Val; Grade: C-
Val is a documentary film centered around actor Val Kilmer! Val introduces a whole world of Val Kilmer like you've never seen before, as Val Kilmer has been recording himself for quite sometime, as he is ready to share his life to the world. Here we'll experience Val's childhood, his up and coming days as a young actor, his breakout roles, more in depth with some iconic roles of his and what might've gone wrong, and his current life post throat cancer.
I was enjoying Val within the first half. I felt the narration done by Val Kilmer's son was a sweet touch, as we're experiencing his life story going on. The style within this film was pretty neat, it's dope when you can retrieve footage back in your early days especially from a famous actor like Val Kilmer. The interest was in there for the first half, I've learned a good amount of new information regarding how Val Kilmer got inspired to be an actor, elements of his childhood, his family, and even learned some details within his roles I didn't knew before. Especially Val's most known role I would say Batman Forever, as he thoroughly explained the joy of receiving an offer to play BatMan and what went wrong with his own BatMan.
The weakest link of this film is most definitely the second half of this film, as it went entirely south from there. The film takes on rather unusual detours, showing what it's like to be Val Kilmer as of current day. It does feel needed most certainly and even brings emotion to the film, however these sequences go on way too long as you're wondering when are we going to go back to his earlier story as an actor?! From the second half the film just basically skims through the rest of his career, as when actors come to defend the actor in which some may say was problematic... The film doesn't really explain what might've gave people the impression that Val Kilmer was difficult to work with.
The second half also ditches the narration for quite awhile, as now Val Kilmer is speaking more. No offense to Val Kilmer in anyway, God Bless him what he went through in regards to cancer is totally upsetting and the fact he's here alive and breathing is a pure blessing... However I don't get why we're having a man that can hardly speak, doing more talking than the narration? Isn't that what the narration was for? To help Val and his condition because he can’t speak well? The second half for me was just very dull, as you tend to question the existence of this film?! I mean for the first half it at least had a purpose, but for the second half it was utterly boring and uninteresting, as within the message behind the film in the end... It doesn't correlate within what has happened, to earn this message.
Overall, Val was mediocre and disappointing. If you like Val Kilmer I guess you can have yourself a watch when it comes out on Amazon Prime in August, don't expect fireworks is all I'm saying. -Mitch Smietana