your abs do you want to hear me tell some jokes no just lift the shirt let me
[10:50] see your abs no I'm sorry they're not chiseled enough yeah to be in a funny
[10:53] movie I don't need like I don't I don't I guess we don't need to take like a
[10:58] negative detour but I will say that like we're doing like I like you know the
[11:06] various wrestling like comic stars to various degrees like less so the rock
[11:12] these days more so like like Batista and and and Sina yeah they're good what they
[11:19] do but at the same time I do think that there's a little bit still of the
[11:23] like that old like what was it Johnson quote about like a dog on a time like
[11:33] harsh harsh criticism well no I mean well it's just like you I do think that
[11:39] part of like the excitement for people in those roles other than like Drax who
[11:45] I think is like it's a Batista is amazing in there but like some of the
[11:51] Sina stuff I'm like as much as I like him I also feel like people are still
[11:57] giving him credit for being like a buff guy who's funny in the same way that
[12:01] like back in the day when everyone was like oh man Justin Timberlake is so
[12:05] funny on Saturday Night Live I'm like is he yeah he's he's better than you would
[12:10] expect and that's why you like way better than Timberlake but I feel like
[12:16] you got that with Jon Hamm for a little bit too where they're like he's so
[12:19] handsome but he's also can do comedy funnies and the I want to mention also
[12:24] that Samuel Johnson quote Dan is a is it it's explicitly it's a very sexist
[12:28] criticism of women preaching Dan yeah not does not I don't endorse that half
[12:33] of it but I think you're right that there is so many emails are finished
[12:37] right now I think there is a little bit of a like can you believe this guy is
[12:41] funny also can see he do these other things but I think there's also a
[12:44] there's been a flattening of film comedy to the kind of comedy that someone with
[12:49] a professional wrestling background is good at which is kind of yeah bluster
[12:52] you know yeah like and I kind of miss the days when you would have like when
[12:57] you when there would be a comedy like I don't know like the jerk or something
[13:02] like that we're like it was not a it was there were varying tones to it and it
[13:07] was a guy who could also do quiet things as opposed to just loud guys get into
[13:11] arguments and things like that which I feel like there is a lot of comedy now
[13:13] but anyway that's just me being an old man not like a real old man I mean the
[13:18] fact is the fact is if you're gonna ask me what kind of comedy I want to see
[13:21] I'm gonna be like horse feathers and they do not make comedies like horse
[13:26] feathers anymore you know make a comedy like that these days they're all right
[13:29] they're not bankable you could not get enough people to the theater to see it
[13:33] yeah okay just try to make a comedy like Sherlock jr. these days you couldn't do
[13:39] it people demand a soundtrack with talking in their movies even the artist
[13:43] talking it was that the dog was the dog talking I don't remember I didn't see
[13:49] the art yeah the dog was telling you to take a bite out of crime yeah the dog was
[13:53] the dog was telling you to stalk young couples as they exited studio 54 that's
[14:00] a son of Sam Joe no yeah it took me a while but I got there interesting yeah
[14:03] okay should I mention more movie should I should I ironically state more types
[14:07] of movies that you can't make anymore you can't watch movies starring Cary
[14:11] Grant anymore just try it go out and try to make a Cary Grant movie you can't
[14:14] even make a movie like that anymore it's been dead for years and in the studios
[14:19] agreed not to do a bunch of AI CG bullshit with Cary Grant right actually
[14:23] you're you know what they should now that's not a thing about it that is the
[14:26] one kind of movie you probably can make nowadays is a movie with a dead dead
[14:29] celebrity starring I mean the fucking actors way easier to deal with than these
[14:32] assholes that are always striking right yeah you try to just try to make an
[14:36] action movie starring Jello Biafra these days you can't do it because he has no
[14:40] interest in it you just can't make a movie like that these days just try go
[14:44] talk to him about it doesn't want to do it and then when he does agree you're
[14:48] like what did I do this is gonna be bad okay the next movie on my little list is
[14:58] one he does not star in we're talking Michael Mann's heat heat everybody movie
[15:04] I just rewatched that last year when I was earlier this year yeah yeah he holds
[15:09] up I was gonna say I having rewatch it now when I watched it is what like a
[15:16] teenager it didn't like it didn't quite resonate with me it felt a little bit
[15:22] too long yada yada but as a 40 plus year old man I'm like oh I get it this rules
[15:28] yeah it really it really it's a really good movie there is a part of it though
[15:32] where like Robert De Niro is set up with kind of an easy choice to make which is
[15:36] whether to be a criminal who dies or go off with a beautiful woman and live
[15:40] happily forever and it is I guess it's a portrait of male obsession you know that
[15:44] he yeah man that choice Michael Mann stuff that's that Michael man stuff it
[15:48] is that Michael man I gotta say though like I'm the dissenter I mean I like he
[15:52] don't give me a center sorry boy I feel like if you say anything bad about heat
[15:57] the internet is gonna murder you but I like it I like it but I rewatched it
[16:05] again at a rep screening man I I do have time to burn Elliot right I watched it
[16:11] recently and I'm like I don't know like with a lot of these like really guys guy
[16:16] movies I'm just like this is too this is too too guy for me like I know that the
[16:21] movie I don't think endorses no the movie is a critique of that it's it's an
[16:25] understanding critique of it it sympathizes with it but critiques it
[16:28] yeah but I just I I find it tiring I will say to be honest that was kind of
[16:34] the impression I had when I finally got to watch sorcerer where I was like the I
[16:39] was like oh this is just guys doing guys guys stuff in a in a hard situation and
[16:43] I love wages of fear and watching sorcerer I was like mmm I'm kind of done
[16:48] with these guys like I don't like any of them I don't really care if they finish
[16:51] this thing but with me maybe it's because he involved it like there you
[16:55] see a little bit the people who are affected by this behavior you know just
[16:59] a little bit and Al Pacino gives an amazing performance as a character who
[17:04] is probably on drugs the entire movie mm-hmm you know it's it's one of the
[17:09] rare it's I feel like this is one of those movies it's like this incentive a
[17:12] woman are the ones where like people were like Al Pacino you're great when
[17:15] you go all out all the time and he's like that's what I'll do I'll only get
[17:19] bigger from now on I think you forgot devil's advocate oh you're right I did
[17:25] forget devil's advocate you're right devil's advocate is like the biggest
[17:28] performance I think I've ever seen playing the devil in that I feel like I
[17:34] love Keanu Reeves but watching Keanu Reeves in that movie I'm like oh I'm
[17:37] sorry man you didn't come to the you didn't bring the right equipment but Val
[17:43] Kilmer and he I think it's I think that's a good and this is the same year
