Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024)

American fantasy comedy film. It's about a book character who can make anything come to life simply by drawing it but after he grows up and draws himself off the book's pages and into the physical world, he soon finds out that he has a lot to learn about real life. First off, I'm obviously not the target audience of this movie. It's obviously for kids. But then again, the book this is based on originally came out 70 years ago. I don't know if it's still a staple nowadays, though. Or how popular it is nowadays. So it could just be a case of being a kids movie for seniors. But if the book is still popular to this day I think it actually works. It can teach kids a lot about imagination and stuff. So yeah, it would be a good enough thing to watch with children and for that reason I can recommend it.

The Goonies (1985) 👍🏻

Mickey 17 (2025) Wonderful and evocative film, extremely bleak comedy with a lot of good social commentary. I definitely recommend trying to catch it in a theater before it leaves.

Winner Take All (1932)

American drama film. It's about a boxer juggling love and his career between a down-to-earth widow and a flashy rich girl. I was reading about this movie in the James Cagney autobiography I'm currently reading and I was curious so I decided to just watch it. It's fast-paced and only an hour long, so it's kinda already over before you realize. It's an early Cagney picture, even though he had already made 7 movies before this one, including The Public Enemy (1931), which is of course way more of a top class Cagney flick than this one I just watched. Still, I enjoyed it, it just could've been a bit longer. Overall I can recommend it.

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
2004 ‧ Family/Adventure ‧ 1h 30m

In this lively animated adventure, undersea oddball SpongeBob SquarePants and his starfish friend, Patrick, embark on a quest to clear the name of Mr. Krabs, the owner of the Krusty Krab restaurant, who has been framed for stealing the crown of ocean deity King Neptune. Leaving the familiar confines of Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob and Patrick venture out towards Shell City, where they hope to find Neptune's crown, but numerous obstacles stand (or float) in their way.

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The Crow (1994), very dark action/fantasy movie starring almost no actors i know from before. Absolutely brilliant movie, tho, from start to finish. Really touched me so heavily, and the acting and everything was just awesome. It is rated 7,5/10 on iMDB, which is (very) good i think. I give it a solid 10/10.

Family Pack/Loups-garous (2024)

French adventure fantasy comedy film. It's about a medieval village where werewolves make victims among the villagers by nightfall and the modern family that is accidentally transported there. If that sounds a bit familiar, it's because this movie is actually based on a French card game called "Les Loups-garous de Thiercelieux" or "Loups-garous", aka "The Werewolves of Millers Hollow" or "Werewolf" in English and you might know it under that last name. It's also itself based on a Russian party game called "Mafia", and if you don't know it under the name "Mafia" or "Werewolf" you're beyond help anyway. So yeah, basically this movie is taking the premise of that game and combines it with Jumanji. Sounds good so far, doesn't it? The cast is good too, although I only know Jean Reno (because he's Jean Reno) and Franck Dubosc (because I've seen him in Alain Delon's last movie during my Alain Delon week after he passed away (which reminded me that I was actually planning to do a Val Kilmer week this week but I messed that up)) and the rest of the cast you're probably only familiar with if you're French. The movie is fun, but it could've leaned a bit more into the fantasy aspect. There are some nice effects, both vfx and practical ones. One thing that was pretty sad was that the grandpa (played by Jean Reno) has alzheimers in the real world but not while they're in the game so it's all the more devastating when they're going back to reality and he's back to not remembering things. But I think the movie benefitted from that bit of emotional depth. So overall it's actually fun and entertaining, just don't expect too much from it. Can recommend.

College (1927)

American comedy-drama silent film. It's about a bookish high school graduate whose girlfriend very much condemns his negative attitude towards athletes, so fearing to lose her to his rival, he decides to go to college and pay more attentions to sports. It's a lot of fun, but then again it's an hour long Buster Keaton comedy and you never go wrong with those. Can very much recommend.

The Core (2003) 👍🏻

The Big Kahuna (1999)

American business comedy-drama film. It's about two veteran salesmen dissect a sales pitch to a particular client, through their young protégé. First of all, this is a single-location movie (and some of you might know how much I like those) but imho it's not as good as some others I have seen. That is probably not because of the cast (Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey are both very good as the veteran salesmen and I thought Peter Facinelli was good as the young protégé, even though I'm less familiar with his body of work). I also haven't seen the play this is based on. Don't know wether that might help or not. But overall it was still good, but it definitely won't be my favourite single-location movie. Can recommend.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) 👍🏻

Survivre (2024) 👎🏻

Thelma (2017)

Norwegian-Swedish-Danish-French supernatural thriller drama film. It's about a sheltered young woman who discovers she has an inexplicable power that materializes when she feels desire for a female student at her university. This is a slow-burner for sure, but a good one. And it does feel pretty nordic as well. So if you like nordic thrillers and don't mind a bit of the supernatural thrown in, I think you'll like this. I certainly did. Can recommend.

Thelma (2024)

American comedy-drama film. It's about an elderly woman who falls victim to a phone scam and sets out to find the perpetrators with the help of her grandson and friend. This movie has everything. It's funny, entertaining, has interesting characters played by very good actors (June Squibb, Fred Hechinger, Richard Roundtree, Malcolm McDowell, Parker Posey, Clark Gregg and more), it's captivating, it even got some action, which is probably not that common when your leading actress is 93 years old. Overall I very much enjoyed this delight of a movie. Highly recommended.

