Val Kilmer: The Direct to Video Years
Shane Black’s darkly comic 2005 directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, has cultural significance disproportionate to its modest box office tally. It served notice that star Robert Downey Jr. was sober, professional, hungrier, and more focused than ever.
The formerly troubled actor was just a few years away from 2008’s Iron Man, which changed movies and pop culture forever by ushering in the era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The famously self-destructive superstar, whose career had cratered to the point that he accepted a role as Dennis Rodman’s sidekick in the direct-to-video action comedy Simon Sez before dropping out at the last minute, was on his way to becoming the top-paid movie star in the world.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang similarly did wonders for Shane Black’s career. He followed it up with 2013’s Iron Man 3 and 2016’s The Nice Guys. He also wrote and directed 2018’s The Predator, but no one is perfect.
Val Kilmer got some of the best reviews of his career for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. It reminded a movie business with a frighteningly short memory that the arch-contrarian’s favorite Batman was a movie star as well as a character actor.
Kilmer seemed primed for a Robert Downey Jr.-level comeback. It was not to be. In the decades ahead, Kilmer alternated between supporting roles in studio fare and starring roles in direct-to-video schlock.
The year after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Kilmer made five films, only one of which (Deja Vu) had a theatrical release.
Like many actors of a certain age, Kilmer got prolific and undiscriminating. He was prolific because he was undiscriminating. It's difficult to maintain quality control when you make an average of five movies a year.
In the nine years separating Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Kilmer losing his voice, Kilmer appeared in high-profile movies like Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans and MacGruber, but they were the exception rather than the rule.
Kilmer began making what I consider fake movies. Those are direct-to-video fare featuring short, mercenary appearances from name actors that seem imaginary. .
The method actor made three direct-to-video movies with 50 Cent alone. I don’t know what kind of bond the two men shared, but they collaborated on more movies than Robert Redford and Paul Newman.
I’ve seen very few of Kilmer’s movies from this era, but I have seen The Chaos Experiment. In my article on it for The A.V. Club, I described Kilmer’s participation thusly: “The Chaos Experiment casts Kilmer as an overfed, shaggy, pasty, and twitch-laden mad scientist filled with half-bored contempt for humanity. In an attempt to prove that global warming will drive humans insane even before it destroys the globe physically, Kilmer locks six sexy singles in an isolated steam bath, then waits for them all to kill themselves and/or each other after promising them each a luxurious free night in a fancy hotel alongside other singles looking for a fling.”
All Kilmer wanted to do was don a white suit and play Mark Twain. As a young actor, Kilmer had all the promise and potential in the world. But he didn’t want to be Marlon Brando or James Dean; he longed instead for Hal Holbrook's cozy career.
The world being what it is, you do not make much money playing Mark Twain. So Kilmer followed in the path of many of his contemporaries and churned out an endless series of interchangeable thrilers, some for notorious “geezer teaser” Randall Emmett, the monster behind the late-period nadirs of such figures of note as Bruce Willis, Nicolas Cage, Mel Gibson, John Travolta, Robert De Niro and John Cusack.
In the aftermath of Kilmer’s death, fans rhapsodized about movies that seemingly everyone knows and that have become part of the fabric of American life, such as Real Genius, Top Secret!, Top Gun, Tombstone, and Batman Forever.
But in the aughts, he made many movies that seemingly no one knows about, including the actor’s fans. These movies made no cultural impact and sometimes seemed made-up.
Like many actors whose popularity fades as they age, becoming more prolific and less discriminating, a shadow filmography exists for Kilmer, consisting of nothing but duds. These movies didn’t aspire to greatness: they instead yearned to be good enough for undiscriminating Redbox consumers who want to see a familiar name and face in a movie they hadn’t even heard of, let alone seen.
Because I'm a curious chap, I decided that I had to experience at least one of these turkeys myself, so I had paid subscribers at my Substack newsletter, Nathan Rabin’s Bad Ideas, choose a Val Kilmer/50 Cent vehicle. They chose Streets of Blood.
It’s essentially Bad Lieutenants: Thank God For Tax Credits, but you can read my full review here.
Kilmer was an artist and an entertainer, but he was also a man who had to pay bills in a capitalist society before age and/or sickness made it difficult for him to work regularly, let alone churn out four or five movies a year, as Kilmer did between 2005 and 2014.
The Top Gun icon lost his ability to talk. I can’t imagine how devastating that must be for an actor. Hopefully, he saved the money he made from movies like Streets of Blood, and the money he made from schlock made a profoundly difficult life easier.
These low-budget exploitation movies have largely been forgotten, but they likely helped Kilmer during the dark days when his illness made it difficult, if not impossible, for him to perform in front of the camera. If so, they served a useful purpose, even as they squandered the gifts of a true American original.
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