[17:47] I'm looking I'm to be the same year he starred as Batman and I feel like he's
[17:50] so much better used in heat than he is in Batman not because I carry a movie
[17:55] but because he doesn't have to carry it so he can kind of do what he needs to
[17:58] do with the role and he and he like he delivers a performance that is not as
[18:03] big as Pacino oh yes yes and he I feel like he matches De Niro's kind of like
[18:10] quiet male sadness yeah it's a bit just one year before his defining role in the
[18:17] island of dr. Moreau oh baby I hope it's time at the island dr. Moreau is a that
[18:22] is a self-inflicted he literally said I don't want to be the star of this movie
[18:28] anymore and swapped roles you know that's that's a that could have been a
[18:32] very different movie and he could have different but he's I don't know that one
[18:36] scene I'll dr. Moreau where he's impersonating Marlon Brando is it's very
[18:40] great it's a very funny scene and there's something about it that I know
[18:43] that's not the movie we're supposed to be talking about it there's something
[18:45] about it where it's like he is play acting it's like a child putting on his
[18:49] dad's clothes he's play acting as someone whose work clearly means a lot
[18:53] to him and I and it adds this metatextual aspect to it that the island
[18:57] of dr. Moreau otherwise doesn't it does not have it all guys his last name in
[19:01] heat is shakira lists yeah which seems like a very specific I just I think I
[19:14] mean I I haven't I haven't read heat to yet but I think he's like one of the
[19:20] only surviving characters from the first movie and I guess he's he's a pivotal
[19:25] character in it and what young what young hot star will be cast as this
[19:29] character okay answer answer well work so moving on
[19:34] here first that's my guess oh maybe moving on we're gonna talk about
[19:39] another another big one there's another this is a starring Val Kilmer
[19:42] performance Oliver Stone's the doors I've never actually seen the doors Wow
[19:48] neither I I've never been that interested enough in the subject or the
[19:52] director I've never really loved our stones movies I think you've put your
[19:56] figure correctly I mean like I like some of Oliver Stone's movies
[20:00] but there has to be something else enticing me and if the topic is this band that I
[20:08] don't go on hate like some people do but i don't find very interesting like i'm like
[20:15] every once in a while i hear a door song i'm like that's an okay song
[20:20] it is one of those things where this is a movie i haven't watched i think since it came out on like
[20:26] vhs or something uh and i remember mainly being interested in it for
[20:32] uh scenes of drug use and nudity uh which like someday that'll be me movie delivers
[20:38] yeah wait someday you'll be interested in drug use and nudity dan no no someday yeah
[20:44] someday i'll be nude on drugs weirdly enough not that long after watching
[20:51] whatever yeah i mean well one half of those things you could do at any time if you wanted to
[20:56] i mean which half is that good question nudity i mean well i guess you can do it at any time
[21:01] i'm just saying that you don't have to like wait to a certain point in your life to have access to
[21:05] i mean that's true to be honest the younger you are the more nudity you're probably experiencing
[21:09] when you're like a little kid or a baby you can just be new all the time yeah are you working on
[21:13] some kind of riddle what is nude all the time what's nude all the time in the morning not
[21:19] nude that much in the afternoon and then never nude hopefully in the evening it's me body shaming
[21:26] the elderly yeah uh so yeah i think i think we're all in agreement i i kind of put this on the way
[21:31] on the sphinx's answer is michael mann oh interesting yeah that's the answer the riddle
[21:36] not just michael mann i feel like this movie the part of it is that like i feel like
[21:42] val kilmer as jim morrison has become swapped a lot in in like pop culture where if you put
[21:48] up an image of val kilmer as jim morrison people are like that's what that's jim morrison the
[21:53] original yeah to the point that like i wouldn't be surprised that there's people who have gotten
[21:56] jim morrison tattoos that are val kilmer's face the same way people have gotten malcolm x tattoos
[22:01] and it's denzel washington yeah i mean i do remember the doors being very popular when it
[22:07] came out like and you know i was like a teen and like these other people are seeing the doors
[22:11] they're talking about the door so i'm like even then i was like what is it about a movie about
[22:16] the doors that is like capturing the the youth right now like this seems like such a throwback
[22:24] like like in retrospect it feels like you know more sort of just like deification of like 60s
[22:32] you know and like you know exalting 60s culture that we grew up with you know like even the stuff
[22:38] that's like okay i guess this is it's not not as deep as you think i guess it's a modern music i
[22:45] also think jim morrison's place in culture has sunk quite a bit i remember when we were young i
[22:50] would hear about him all the time there are all these conspiracies that he faked his death and
[22:53] he was living in paris as a poet or things like that you'd hear about people going to his grave
[22:58] and having sex on it or leaving you know liquor there or something and and i feel like nobody
[23:03] talks about jim morrison anymore no the same way that i don't hear people talk about janice
[23:06] joplin anymore and i feel like when i was young i heard about the legend of janice joplin all the
[23:10] time maybe just because my dad is a real classic classic rock guy but i feel like these are
[23:15] cultural signifiers that were very big when our parents generation was still the lead leader in
[23:20] culture in a big way yeah and that's not the case anymore so like nobody's talking about now we hear
[23:26] about the crap we grew up with instead of talking about janice joplin and jimmy hendrix you hear
[23:31] about kurt cobain basically yeah that's you know when it comes to world yeah we're talking about
[23:35] young rock stars people who died before they were able to uh sour in the public eye yeah um
[23:43] i remember so with this movie i feel like it uh if i don't remember it having a ton
[23:49] of like tight narrative uh but val kilmer i feel like is good in it uh it's his chance to be
[23:57] like actor with a capital a uh and he throws himself in it but yeah like it doesn't make
[24:03] it necessarily a fun watch yeah and the thing i want to mention is unrelated to the movie which
[24:08] is just that so my dad was a big rock and roll guy when he was young and he was in a rock band
[24:13] in high school and my grandfather was part owner of a company that made metal storm doors uh and
[24:20] and he when the doors were a big band my dad told me his father went to him and goes if i told you
[24:25] to name your band the doors you would have said i was crazy you would have said it was a terrible
[24:29] idea but now you're listening to a band called the doors that it seems like such a such a funny
[24:33] thing for a dad to say like good boy i guess if i told you i have a band after of what i make
[24:38] professionally you would say no way but look they're popular man that is the that's like
[24:45] the platonic ideal of a dad joke uh okay so let's move on i think we've uh we've closed all the doors
[24:55] uh let's talk about this is this is a personal favorite of mine this is nothing but hunks with
