Lmst

Will Smith Rejected Nolan’s ‘Inception’ Because He Didn’t Get the Plot
#MovieNews #Movies #BradPitt #ChristopherNolan #Inception #KeanuReeves #LaurenceFishburne #LeonardoDiCaprio #TheMatrix #ValKilmer #WillSmith

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/will-smith-rejected-inception-nolan-1236291755/

Media — April 2025

With spring break travel to Portland and another busier phase at work, it’s definitely been a lighter month for especially reading. Backdating this one since it’s been in my drafts for weeks.

Reading

Compliance is the New American Dream

I’m not sure how accurate this piece is but the idea of shortsighted premature optimization spoke to me as potentially damaging to developing critical thinking skills.

How do you cultivate curiosity? By embracing things beyond data and numbers (which again, are gorgeous in their own right) and by allowing people to explore things beyond optimization.

Playing

I technically started a BG3 play through; this is some joint entertainment so Andrle helped design my purple drow.

Verdant

This was a board game kid got a while back but we hadn’t yet played. It’s pretty fun and all the houseplant facts are interesting.

You’re trying to arrange your 3×5 home of cards into an optimal arrangement of plants, rooms, and furniture. The first round I lucked into a bunch of synergy of plants of the same type, which seemed to yield more points than going for diversity. There’s some player interaction in terms of “stealing” cards someone else wants from the marketplace.

Watching

Hey that Andor show is pretty good. Halfway through the second season now. And also for Star Wars we went to see RotS in the theater. Other than that happened to see more new movies this month.

The Sea Beast

This was one of Netflix animation’s big ones a few years ago. I liked it a fair bit, especially the general piratical vibes, but it seemed like some plot ideas got cut late in production but had some remnants left in that were confusingly not followed up on (the royal navy ship, the consequences of the poison harpoon, more). Good but not great family movie.

Tombstone

My wife was always a huge fan of Val Kilmer, so after his death we watched this, which I had never seen. His over the top Doc Holliday is great, and you can see why a few moments from this have been memed. As I think I’ve noted elsewhere my dad’s childhood love of Westerns was never really passed on, so might be why I never saw this ’90s-modern version of one. Very violent of course. Really the only thing that didn’t work for me was the romance, the characters had no chemistry to me.

The Prince of Egypt

Another Val Kilmer entry. I hadn’t seen this one since it was in theaters, so it was almost like new. I remembered the music well enough but not a lot of the other details. (I saw The Ten Commandments a couple of times so that’s more my mental adaptation of Exodus.)

Wicked

We still had Peacock so checked this out. I’d mostly avoided for years as I hoped to see the Broadway show someday. It was pretty good, looked cool design-wise, and Erivo was great; however a lot of the songs felt like filler? Maybe something in the translation to film?

Despicable Me 4

It had been a few years since kid had wanted to watch the others in this series a bunch (especially 3). It was fine. This one felt less cohesive, more like a mix of vignettes, some Minion some Gru, that didn’t really hang together. Also the villain was weirdly body horror adjacent for a kids movie.

Listening

Twenty Thousand Hertz — Inside Apple

It’s kinda sponcon but some interest tidbits about how Apple thinks about accessibility features.

Music to Refine To

Speaking of Severance, these score remixes are pretty good. Kid likes them even though it will be years before he could see the show.

#apple #musicals #severance #valKilmer

Two grids of colorful cards with wooden tokens on top of them are arrayed on a brown carpeted floor. Next to the spread is an open game instruction manual. A colorful bedspread hangs down in the background.

Madmartigan ✨ #Willow #ValKilmer #legend

A photo of Madmartigan (Val Kilmer) from the 1988 classic Willow.

#VALKILMER #RealGenius comes to life

https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/19/darpa_energy_beaming_record/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Genius

Val did all the vocals and the band couldn't tell the difference. He lived as Jim Morrison for a year and had to go to therapy to get out of character
#ValKilmer as #JimMorrison was an acting masterclass
https://youtube.com/shorts/DXysTGFXX78?si=bLEPz3PSxJNHcB6j

Bedtime Viewing 💤

Batman Forever (1995)

#Batman #BatmanForever #DC #DCFilms #DCMovies #JoelSchumacher #ValKilmer #Film #Cinema #Cinemastodon

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2025/5/11/batman-forever

Weeeeell shit I never thought this would actually happen. Been reading the rumours online since before Joel died and just assumed the project had been mooted. guess I'm watching Batman Forever tonight! 🦇

#Batman #BatmanForever #JoelSchumacher #ValKilmer #ReleaseTheSchumacherCut #DC #DCFilms #DCMovies #Film #Cinema #Cinemastodon

Tom Cruise shares working experience with late buddy Val Kilmer in 'Top Gun: Maverick'
https://newstainmentora.blogspot.com/2025/05/tom-cruise-shares-working-experience.html
#tomcruise #valkilmer #topgunmaverick

Tom Cruise recalls the 'very wonderful' late Val Kilmer reunion
https://newstainmentora.blogspot.com/2025/05/tom-cruise-recalls-very-wonderful-late.html
#TomCruise #valkilmer

Tom Cruise tells how Val Kilmer had to be convinced to star in 'Top Gun'
https://newstainmentora.blogspot.com/2025/05/tom-cruise-tells-how-val-kilmer-had-to.html
#tomcruise #valkilmer #TopGun #topgunmaverick

'Grieving' Tom Cruise tries all effort to safeguard Val Kilmer's legacy
https://newstainmentora.blogspot.com/2025/05/grieving-tom-cruise-tries-all-effort-to.html
#TomCruise #valkilmer

Mario Kassar: How Ted Kotcheff Got ’80s Juggernaut Carolco Going & How Close Tom Cruise Came To Playing Jim Morrison Over Val Kilmer
#News #JimMorrison #MarioKassar #SylvesterStallone #TedKotcheff #TomCruise #ValKilmer

https://deadline.com/2025/04/mario-kassar-carolco-lost-kirk-douglas-first-blood-tom-cruise-almost-played-jim-morrison-in-the-doors-1236381201/

Well, I never ever expected this to be released on 4K UltraHD Blu-ray given the lack of support from Disney to the format. But things have changed recently, and I for one, are so so happy to have this in 4K.

And to make things even better, there’s special treatment on this steelbook.

Let’s check it out in this close up video.

Tombstone 4k UltraHD Blu-ray Limited Edition Steelbook unboxing
https://youtu.be/MKKudmk18TA

#Tombstone #Western #ValKilmer #MondayBlus #WyattEarp #elevationsales #4k #UHD #UltraHD #HollywoodPictures

The soundtrack is fantastic. It includes a selection of songs (all performed by Val Kilmer himself) as well as highlights from the film score.

Great memories.

Rest in peace, Val Kilmer.

Artist: Val Kilmer / Maurice Jarre / The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Album: Music From The Motion Picture Top Secret! (1984)
Release: 2025 Remaster, RSD, Clear Vinyl
Region: USA & Canada
Label: Rusted Wave – RW-023 / 1984-023

#nowspinning #vinyl #rip #valkilmer #topsecretmovie #rsd #rsd2025

That's Peter Cushing on the center label of side B!

Will talks about his daughters, going on a family trip to #Maui over spring break, a trick for taking kids on long flights, being roommates with the late #ValKilmer, almost doing #TheAmazingRace together, being married to #TinaFey in the new #Netflix show #TheFourSeasons youtu.be/OA092Vf41VQ?...

Will Forte on Friendship with ...