by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Moviephone News, News
Val Kilmer in ‘Tombstone’. Photo: Buena Vista Pictures Distribution.
Val Kilmer was one of the greatest actors of his generation.
Kilmer passed away on April 1st, 2025 after a long battle with cancer and leaves behind a resume of legendary performances in such iconic movies as ‘Top Gun’, ‘The Doors’, ‘Tombstone’, ‘Heat’, and ‘Batman Forever’.
In honor of the late actor’s passing, Moviefone is counting down the 20 best films of Val Kilmer’s impressive career.
Let’s begin!
Marlon Brando in ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’. Photo: New Line Cinema.
A shipwrecked sailor (David Thewlis) stumbles upon a mysterious island and is shocked to discover that a brilliant scientist (Marlon Brando) and his lab assistant (Kilmer) have found a way to combine human and animal DNA—with horrific results.
Karen McCoy (Kim Basinger) is released from prison with nothing but the clothes on her back. Before being incarcerated Karen was the bank robber of her time, but now she wishes for nothing more than to settle down and start a new life. Unfortunately between a dirty parole officer, old business partners, an idiot ex-husband, and a new partner (Kilmer) she will have to do the unthinkable in order to save her son.
“20 guards. 30 tons of steel. A security system second to none. They said there wasn’t a man on Earth who could pull off a bank job like this. They were right.”
Karen McCoy is released from prison with nothing but the clothes on her back. Before being incarcerated Karen was the bank robber of her time, but now she wishes… Read the Plot
After the murder of his beloved wife, a man (Kilmer) in search of redemption is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey, he befriends slacker Jimmy “The Finn” (Peter Sarsgaard), becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette (Deborah Kara Unger) from her own demons, and gets entangled in a web of deceit full of unexpected twists and turns.
“If you’re looking for the truth, you’ve come to the wrong place.”
Simon Templar (Kilmer), is 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 (Elizabeth Shue) who holds its secret.
“Never reveal your name. Never turn your back. Never surrender your heart.”
Sir Robert Beaumont (Tom Wilkinson) is behind schedule on a railroad in Africa. Enlisting noted engineer John Henry Patterson (Kilmer) to right the ship, Beaumont expects results. Everything seems great until the crew discovers the mutilated corpse of the project’s foreman, seemingly killed by a lion. After several more attacks, Patterson calls in famed hunter Charles Remington (Michael Douglas), who has finally met his match in the bloodthirsty lions.
15. ‘Willow’ (1988)
Warwick Davis in ‘Willow’. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The evil Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) hunts the newborn princess Elora Danan (Ruth Greenfield), a child prophesied to bring about her downfall. When the royal infant is found by Willow (Warwick Davis), a timid farmer and aspiring sorcerer, he’s entrusted with delivering her from evil.
“A world where heroes come in all sizes and adventure is the greatest magic of all.”
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An FBI man (Kilmer) with Sioux background is sent to a reservation to help with a murder investigation, where he has to come to terms with his heritage.
“Two men from different worlds. Two cops after the same killer. Together they must uncover the secrets. Together they must discover the truth.”
13. ‘Val’ (2021)
For over 40 years Val Kilmer, one of Hollywood’s most mercurial and/or misunderstood actors has been documenting his own life and craft through film and video. He has amassed thousands of hours of footage, from 16mm home movies made with his brothers, to time spent in iconic roles for blockbuster movies. This raw, wildly original and unflinching documentary reveals a life lived to extremes and a heart-filled, sometimes hilarious look at what it means to be an artist and a complex man.
“The life you live is the story you tell.”
Terrence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage) is a New Orleans Police sergeant, who receives a medal and a promotion to lieutenant for heroism during Hurricane Katrina. Due to his heroic act, McDonagh injures his back and becomes addicted to prescription pain medication. He then finds himself involved with a drug dealer who is suspected of murdering a family of African immigrants.
“The only criminal he can’t catch is himself.”