Mutant Chronicles (2008) 🤙🏻

The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez (2012)

American comedy-drama Western film. It's about a retired radio disc jockey/actor who is forced to enter a nursing home, where he unexpectedly finds the respect and acclaim that eluded him throughout his long career. This was actually the last movie of the legendary Ernest Borgnine and he was still great, even in his mid-90s. The supporting cast was also very good (Tony Plana, Dale Dickey, Barry Corbin, June Squibb and more). It's a fun movie and a good send-off to a great actor. Can recommend.

The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)

American historical adventure film. It's about a bridge engineer and an experienced old hunter who begin a hunt for two lions after they start attacking local construction workers. Fascinating story, especially considering it's based on reality, as it's a fictionalized account of the Tsavo man-eaters, a pair of lions that terrorized workers in and around Tsavo, Kenya during the building of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway East Africa in 1898. Very good cast (Val Kilmer, Michael Douglas, Tom Wilkinson, John Kani, Emily Mortimer, Bernard Hill and more) delivering great performances. Overall I thought this was a very good movie and I can definitely recommend it.

And with that my week of honouring the late Val Kilmer has begun. This time, because I've already seen his first (Top Secret! (1984)), second (Real Genius (1985)), third (Top Gun (1986)) and fourth movie (Willow (1988)) I decided against watching the earliest movie I haven't already seen (which I have done before, but I usually try to avoid) and just watch whatever I thought looked interesting, no matter when it was released.

The Birthday Cake (2021)

American crime thriller film. It's about a young man navigating a tense night of family secrets and mob violence while delivering a cake to honor his late father. First of all, what a cast! Val Kilmer, David Mazouz, Jeremy Allen White, Penn Badgley, Emory Cohen, Lorraine Bracco, Aldis Hodge, Ewan McGregor, William Fichtner, Luis Guzmán, Vincent Pastore, John Magaro, Paul Sorvino and more. Second of all, this wasn't very good. It definitely wanted to be a good gangster movie (especially considering that multiple members of the cast have famously been in gangster movies before), but the pacing was off and the plot was barely even there. "Big names, little story" is something I've seen written about this movie and I concur. Overall, despite the great cast, I can't recommend this.

As an addendum; this was probably made around the same time Top Gun: Maverick (2022) was made and in that movie we famously hear a kind of recreation of Val Kilmer's voice. And it was used for just a few lines. In this one Val Kilmer's character has a lot to say. And he genuinely does it, it's not some recreation. It does sadly make him almost incomprehensible so I'm glad I had subtitles on.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

American neo-noir black comedy crime film. It's about a New York thief who, after being mistaken for an actor, is sent to Hollywood to train under a private eye for a potential movie role, but the duo are thrown together with a struggling actress into a murder mystery. Very good cast (Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen and more). It's very tongue-in-cheek. Our main character is also the narrator who also knows that this is a movie. There are also a lot of silly scenes that are just written to be fun. I have a feeling that people who grew up knowing Robert Downey Jr. only as Iron Man will especially enjoy this one, because his character in this is about as witty, just more bloody. But yeah, overall I thought this was really entertaining, very well written and all around great. This was Shane Black's directorial debut and he also directed The Nice Guys (2016), so if you want to watch something in a similar vein this might be what you're looking for. So if you want to watch something that doesn't take itself too seriously, I can highly recommend this.

The Pope's Exorcist (2023). Really, really great for a horror. I felt the introduction were a bit weak but the movie just got better and better. In my opinion better than the classic from -73. Russel Crowe makes almost every movie he has been in (that i have seen). Rated 10/10 on IMDB (altho it has only 6,1 in average it is still decent for the genre).

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

American black comedy crime drama film. It's about a drug- and gambling-addled detective who's investigating the killing of five immigrants. Good cast (Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Val Kilmer, Brad Dourif, Jennifer Coolidge, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Xzibit, Michael Shannon and more). It's good, better than I expected even. Might be because I haven't heard a lot of good things about this movie, so my expectations were kinda low. Sure, Nic Cage does a lot of his usual overacting but I expected that, I didn't go into this thinking he'd be the most serious actor in this anyway. So yeah, overall I think this was good and I can recommend it.

Mickey 17. Utter disappointment.

The Saint (1997)

American action thriller film. It's about a thief for hire whose latest job to steal the secret process for cold fusion puts him at odds with a traitor bent on toppling the Russian government, as well as the woman who holds its secret. Very good story, albeit maybe a bit generic if you think about it. But I didn't mind. Good cast (Val Kilmer, Elisabeth Shue, Rade Šerbedžija, Waleri Walerjewitsch Nikolajew and more) with Val Kilmer's character playing quite a few different people (aka disguises). He was definitely a standout. Overall I thought this was very entertaining, so if you're in the mood for a '90s action thriller I can very much recommend this one.

The Doors (1991)

American biographical musical film. It's about American rock band The Doors, their influence on music and counterculture and frontman Jim Morrison's life from his days as a film student to his untimely death. First and most importantly of all, Val Kilmer's performance as Jim Morrison is genuinely incredible. Probably the best acting Val Kilmer has ever done. The movie might be not all that accurate (at least according to the surviving Doors members, Jim Morrison biographers and other people who knew him) but Val Kilmer's stellar performance makes this movie still very much worth the watch. The rest of the cast is very good as well (Kyle MacLachlan, Kevin Dillon, Meg Ryan, Kathleen Quinlan, Frank Whaley, Michael Wincott, Crispin Glover, Mimi Rogers, Titus Welliver, Michael Madsen, Debi Mazar, Costas Mandylor, Wes Studi and more). The movie is very entertaining and I can definitely recommend it.

Real Genius (1985)

American science fiction comedy film. It's about two young geniuses on a science and engineering university who are to work on a chemical laser, only to learn it will be used for dangerous purposes. Rewatched this yesterday and it's still very good.