[25:00] mustaches that's right tombstone yeah tombstone the movie not the pizza that's a different thing
[25:07] pal kilmer had nothing to do with the tombstone pizza that i know of uh guys have you ever seen
[25:12] the movie tombstone i have when i was a so when i was younger i lived and died by like the uh
[25:19] reviews i would read a lot more and particularly like uh who's who are your guys yeah we knew you
[25:25] were a big thumbhead you loved robert i was a thumb and i you know i think that tombstone you
[25:31] weren't you weren't uh chocolate malted that's what they call leonard malton fans yeah it was
[25:35] sort of a a middling review and i remember that in general like it like even though it was a big hit
[25:41] it didn't get like the greatest reviews so i didn't watch at the time and then i kept hearing
[25:46] like oh this is so much fun this movie's so much fun and i watched it and lo and behold it is a lot
[25:51] of fun and mostly uh val kilmer is like definitely the highlight of that movie he's he's the guy who
[26:00] he's the he's the paprika character he comes in he had some spice yeah yeah that's a little bit uh
[26:05] sorry a little bit of heat moved away from the microphone alex is gonna scold me it's okay uh
[26:10] yeah i mean there's uh man you got you got kurt russell you got sam elliott you got bill paxton
[26:17] you got powers booth what you got michael b so many hunks with mustache they should have called
[26:24] this manstone it kind of feels like that sounds like this sounds like gay porn in the flintstones
[26:32] world barney what are you doing with this uh elliot have you ever seen tombstone uh yeah i
[26:44] haven't seen it in a long time and i should re-watch it uh i remember seeing it as a teenager
[26:49] and enjoying it uh and i'd like to watch it again and see if i have the same issue with it that i
[26:53] have with a lot of westerns from the 80s and 90s which is sometimes they kind of feel the need to be
[27:00] the western like it had like because they were making so few of them at the time
[27:03] it feels like it needs to be all things that a western can be and like i recently i'd never seen
[27:08] silverado and i watched that recently and i was like i'm like there's six or seven different
[27:12] movies going on in here and they do not fit together and but it feels like he felt like
[27:16] he had to make every western he could possibly make because he's never gonna get to make one
[27:20] again but uh yeah and like they have to like re-establish the language again yes yeah they
[27:26] have to exactly there's so much of it felt like uh i'm introducing an audience to westerns who
[27:30] either haven't seen them in a while or i've never seen them when i love to watch i also watched a
[27:35] movie i'm going to recommend at some point in the future uh samuel fuller's 40 guns which is just a
[27:39] fun western like i i really enjoy westerns where it's just like you know what's going on let's do
[27:44] a western story uh so i'm gonna have to re-watch him so i haven't seen a while but i remember
[27:48] val kilmer yeah it's super fun in it he gets doc holiday which is the most fun character
[27:53] in the tombs in that story because he's like he's he's the he's the bad boy he's dying like all the
[28:00] he's romantic tragic yeah he's a tragic romantic fun figure he is so good in the movie where like
[28:06] anytime he's on screen you're like i should also want to look at everyone else but i just want to
[28:11] look at him yeah yeah yeah uh and michael bean plays a great uh bad guy foil for him that also
[28:19] at no point is there ever a moment when he's going to beat val kilmer no never gonna you know
[28:23] it's not gonna happen yeah no it's great the original bean town bad boy
[28:29] anytime he's in his bean town yeah uh okay and then we have one more before our break this is
[28:36] uh later career val kilmer uh the one that is uh still pretty near to my heart uh talking about
[28:43] shane black's kiss kiss bang bang have you ever seen this movie guys i literally just the other
[28:49] day said to myself oh yeah i never got around to seeing kiss kiss bang bang i should watch that
[28:54] yeah that surprises me i mean it's hit or miss with me and you know and i i kind of i always keep
[29:02] lists of movies that i want to see so i don't forget them and then i forget those lists and
[29:06] i just end up wandering around in the halls of cinema whichever way life leads me so i'll watch
[29:11] it maybe did you uh did you see the nice guys no that's another one where i was thinking i'm like
[29:16] oh yeah i'm seeing the nice guys too i should see that well i was gonna say i agree that i mean like
[29:20] shane black stuff i agree is hit or miss uh but most of my fondness for him is based on kiss kiss
[29:29] bang bang and the nice guys i feel like that is the best iteration of his thing and it's a shame
[29:35] that those are like two of his least successful movies but uh but kiss kiss bang bang is is i
[29:43] don't know i mean maybe you would find it a little too clever knowing your i like clever stuff
[29:51] you get annoyed at things that are sort of ostentatiously clever sometimes and there's
[29:56] like a there's a lot of like it's all
[30:00] Based on like quips back and forth, but it's a lot of arched eyebrows
[30:03] I think I like it a lot if the movie can set it just being personally for something the movie can set a tone
[30:09] Of this is not supposed to this is not supposed to be realistic. This is heightened
[30:13] That's like I like Tarantino stuff and his stuff is it's all you know
[30:17] It's it's not exactly the same kind of smug smarmy quips
[30:20] But it's like you go into it being like well
[30:22] I know this is not gonna be reality
[30:25] You know and it and it's very much like both this and the nice guys are very much living in a like paperback detective
[30:32] Story. Yeah world where that like smarmyness is part of the charm. Okay
[30:37] Well, maybe that'll be the next mini is me reporting back on these two movies
[30:41] And I think at the time when this movie came out, which was what 2000 I want to say 2005
[30:47] 2005 exactly right according to IMDb 2005
[30:51] like Downey jr
[30:54] Hadn't hadn't been Iron Man yet, right? Yeah, I know this is like really like this was what came back and I'm like I
[31:00] Admit that like everyone talked about how talented he was like early in his career and I was never like the biggest fan and then
[31:06] When this came out like I'm sort of like older wiser ready to work down a junior
[31:12] Came out like he I think he's so good in this movie that I got on board the train right away, you know
[31:18] I'm sorry. I was just gonna say and Val Kilmer was also like his starred kind of dipped a bit
[31:24] Mm-hmm, and but he he provides a lot of kind of grounding to the movie. Whereas like with Downey jr
[31:31] he is the like kind of wacky like
[31:35] antagonist who was or a protagonist who was also not very good at anything and
[31:39] And Val Kilmer provide like I don't know. There's something about like
[31:43] The weight of this other star kind of like keeping everything together
[31:47] Yeah, I kind of missed that about Robert Downey jr. That I feel like the the last roles
[31:52] I've seen him in for the past. I don't know since Iron Man. He's playing like like like cocky competent
[32:00] You know snarky like he's not a nice guy, but you know
[32:03] He's the hero that kind of stuff and I kind of miss you just like an Oppenheimer. Where's the hero of the whole thing?