Popular and dashing American singer Nick Rivers (Kilmer) travels to East Germany to perform in a music festival. When he loses his heart to the gorgeous Hillary Flammond (Lucy Gutleridge), he finds himself caught up in an underground resistance movement. Rivers joins forces with Agent Cedric (Omar Shariff) and Flammond to attempt the rescue of her father, Dr. Paul, from the Germans, who have captured the scientist in hopes of coercing him into building a new naval mine.
Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’ Photo: Paramount Pictures.
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), aka “Goose.” Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
Clarence (Christian Slater) marries hooker Alabama (Patricia Arquette), steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.
“Stealing. Cheating. Killing. Who said romance was dead?”
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Batman (Kilmer) must battle a disfigured district attorney and a disgruntled former employee with help from an amorous psychologist and a young circus acrobat (Chris O’Donnell).
When teenage geniuses Mitch Taylor (Gabriel Jarret) and Chris Knight (Kilmer), working on an advanced laser project, learn that the military wants to use it as a weapon, they decide to thwart the plan.
“When he gets mad, he doesn’t get even… he gets creative.”
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison (Kilmer).
Val Kilmer in ‘Spartan’. Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures.
U.S. government agent Scott (Kilmer) is assigned to rescue the daughter of a high-ranking government official. As willing as he is to bend the rules to get things done, though, Scott is shocked to find that others are willing to go even further to protect a political career.
A petty thief posing as an actor (Robert Downey Jr.) is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl (Michelle Monaghan) and a detective (Kilmer) who’s been training him for his upcoming role…
3. ‘Heat’ (1995)
Obsessive master thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) leads a top-notch crew on various daring heists throughout Los Angeles while determined detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) pursues him without rest. Each man recognizes and respects the ability and the dedication of the other even though they are aware their cat-and-mouse game may end in violence.
Legendary marshal Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), now a weary gunfighter, joins his brothers Morgan (Bill Paxton) and Virgil (Sam Elliot) to pursue their collective fortune in the thriving mining town of Tombstone. But Earp is forced to don a badge again and get help from his notorious pal Doc Holliday (Kilmer) when a gang of renegade brigands and rustlers begins terrorizing the town.
“Every town has a story. Tombstone has a legend.”
(L to R) Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise in ‘Top Gun’. Photo: Paramount Pictures.
For Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) and his friend and co-pilot Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete’s dreams of becoming an ace pilot.
by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Moviephone News, News
(L to R) Jack Black, Jason Momoa and Sebastian Hansen in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Preview:
- ‘A Minecraft Movie’ is a big hit at the box office.
- Jack Black and Jason Momoa star.
- The movie was directed by Jared Hess.
Just when it looked like big screen video game adaptations had left their recent golden age in terms of box office (witness ‘Borderlands’ face plant last year), along comes a giant hit we’re not sure anyone truly expected.
‘A Minecraft Movie,’ which opened on Friday, has soared to number one at the box office, launching with $163 million domestically, $150.7 million overseas and that mammoth $313.7 million worldwide total.
The movie, adapted (loosely, but clearly with enough elements to please its young target audience –– more on that in a moment) from the hugely popular Mojang video game, stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks and Jennifer Coolidge, and was directed by ‘Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess.
With its blend of basic quest narrative and plenty of references to iconic game elements such as “chicken jockey” and others, it appealed to young gamers and the meme crowd equally. Reports flooded social media of the audiences reacting to appearances from certain characters like Marvel fans to moments in ‘Avengers: Endgame.’
Here’s what Jesse Ehrman, Warner Bros. president of production and development, said about getting it right:
“We had a lot of trial and error along the way. It took a while to tell the right story with the right team. There’s something special about the way people connect with the game. We knew if we could harness the same love and humor and creativity in a cinematic experience, the potential would be limitless.”