[32:10] He's a paper-thin villain, you know
[32:13] but in a I've kind of missed when he'll play weird parts like in um scanner darkly where his characters is is such a like
[32:19] I mean, he's great such an unpleasantly off-the-wall character and I'm like, oh, I love this performance so much. He's so good in it
[32:25] Yeah, there's something like but like home for the holidays where he's a good man. Yeah, he's great in it and like clearly he like
[32:32] Not doing well in life
[32:35] But it works in the context of the movie
[32:38] Okay, I think this is a Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, I think he's great
[32:44] So good. We mostly talked about Robert Denny jr
[32:49] That's what happens outside the actor's studio now, let's have a word from our sponsor
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[34:12] domain guys doing a
[34:15] review of an actor's work kind of reminds me that time is fleeting and that
[34:19] It's a great idea to try and capture what you can so you can remember those special moments and a perfect way to do
[34:26] That is with an aura digital picture frame
[34:29] Which Wirecutter describes as the best digital photo frame and it's easy to see why you can upload a whole bunch of your favorite
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[34:41] You can even load up a personal message to play as soon as they take it out of the box
[34:45] So they get that moment of your voice and they're like this person loves me and if you're giving it as a gift
[34:51] I didn't even think about this before but
[34:53] One thing you can do is like if you're giving it to like family and you have access to the aura photos
[34:58] Like as you get new photos, you can load in photos that they can see if like what you're up to these days
[35:05] So it's not the same old photos all the time. That's great
[35:07] And you can you can also you can also sneak in goofs if you want a few goofs
[35:12] Yeah, I mean
[35:14] It's like a modern-day Dorian gray portrait that ages with you
[35:18] As you put the new photos in see that's why they pay you the big bucks
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[35:26] Calm today and give get $30 off their best-selling frames with the code flop
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[35:39] Frames calm with the promo code flop terms and conditions apply
[35:45] They certainly do. Hey speaking of terms and conditions
[35:48] I've got some conditions under which if you follow the right terms, you'll be able to see the flophouse in person in your life
[35:55] That's right. We've got some flophouse tour dates coming up
[35:58] Very exciting the flophouse errors tour the cultural event of 2024 probably will be appear happening over four nights in
[36:07] 2024 that's in January Wednesday, January 24th will be in Vancouver, Canada at the Rio Theatre and we're gonna talk about
[36:14] Cobra, that's right. Crime is the disease Cobra is the cure. We're gonna talk about it. Then the next night Thursday, January 25th
[36:21] We're gonna be in Portland, Oregon for the at the Aladdin Theatre. We're gonna talk about cool as ice
[36:26] Remember when vanilla ice was a movie star once this was it and we're gonna talk about it
[36:31] Don't say turn them don't say Ninja Turtles to he was not a star in that there's a glorified cameo Dan
[36:36] I knew you were gonna bring it up. Don't bring it up. I was thinking about it
[36:39] But then you you know, I'm thinking about the cinematographer from Schindler's List. Yeah, that's Kaminsky who also may yeah, that's right
[36:45] It's part of our celebration of the work of John who's Kaminsky
[36:49] It's cool as ice then the next night Friday, January 26
[36:52] We're very excited to be part of the San Francisco sketch fest in San Francisco, California
[36:56] We're gonna be at Cobb's Comedy Club talking about Gilly. That's right. The movie that brought together and destroyed the relationship
[37:11] I wonder if they watch it regularly now that they're married. Well, maybe we'll ask them and
[37:17] Does she still say it's turkey time?
[37:19] She must every time she demands cuddling us. She says it's turkey time
[37:23] Yeah, so anyway just as in the movie don't know what I'm talking about. Come see the show Friday
[37:29] Really you've never seen Gilly. Oh my god, you're in for not a treat
[37:35] And then finally on Sunday January 28th will be in Los Angeles, California
[37:40] My hometown at the Regent Theatre where we're gonna talk about that critical darling of the 90s cinema world spawn
[37:48] That's right
[37:49] The movie that paved the way for the MCU you could say by showing that yes
[37:53] You can make a superhero movie with with computer animation. It just doesn't have to be good spawn. So again, that's Wow
[38:00] Marvel really took that and ran with it
[38:04] Eventually January 24th, Vancouver Cobra January 25th, Portland cool as ice January 26th
[38:11] San Francisco Gilly and January 28th, LA spawn go to flop house podcast
[38:16] Comm slash events to buy tickets and for more information, that's flop house podcast comm slash events
[38:22] Some of these shows there may be VIP tickets available where you may get to see us. I'm not sure if they are
[38:29] The the Vancouver one is the only one with VIP and I believe they're sold out by now. Oh, never mind then. Sorry everybody
[38:36] Well, you can still see us in person
[38:37] But hey, let's say you don't want to see us in person, but you still want to see us
[38:41] Why not tune in to flop TV, that's right
[38:44] There's one more new episode left of flop TV our monthly live internet broadcast show where it's like this
[38:50] But in front of your face and video and it also fits into a nice
[38:53] Mostly one hour time slot so you can do other things with your night if you want to our last show will be on January
[38:59] 6 that's the first Saturday in January and we're talking about the second worst movie I've ever made a movie
[39:04] I don't like but it's been in the news lately because it's suddenly expensive on video I guess and that's new key
[39:10] So January 6 we're gonna be talking about new key. That's at 9 p.m
[39:14] Eastern 6 p.m
[39:15] Pacific if you get a season pass
[39:16] You'll have access to all of the episodes that we already done what episodes those recordings your ticket to new key if you can't
[39:22] Make it live on January 6 get you access to the video of that
[39:25] But if you have the season pass you can go back and binge all of the episodes we've done
[39:28] They'll be available what through the end of January through the end of January and I don't want to
[39:34] oversell this because I may fail
[39:37] Usually but I am trying something
[39:40] very ambitious for my presentation for this new key episode even if Dan fails that itself may be a joy and a triumph for the
[39:47] viewers at home and
[39:49] Like that it'll be like that Daffy Duck cartoon where he sets himself on fire on a stage
[39:54] Well, he does that on purpose though. He'd swallows a lot of explosives and then swallows a match and blows himself up
[40:00] That's what he does!