Related Article: Danielle Brooks Talks Video Game Adaptation ‘A Minecraft Movie’
‘A Minecraft Movie’: The Records Broken So Far
(L to R) Jason Momoa as Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, Sebastian Hansen as Henry, Danielle Brooks as Dawn and Emma Myers as Natalie in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Among the records that the new movie has broken include becoming the biggest opening of 2025 so far (besting ‘Captain America: Brave New World,’ whose total gross it should surpass in due time), the record opening for a movie based on a video game (outplaying ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ which launched in 2023 with $146.3 million,) and the biggest domestic opening figure for both Black and Momoa.
And that’s not all! It also raked in Warner Bros. largest three-day total in April (really reaching here) and the biggest Sunday of All Time (besting ‘Barbie’).
Finally, a true stretch: it’s the only film in box office history to open to over $50 million and see no drop Saturday — instead, rising by 4%, making it the only film ever to achieve this.
‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ dropped 0% from Friday to Saturday last year but only opened to $41 million.
‘A Minecraft Movie’s Success: the Executives Speak
(L to R) Jason Momoa and director Jared Hess on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Kristy Griffin. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
In 1942, Italian diplomat Count Caleazzo Ciano said, “success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan,” and that can be particularly true of Hollywood blockbusters.
With the movie doing huge business at the box office, co-heads of the Warner Bros. Pictures Group, Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy, who have been beset recently by some flops and are reportedly in fear for their jobs, were quick to capitalize on the success.
Here’s their statement:
“ ‘A Minecraft Movie’ represents the largest domestic opening weekend of 2025, the biggest since July, and Warner Bros.’ largest opening weekend since 2023. This is truly a world-class achievement! This is what happens when we believe in the power of our creativity, each other, and the strength of great storytelling.”
What is ‘Minecraft’?
A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
If you’re not in the game’s target audience, allow us to brief you on the basics… The game, from Swedish developer Mojang AB, allows you to create and shape an entire world, and by 2014 had sold more than 35 million copies across PCs, the Xbox 360, and mobile platforms.
Much like with Lego, the only stories here are those created by users, who can choose whether to explore, create or fight with each other.
There are also nocturnal monsters stalking the place, which you must deal with. It reached 100 million users just a few years after launch and helping spark Microsoft to acquire Mojang for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Since then, it hasn’t been quite as much in the pop cultural zeitgeist (the likes of ‘Fortnite’ have tended to dominate), but it’s recognizable intellectual property.
What has Happened with the Development of the Movie Adaptation So Far?
(L to R) Jack Black and director Jared Hess on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Kristy Griffin. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Around the time of the Microsoft purchase, Warners entered talks with prolific producer and director Shawn Levy, but his packed scheduled and slow development on the movie meant he never ended up in the director’s chair.
After Levy came ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ co-creator and self-avowed ‘Minecraft’ fan Rob McElhenney was next in line as director when the movie was still being planned as an animated release. He, like Levy, appears to have been the victim of scheduling, and has focused his video game-loving energies on co-creating and starring in Apple TV+’s ‘Mythic Quest’ series.
With ‘Wonder Woman’s Jason Fuchs sticking around for script work, the movie then targeted Steve Carell as a potential star but… well… you can guess what happened.
The most recent time before now that ‘Minecraft’ news showed up, it was with ‘Raising Victor Vargas’ Peter Sollett writing and directing.
With Jared Hess on board, it finally got in gear. And the rest is box office history.
Will there be a ‘Minecraft’ sequel?
At this point, we’d predict several. And probably a TV show. And maybe a video ga… wait a minute!
A scene from Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures. Copyright: © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
List of Jared Hess Movies and TV Shows:
Buy Tickets: ‘A Minecraft Movie’ Movie ShowtimesBuy Jared Hess Movies On Amazon
by admin | Apr 8, 2025 | Moviephone News, News
Rami Malek as Heller in 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Amateur’. Photo by John Wilson. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
‘The Amateur’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters April 11 is ‘The Amateur,’ directed by James Hawes and starring Rami Malek, Laurence Fishburne, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, Holt McCallany, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Stuhlbarg, Danny Sapani, and Jon Bernthal.
Related Article: Laurence Fishburne Talks ‘Slingshot’ and Working with Casey Affleck
Initial Thoughts
Rami Malek as Heller in 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Amateur’. Photo by John Wilson. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
It’s something that a lot of moviegoers of a certain age all say they want: an adult, intelligent, dramatic thriller, perhaps based on a novel but not adapted from already heavily exploited IP, comic books, toys, or video games. For a little while, ‘The Amateur’ seems to check that box. Based on a novel by Robert Littell (which was filmed previously in 1981 as a Canadian production starring John Savage), directed by James Hawes (who’s got episodes of ‘Doctor Who,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Snowpiercer,’ and ‘Slow Horses’ under his belt), and featuring an admirable cast of seasoned, reliable actors, ‘The Amateur’ seems almost like a throwback to a different era of filmmaking.
In the end, however, it doesn’t quite live up to its potential. With a largely TV background, Hawes directs the film in almost leisurely, episodic fashion, giving it a stop-and-start pace that never really builds in tension. And too many of the characters – including the lead – are either underused or underdeveloped, leaving the feeling that there’s a longer film – or perhaps, yes, a TV show – somewhere on the cutting room floor.
Story and Direction
(L to R) Rami Malek as Heller and Holt McCallany as Moore in 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Amateur’. Photo by Jonathan Olley. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Rami Malek plays Charlie Heller, an extremely introverted CIA cryptographer whose wife Sarah (Rachel Brosnahan) has to fly off to London for some kind of conference (we don’t really know what she does). But it’s only a couple of days before Charlie is pulled into the office of Deputy CIA Director Moore (Holt McCallany) and informed that Sarah has been killed in a brutal terrorist attack.
A stunned Charlie wants the CIA to retaliate, but when Moore and another superior, Caleb (Danny Sapani), drag their feet, Charlie does some digging – that’s his job – and discovers that Moore has been running a number of unauthorized black ops, some of them against our own allies and involving members of the same terrorist group. So he extorts Moore and Caleb instead: he’ll reveal everything about their operations to the public and the press – unless they give him enough training to go hunt down his wife’s murderers himself.
Forcing their hand for the moment (“What else do you want?” asks a disbelieving Moore. “An Aston-Martin? A jet-pack?”), Charlie comes under the tutelage of master assassin Henderson (Laurence Fishburne). He quickly learns that he can’t shoot worth s**t, but he can build a mean explosive and hack his way into any surveillance or computer system, both of which come in handy when he escapes and heads for Europe after getting wind that Moore plans to have Henderson kill him.
(L to R) Rami Malek and Caitríona Balfe in ‘The Amateur’. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Once overseas, Charlie begins tracking down the people responsible for his wife’s murder, tormenting them in cleverly sadistic ways: in Paris, the sole woman in the group (Barbara Probst) is locked in an isolation booth at an allergy clinic and choked on pumped-in pollen, before she and Charlie engage in a vicious fight that doesn’t end well; later in Madrid, one of the terrorists meets a watery end when Charlie blows up the high-rise glass swimming pool he’s in (which you’ve seen in the trailer about 400 times by now). But as the CIA closes in, Charlie asks for help from “Inquiline” (Caitriona Balfe), an informant he’s been speaking with for years who helps point him in the direction of mastermind Horst Schiller (Michael Stuhlbarg).
James Hawes directs all this in an almost casual fashion, with the occasional shocking bursts of violence (many played in enclosed spaces) frequently followed up by dialogue scenes that dial the energy back down. “How will you fill the silence?” Inquiline asks Charlie at one point, after revealing that she lost a loved one and missed all his sounds around their home. Charlie’s response is to fill it with noise, screams, explosions, and drinks – a sly nod, perhaps, to the much more haunted James Bond of Ian Fleming’s novels than the film franchise. In a way, ‘The Amateur’ is an anti-Bond film: none of this is glamorous, jet-setting or particularly exotic, and Charlie increasingly loses more of his humanity as he pursues his goal.