[40:01] It's an amazing trick.
[40:02] It's an amazing act.
[40:03] Yeah, but I can only do it once.
[40:04] And then he goes up to heaven or down to hell sometimes.
[40:06] Anyway.
[40:07] Yeah.
[40:08] Those episodes, after the end of January, we'll go back into the Flophouse vault.
[40:11] So don't miss your chance to join us for this final episode of the season.
[40:14] Hopefully we'll do more someday in the future.
[40:16] But this is the final one for now.
[40:17] Go to theflophouse.simpletics.com and on January 6th, join us for New Key.
[40:23] But if you want to see us in person so close you could touch us if our security wasn't
[40:27] going to slap you down if you tried to, then come to see our Errors Tour this January.
[40:32] January's got a lot of Flophouse performing.
[40:34] I'm looking forward to it.
[40:35] Dan, you secured security by the Hells Angels this tour, right?
[40:39] Yep.
[40:40] History tells me nothing can go wrong.
[40:43] I once heard a story about the band Sparks that they said, we want to be in charge of
[40:48] security for the venue.
[40:49] And they said, OK.
[40:50] And they hired nothing but models and put them in security costumes, security uniforms.
[40:55] So they were still doing the security job.
[40:57] Yeah.
[40:58] But it was all just beautiful models wearing security uniforms.
[41:01] Probably a much better way of keeping people in line than the Hells Angels.
[41:05] Yeah.
[41:06] Intimidate them with beauty.
[41:07] Hello, Sleepyheads.
[41:14] Sleeping with Celebrities is your podcast pillow pal.
[41:18] We talk to remarkable people about unremarkable topics, all to help you slow down your brain
[41:24] and drift off to sleep.
[41:25] For instance, we have the remarkable Neil Gaiman.
[41:28] I'd always had a vague interest in life, culture, food preparation.
[41:36] Sleeping with Celebrities, hosted by me, John Moe, on MaximumFun.org or wherever you get
[41:42] your podcasts.
[41:43] Night, night.
[41:44] Somewhere in an alternate universe where Hollywood is smarter.
[41:53] And the Emmy nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series are Jet Pacula, Airport Marriott, Ruppel,
[42:03] Dear America, We've Seen You Naked, and Allah in the Family.
[42:10] In our stupid universe, you can't see any of these shows, but you can listen to them
[42:15] on Dead Pilots Society, the podcast that brings you hilarious comedy pilots that the networks
[42:21] and streamers bought but never made.
[42:24] Journey to the alternate television universe of Dead Pilots Society on MaximumFun.org.
[42:31] So welcome back outside the actor's studio.
[42:36] We're talking about the works of actor Val Kilmer today.
[42:40] Now we've talked about a handpicked selection of big movies he was in.
[42:45] Let's talk about some little movies.
[42:47] And while I've had a chance to throw out some faves, why don't you guys, Dan and Elliot,
[42:51] why don't you throw out a...
[42:52] Okay.
[42:53] Which one of those things are we doing first?
[42:54] Are we talking about little movies, or are we throwing out faves, or those little things?
[42:57] Faves, little movie?
[42:58] Well, I mean, this is not little, although it's little, little words.
[43:05] Little is completely the wrong term.
[43:07] Everything's little to God.
[43:08] I'll throw it in the garbage.
[43:10] No, I mentioned it before, you know, maybe it's a weird pick, but because it was on television
[43:19] a lot when I was a kid, Real Genius is the movie I associate most with Val Kilmer.
[43:25] And I think that that movie has stood the test of time in a way that a lot of 80s comedies
[43:32] haven't.
[43:33] I mean, it helps that it doesn't really have a bunch of offensive stuff, at least not that
[43:38] I can remember.
[43:40] And I like that it has real nerds in it.
[43:43] You couldn't make a movie like Real Genius anymore, Dan, because the Cold War is over.
[43:47] Yeah.
[43:49] So I think part of the reason why it holds up is because it was directed by Martha Coolidge,
[43:55] who didn't put that kind of, you know, it didn't grow shit in it.
[44:00] No, yeah, it is a weirdly sensitive movie for what it is, like a bunch of geniuses cutting
[44:07] loose and doing pranks and stuff.
[44:11] And I like that other than Val Kilmer, who, you know, is movie star beautiful and has
[44:17] a lot of charisma in that part, like all of the the nerds and it looked convincingly
[44:24] like nerds who would go to these schools, you know, like they feel like more like real,
[44:31] you know, young people who are growing and I don't know, awkward and learning, you know,
[44:37] and it's it feels very lovable.
[44:40] Yeah, especially compared to its peer, Revenge of the Nerds.
[44:46] Yeah.
[44:47] Which, wow.
[44:48] Tried to warn us about how poisonous nerds can be, but we didn't listen.
[44:53] Yeah, Revenge of the Nerds is a chilling prophecy that the world has only made come true.
[44:58] Yeah.
[44:59] Yeah.
[45:00] There's a theory of a Big Bang where studios will try and make you not be concerned with
[45:08] nerds.
[45:09] You should not pay attention to that.
[45:10] No, no, no.
[45:11] Keep watching the nerds.
[45:12] That's what that's what we're running as we run through the streets as trucks of nerds
[45:16] are being brought into towns.
[45:17] You're next.
[45:18] Keep watching the nerds.
[45:19] You're next.