Unfortunately, these interesting ideas aren’t given more than lip service. ‘The Amateur’ never delves too deeply below the surface, and its 10 screenwriters (only two are credited) fall back on only superficial and predictable thriller tropes. The villain even rolls out a version of the old “we’re not that different” chestnut toward the film’s end, an indication that despite an attempt at a more thoughtful approach, ‘The Amateur’ is slickly professional and nothing more.
Cast and Performances
(L to R) Rami Malek as Heller and Rachel Brosnahan as Sarah in 20th Century Studio’s ‘The Amateur’. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The cast here is great on paper, but despite working hard a lot of them end up shortchanged. Malek is front and center for most of the two hours, but while this Oscar-winning actor has charisma and presence, his retiring performance as Charlie Heller is both nuanced and self-defeating. We want to believe Charlie’s turn from reserved, intensely non-verbal analyst to cold-blooded killer, but the lack of a fully defined character and even some background (does Charlie have parents? Does his dead wife? Is he possibly on the spectrum?) doesn’t put enough texture on Charlie’s character to make him fully come alive.
Laurence Fishburne as Henderson in 20th Century Studios’ ‘The Amateur’. Photo by Jonathan Olley. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
The same could be said of much of the rest of the ensemble. Laurence Fishburne probably comes off best and gives us the sense of a more complex soul underneath his tough exterior, but he only shows up sporadically. Rachel Brosnahan’s presence as Charlie’s wife is as ghostly as the flashbacks she’s in. Holt McCallany (so good in ‘The Iron Claw’) might as well have a big ‘VILLAIN’ sign stamped across his forehead, while Michael Stuhlbarg goes for the restrained, cultured heavy in his five or so minutes on screen. But the shortest end of the stick is handed to Jon Bernthal as a CIA spook who turns up in exactly two scenes, neither of which have any real point to them at all. We have to believe a lot of his material got the chop – why would you hire Jon Bernthal and give him nothing to do?
Final Thoughts
Rami Malek in ‘The Amateur’. Photo: 20th Century Studios.
Its initially restrained pacing and low-key atmosphere had us on board with ‘The Amateur’ at first, but Malek’s performance and the film itself never quite catch fire. Too many red herrings – like the completely bizarre reappearance of Bernthal late in the film – also diffuse any rising sense of danger or confrontation.
‘The Amateur’ does have its moments: the fight scenes provide a jolt of whiplash, violent oomph, and Charlie’s inventive traps for his targets are the thriller equivalents of something out of a ‘Saw’ film. While ‘The Amateur’ does provide a certain level of entertainment for a more grown-up audience, it may not be enough to get them to a movie theater – which is exactly where we need more of this stuff.
“Don’t underestimate him.”
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After his life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder takes matters into his own hands… Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘The Amateur’?
A quiet CIA cryptographer (Rami Malek) is driven by grief and vengeance to seek out the terrorists who killed his wife (Rachel Brosnahan), but soon finds himself pursued by his own agency instead.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Amateur’?
- Rami Malek as Charles Heller
- Laurence Fishburne as Robert Henderson
- Rachel Brosnahan as Sarah
- Caitríona Balfe as Inquiline
- Jon Bernthal as The Bear
- Michael Stuhlbarg as Horst Schiller
- Holt McCallany as CIA Deputy Director Alex Moore
- Danny Sapani as Caleb
- Julianne Nicholson as CIA Director Samantha O’Brien
Rami Malek as Heller in 20th Century Studio’s ‘The Amateur’. Photo by John Wilson. © 2024 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
List of Rami Malek Movies and TV Shows:
Buy Tickets: ‘The Amateur’ Movie ShowtimesBuy Rami Malek Movies on Amazon