[45:20] Delicious though.
[45:21] I had never seen.
[45:22] So I had never seen Real Genius.
[45:23] I did not grow up with it.
[45:24] It just wasn't a movie that my folks had on tape at home and we didn't have cable when
[45:25] I was growing up.
[45:26] So it I just watched it the other day.
[45:27] And yeah, it holds up.
[45:28] It's funny.
[45:29] Val Kilmer is great in it.
[45:30] Yeah.
[45:31] William Atherton.
[45:32] Everyone's favorite.
[45:33] Eighties.
[45:34] Asshole, isn't it?
[45:35] Sure.
[45:36] And there's a ton of, you know, there's a ton of, there's a ton of, there's a ton of, there's
[46:08] I watch that again sometime, too, when it was on HBO all the time.
[46:13] I'll mention this is another kind of movie about this is kind of along the lines of heat.
[46:18] This is a movie about men doing bad things and being bad that Val Kilmer is a supporting
[46:24] actor in.
[46:25] But by Lieutenant Port of Call, New Orleans, it's a very different movie than a lot of
[46:29] ways is a I think it's a great movie.
[46:31] I think Val Kilmer is really good in it.
[46:33] And similarly, because he's able to play off a much wilder performance from Nicolas Cage.
[46:40] And it's a it's just an example of like one of the things that Val Kilmer does really
[46:44] well that he also does in heat, which is provide that kind of like ballast, you know, while
[46:49] also creating his own character.
[46:51] He's not just there in relationship to the main character, but he also but he is providing
[46:55] a necessary counterweight to that main character at times.
[46:59] I think that's one of the things that Val Kilmer brings to a lot of his roles is that
[47:02] like even if he's not going to be getting the beginning the spotlight, he puts in the
[47:07] work to like build a character for himself.
[47:10] Yeah.
[47:11] And it I mean, it it shows he feels like in many ways that he is kind of I mean, he's
[47:18] he's a thinking actor in a way that he didn't have to be in his career necessarily because
[47:23] he was he's very handsome and he could have easily been Batman or the Saint or whatever.
[47:28] I mean, I would probably argue it has hurt him as an actor and hurt his career.
[47:33] Yeah.
[47:34] Whereas if he was more like his Top Gun cast, castmate Tom Cruise, who is eager to kind
[47:39] of is up for whatever, but doesn't seem to put a huge amount of thought into some things
[47:43] other than the mechanics of doing an amazing thing on camera.
[47:47] Like but of the two of them, which one is going to do a touring show where they where
[47:52] they perform as Mark Twain, not Tom Cruise?
[47:54] It's going to be about.
[47:55] Well, I mean, yeah.
[47:56] I mean, like obviously Cruise is wildly committed to like what he does and but at a certain
[48:02] point he seemed to lose interest in like the thing that he does being like challenging
[48:08] himself as an actor.
[48:09] Well, he's like he's like a Douglas Fairbanks type.
[48:12] He's more of an entertainer.
[48:13] Yeah.
[48:14] He kind of challenges himself to perform physical stunts or to be in situations.
[48:18] And that's that's a valid way to provide entertainment, but it's not necessarily like the craft of
[48:22] acting, especially because if the craft of acting is creating the illusion that you are
[48:27] a person in a situation, being that person and putting yourself in that situation is
[48:31] not acting.
[48:32] When Tom Cruise is like, well, if I'm going to be in this helicopter crash, I better learn
[48:35] how to fly a helicopter and crash it.
[48:37] It's like, well, that's not acting.
[48:38] That's stunt work, which is still an amazing craft.
[48:41] But you know, it is not.
[48:42] It's not the same thing.
[48:43] You know, I remember when Bad Lieutenant Protocol New Orleans came out and there was buzz about
[48:47] it and I'm like, what?
[48:49] They made a fucking sequel to Bad Lieutenant.
[48:51] And also that like Werner Herzog made it.
[48:54] It seems so weird for him.
[48:56] Yeah.
[48:57] And like tracking it down.
[48:58] And it's so it was so weird and fun and like, yeah, it's great.
[49:04] And I believe Herzog never watched the Ferrara movie.
[49:07] I like that.
[49:08] Yeah, I think the tracks.
[49:09] I mean, it makes sense for him.
[49:11] I don't think he's watched a single episode of The Mandalorian and he's in it.
[49:16] Yeah.
[49:17] Yeah.
[49:18] Do you think do you think they gave him one of the baby Yoda puppets to take home?
[49:23] Probably.
[49:24] He's like, I would hope so.
[49:26] I don't understand what he is.
[49:29] I mean, he would.
[49:30] I think it's cute.
[49:31] He loved it.
[49:32] He loved it.
[49:33] Isn't that the story?
[49:34] Like, he loved it.
[49:35] He like fell in love with Baby Yoda.
[49:36] Yeah.
[49:37] There's that story where Jon Favreau, like they took the puppet out so they could shoot
[49:39] it in case they wanted to use a digital Baby Yoda.
[49:42] And Werner Herzog called him a coward.
[49:46] I love it.
[49:47] I mean, that's right up there with the stories of Ingmar Bergman watching Jurassic Park over
[49:51] and over again.
[49:52] It's like just because they're weird artists does not mean that they don't like the same
[49:56] things people like, you know?
[49:57] Yeah.
[49:58] Yeah.
[49:59] Yeah.
[50:00] There's still.
[50:00] Still a human being.
[50:00] Kubrick really, didn't he like love Steve Martin movies?
[50:03] Like specifically?
[50:04] Yes, well there's, I was just watching that HBO documentary
[50:08] about Albert Brooks and they tell the story in that
[50:09] about Stanley Kubrick calling Albert Brooks
[50:11] and being like, about the movie Modern Romance
[50:13] and being like, you made the movie I always wanted to make.
[50:16] How did you do it?
[50:17] This movie is amazing.
[50:17] And Albert Brooks being like, what?
[50:19] Like you made 2001.
[50:21] But I mean, I think that, you know,
[50:22] you are amazed by the stuff that you can't do yourself.
[50:26] And like, you know, Kubrick, like Dr. Strangelove,
[50:29] notwithstanding, like not necessarily
[50:33] like the funniest man, it seems to be.
[50:34] Not a funny filmmaker, yeah.
[50:36] Although Barry Lyndon has some really funny parts.
[50:37] The ending of Barry Lyndon is very funny to me.
[50:40] There are moments of Clockwork Orange that are funny.
[50:44] Not all of it.
[50:46] Yeah, I don't know if I would put
[50:47] Laugh L-A-F-F Riot on the poster.
[50:51] I'd be, yeah, I'd feel like people would be mad at you.
[50:53] Rage Stuart Wellington, people would be mad at you
[50:56] if you did that.
[50:57] But you know, sometimes that's the bit
[50:58] and you gotta commit to it.
[51:00] Yeah, gun busting for the whole family
[51:01] from age one to 101, says Stuart Wellington
[51:04] about a Clockwork Orange.
[51:06] I'm gonna talk about, I'm gonna wrap it up
[51:09] with a movie that has a very small,
[51:12] but I would say important Val Kilmer performance.
[51:15] That's right, I'm talking True Romance.
[51:18] Have y'all seen True Romance?
[51:19] I have.
[51:21] It's another one that I have not watched
[51:22] since I was a teenager and I should watch it
[51:23] because I feel like I will react to it differently
[51:25] than I did then.
[51:26] As a teenager, did you like it?
[51:28] No, I reacted with extreme distaste.
[51:30] I did not want to exist in that world,
[51:32] but I think I might appreciate it more now.
[51:34] I had the same, I haven't seen it in years.
[51:36] Oh, I loved it as a kid.
[51:38] I was like, what is this Tony Scott flash
[51:41] all over everything?
[51:42] Everyone's unpleasant, but now I feel like
[51:45] that kind of stuff, yeah, I crave it in a weird way.
[51:50] I mean, I feel like I-
[51:50] Unpleasant flash, that's why you liked the movie
[51:52] The Flash so much, because it has
[51:54] a very unpleasant flash in it.
[51:55] Unpleasant flash is the evil flash, right?
[51:59] Not quite evil.
[52:00] More like mid-range, like he comes to your party,
[52:02] he says a couple of things that aren't-
[52:04] You don't want him around, yeah.
[52:06] Yeah, it's not outwardly insulting,
[52:09] but it's clear that there's an insult buried in it.
[52:11] Yeah, True Romance-
[52:12] You can tell he's not really paying attention
[52:13] in conversations, he's just waiting to say
[52:15] the thing that he wanted to say,
[52:16] even if it's not related to what everyone else
[52:18] is talking about, but he does it real fast.
[52:20] Yeah, at least there's that.
[52:22] True Romance was a movie that when I saw it,
[52:24] I was like, this is amazing, how had I not heard of this?
[52:26] And I loved it, but then I got a little bit older,
[52:29] I'm like, what is all this garbage and flash, yada yada?
[52:32] And now I'm back around and like, no, I like this again.
[52:35] And obviously, it's filled with great little
[52:38] character performances, you're Christopher Walkens,
[52:42] you're Dennis Hoppers, you're Gary Oldman.
[52:45] Gary Oldman, anybody?
[52:46] What a male-
[52:47] Bronson Pinchot.
[52:49] Bronson Pinchot, Brad Pitt.
[52:52] And Val Kilmer-
[52:52] Patricia Arquette.
[52:53] Yep.
[52:54] That's a-
[52:55] Yeah, that's a lead performance.
[52:58] And Val Kilmer-
[53:00] I'm looking through the cast now,
[53:01] and I forgot that Paul Bates from Coming to America
[53:04] is in it.
[53:05] Oh!
[53:06] A movie that I watched over and over again
[53:07] when I was a kid, Coming to America,
[53:08] that was a favorite in our household.
[53:10] Yeah, I mean, Coming to America's, what,
[53:12] top five best comedies of all time.
[53:14] Mm-hmm.
[53:16] So, and True Romance, Val Kilmer plays Elvis,
[53:21] and he, I don't even think you see his face, really.
[53:25] If anything, it's obscured through,
[53:26] like, it's only seen through a mirror,
[53:28] and it's obscured with sunglasses.
[53:30] But he provides kind of a, I wouldn't say conscience,
[53:34] but maybe a impetus, like a driving force
[53:37] for Christian Slater's character,
[53:38] a inner monologue, basically telling him to commit crimes.
[53:42] Sort of like that dog we talked about before.
[53:46] Yeah, sort of like that cool dog.
[53:50] Cool dog.
[53:51] Yeah, son of Sam's dog, he had sunglasses on,
[53:53] but it was still cool.
[53:54] Yeah, it was still cool.
[53:55] That dog was a rascal.
[53:56] You know, it was all meant as a goof.
[53:58] Oh, that reminds me of, Stuart,
[54:00] I meant to send you this picture I took yesterday
[54:02] of a car in front of me on the freeway
[54:04] that had the license plate, A Scamp.
[54:07] I was like, oh, Stuart's car.
[54:10] Oh, man, I shouldn't have let that guy borrow my car.
[54:13] He's kept it this whole time, what a scamp.
[54:15] I think the change that you went through
[54:18] on this movie, Stuart, is one that I think a lot of people
[54:21] who appreciate movies go through, or art in general,
[54:24] I guess, where when you're young,
[54:26] you like the surface elements of a thing
[54:28] because you think they're cool.
[54:29] Like, you genuinely think they're cool.
[54:31] And then when you get older, you're like,
[54:33] eh, there's nothing under here.
[54:35] But then when you get older than that,
[54:37] you suddenly have this new appreciation
[54:39] for those surface elements as surface elements,
[54:41] rather than reading some kind of meaning
[54:44] or some kind of depth into it that maybe isn't there.
[54:46] And I think that's a healthy arc.
[54:48] Yeah, I think at a certain point, if you like the medium,
[54:51] you just appreciate the moviness of it all sometimes.
[54:55] Or if you're a film critic, David Thompson,
[54:59] you just become a weird kind of creepy perv
[55:01] about Nicole Kidman.
[55:02] And that becomes the main driving thing
[55:04] of through your film writing.
[55:06] What a weird drive-by, that guy.
[55:10] You got him, you got him.
[55:13] I don't know, I was just thinking about that recently.
[55:14] He's a very well-respected film writer.
[55:16] But then every now and then, he'll just be like,
[55:19] he'll just write something that's so,
[55:20] that is just so horny for Nicole Kidman out of nowhere.
[55:23] Yeah, right.
[55:25] Hey, I mean, it shows that even film writers are humans too,
[55:28] and have their weird obsessions.
[55:30] Is it what, in the essay, the immediate experience,
[55:34] where there's the thing about how a critic
[55:36] is someone watching a thing and experiencing it,
[55:38] and they have to describe that experience,
[55:39] and they have to be true to that experience, you know?
[55:41] Yeah.
[55:43] And you can't have film without desire, I guess.
[55:46] Especially a film like, True Romance.
[55:50] That's your perfume ad.
[55:54] You can't have film without desire.
[55:56] And you can't have desire without Kaelin.
[55:59] Smell like an old can of film, Kaelin, a fragrance.
[56:04] Not bad.
[56:06] Okay, so.
[56:06] Smell like the theater I was in last night,
[56:08] full of popcorn and farts, Kaelin, a new fragrance.
[56:12] So we're gonna wrap this up.
[56:13] We have one final segment.
[56:15] This is where we are going to take a look
[56:18] at all the Val Kilmer performances that you can remember.
[56:21] And I want you to identify one that you think would be the,
[56:25] which character would be the best hang,
[56:27] and which would be the worst hang.
[56:31] I have my worst hang queued up.
[56:34] Yeah, why don't you go,
[56:35] because we have a little resource to do it.
[56:36] I would love to go.
[56:38] Worst hang, it's gotta be Jim Morrison, right?
[56:40] I mean, I feel like that would be exhausting.
[56:44] Sorry to jump on that grenade, guys,
[56:45] but I don't think that Jim Morrison would be fun.
[56:48] And Val Kilmer's commitment to that character
[56:51] makes him even less fun.
[56:53] Let's see, a good hang,
[56:55] I mean, it's gonna be tough to beat real genius.
[57:00] I feel like he's got like an airy, like intellectual quality,
[57:06] but he is still committed to having fun
[57:09] and making sure that the people around him are having fun,
[57:11] even while he's making fun of them.
[57:14] So that's what I'm gonna have to say.
[57:16] I've chosen my best hang and worst hang.
[57:19] I'm gonna say, I'm gonna go with best,
[57:22] I think, since you took real genius,
[57:25] I will go with Tombstone,
[57:28] because even though he's like, you know,
[57:30] I mean, like, you know, it's a party when he's around,
[57:34] you know, eventually it's all gonna fall apart,
[57:37] but for now, let's just have fun with Doc Holliday.
[57:42] And worst, I guess I'll go with
[57:44] the villain from the steam experiment.
[57:46] He may lock you in a sauna and try to drive you insane.
[57:50] Oh yeah, that's what he did.
[57:51] That's, I mean, that's a pretty simple experiment.
[57:54] He wanted to prove that what, that climate change was real
[57:57] by locking people in a sauna
[57:59] and the movie was anti-climate change as reality.
[58:02] His theory was that if you put a bunch of people
[58:05] in a really hot room where they're slowly dying
[58:08] from the heat, they might get cranky.
[58:11] Yeah. And he proved it.
[58:13] He proved it, that's right.
[58:14] Much in the same way that if you put a frog
[58:16] in a pot of boiling water, it will die.
[58:18] Yeah.
[58:19] That's what that experiment proves.
[58:21] Worst hang, I'm gonna go with his character of Montgomery
[58:24] in the Island of Dr. Moreau, which we mentioned earlier.
[58:27] He is unpredictable, he's a sociopath.
[58:29] He will see nothing wrong with just letting loose
[58:33] a bunch of murderous animal people
[58:35] and throwing drugs and things to them
[58:37] so that they kind of lose their minds.
[58:39] I don't wanna be around that kind of energy.
[58:41] That's not so great to me.
[58:42] But for a good hang, I think there's another role
[58:45] I mentioned before, but they did do a video of it
[58:47] on the same Mark Twain, who Val Kilmer for years
[58:50] performed as a one-man show.
[58:52] And I know all you Hal Holbrook fans are mad
[58:55] that anyone else would pick up the Twain mantle.
[58:57] There's more than enough Twain to go around.
[58:58] There's at least two, his name is Twain.
[59:00] Stately Twain mantle.
[59:02] Well, the documentary, I haven't seen,
[59:04] have you seen Cinema Twain?
[59:06] Have you seen- No, I haven't yet.
[59:07] I really wanna see it, yeah.
[59:09] But the footage of the show in the Val documentary
[59:12] is pretty good.
[59:15] I was skeptical of it, but he's good in it.
[59:18] No, it's a show I genuinely regret
[59:20] that I didn't get an opportunity to see it
[59:23] because I don't really think he can perform it now
[59:25] with the way his voice is.
[59:27] But I do wanna see the movie version of it.
[59:31] So I just wanna say, Mark Twain, again,
[59:32] someone who, in real life, kind of a difficult person
[59:35] to be around in the long term,
[59:36] but probably a fun person to hang out with for an evening.
[59:39] With all the bon mots and all the stories
[59:41] and things like that.
[59:43] So that's been Outside the Actor's Studio.
[59:47] Next time, we'll be talking about another actor
[59:49] that I find fascinating.
[59:51] I think, I don't know when we're gonna get around
[59:52] to do another one of these,
[59:53] but I think the next one's gonna be Holly Hunter, guys,
[59:56] if you wanna rush up.
[59:57] Holly Hunter.
[59:58] Love Holly Hunter.
[1:00:00] So, uh, our show is on the MaxFund network.
[1:00:03] You can support us and other great shows by going over to MaximumFund.org.
[1:00:06] Uh, yeah, our, it's produced by Alex Smith, who goes by HowlDotty on various socials.
[1:00:13] He's the best.
[1:00:14] I've been your host, Stuart Studio Wellington.
[1:00:16] I'm, uh, Dan Actors McCloy.
[1:00:22] Didn't go with the one I gave you, huh?
[1:00:23] And I'm Elliot, Electric Lights Kaelin, saying thanks to, and thanks to you, the listener.
[1:00:28] Bye!
[1:00:29] Uh-huh!
[1:00:35] Maximum Fund, a worker-owned network of artists-owned shows, supported directly by you.

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The Iceman cometh! Stuart takes us on a tour through some highlights in the career of Val Kilmer, an actor that fascinates him.

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