cult film freak: April 2025

Written by James M. Tate / 4/27/2025 / No comments / action , adventure , bill mckinney , brian dennehy , chris mulkey , david caruso , eighties , franchise , jack starrett , michael talbott , richard crenna , sylvester stallone , vietnam

TED KOTCHEFF DIRECTS SYLVESTER STALLONE IN 'FIRST BLOOD'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4k6I5Ri_zC2G-ajOoG-XqdfqzYhdZ1P4sEjPPLoyUKINd2AqyXfMCbrfq_fWqPgTyPGkdHrYmaA9XgRTT0UjEWAovNGB0m5annKbvQpG-3uQqGi5KgEjCNq7mQ3sZjzXki-xrWecVizRrD4KHZr0eMovosl1GhtNzsmAZNq78Rsln5s5YuwT9WkYhW17L/s1940/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-16%20at%2010.35.41%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1110" data-original-width="1940" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4k6I5Ri_zC2G-ajOoG-XqdfqzYhdZ1P4sEjPPLoyUKINd2AqyXfMCbrfq_fWqPgTyPGkdHrYmaA9XgRTT0UjEWAovNGB0m5annKbvQpG-3uQqGi5KgEjCNq7mQ3sZjzXki-xrWecVizRrD4KHZr0eMovosl1GhtNzsmAZNq78Rsln5s5YuwT9WkYhW17L/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-16%20at%2010.35.41%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: FIRST BLOOD Year: 1982 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>When rural sheriff Brian Dennehy drives ragged drifter Sylvester Stallone from one side of a one-mile town to the next, he mentions several times how that long hair wouldn't fit into such a peaceful community...Yet it wouldn't take until the third film where Stallone's former green-beret/Vietnam-vet character would have the hair-length to matter... which is kind of a symbolic microcosm of how FIRST BLOOD differs from the now-legendary franchise, centering on an actual human being named John instead of an all-powerful warrior named RAMBO...

action, adventure, bill mckinney, brian dennehy, chris mulkey, david caruso, eighties, franchise, jack starrett, michael talbott, richard crenna, sylvester stallone, vietnam

TED KOTCHEFF DIRECTS SYLVESTER STALLONE IN 'FIRST BLOOD'

Title: FIRST BLOOD Year: 1982 Rating: ****1/2 When rural sheriff Brian Dennehy drives ragged drifter Sylvester Stallone from one side of a o...

GENE HACKMAN COMMANDS TED KOTCHEFF'S 'UNCOMMON VALOR'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iuyoT90Q0AFhlHAsFRV03yfRoakpJGgXee9oH3nt53BXcMAtNYYIuRlLR38ZH5JcwBj6BiwRadR17Ag-1hiV8_QYupzbggupDPF5FE7gvB15iQdFgELNbGBU_S394ljp6Pvcpzfp_oUJPLdzTPXLfQ9nfkm9i4l78mjyhARKOPH1ktZKilNXfyd2kJpd/s2046/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-17%20at%206.07.38%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="2046" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_iuyoT90Q0AFhlHAsFRV03yfRoakpJGgXee9oH3nt53BXcMAtNYYIuRlLR38ZH5JcwBj6BiwRadR17Ag-1hiV8_QYupzbggupDPF5FE7gvB15iQdFgELNbGBU_S394ljp6Pvcpzfp_oUJPLdzTPXLfQ9nfkm9i4l78mjyhARKOPH1ktZKilNXfyd2kJpd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-17%20at%206.07.38%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Randall Tex Cobb & Kelly Junkerman in UNCOMMON VALOR Year: 1983 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Recently, three important people connected to 1983's UNCOMMON VALOR have died: the most significant being the legendary Gene Hackman, who stars as Colonel Jason Rhodes, gathering a group of Vietnam veterans who served with his captured son — training them to bring his boy back home a decade later... Then there's director Ted Kotcheff, who had already tackled a similar subject in FIRST BLOOD (also featuring a kind of lonesome French horn soundtrack albeit by different composers); and actor Wings Hauser, who hasn't a part here, and isn't credited as writer, but his original screenplay (formerly titled Youth in Asia) became what's now a somewhat forgotten, equally cult-and-mainstream post-war action/thriller...

action, adventure, constance forslund, eighties, fred ward, gene hackman, harold sylvester, patrick swayze, reb brown, robert stack, ted kotcheff, tim thomerson, vietnam, war, wings hauser

GENE HACKMAN COMMANDS TED KOTCHEFF'S 'UNCOMMON VALOR'

Randall Tex Cobb & Kelly Junkerman in UNCOMMON VALOR Year: 1983 Rating: **** Recently, three important people connected to 1983's UN...

PAUL MUNI IN HOWARD HAWKS ORIGINAL MOB-EXPOSE 'SCARFACE'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-AlF1UyZaNRyjZyxBIp2VGgdaCneEBycw9MXeYteOmrTxJxuF7hcN23-XgBqlH6HNam-4GM26FNPCOxuJFjU5sybsw53fTBOf2um2_3wBGYN_zha2qK5ximxRjJTtUNTTjAMXXRDWlzdBlcGYHzXk9QdxrIvW1FeJ4t6qMumQ9lNv5vrrGMZMFQ4T6B0L/s2320/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1320" data-original-width="2320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-AlF1UyZaNRyjZyxBIp2VGgdaCneEBycw9MXeYteOmrTxJxuF7hcN23-XgBqlH6HNam-4GM26FNPCOxuJFjU5sybsw53fTBOf2um2_3wBGYN_zha2qK5ximxRjJTtUNTTjAMXXRDWlzdBlcGYHzXk9QdxrIvW1FeJ4t6qMumQ9lNv5vrrGMZMFQ4T6B0L/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: SCARFACE Year: 1932 Rating: ***</td></tr></tbody></table>Howard Hawks' SCARFACE is like a Cliff's Notes for a book that's yet to be written... and that's not only relating to the many-decades-later remake starring Al Pacino, but something like, say, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/10/R20s.html">THE ROARING TWENTIES</a> where James Cagney (who had ironically starred in the previous years' inspiration <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/09/cagney-begins.html">THE PUBLIC ENEMY</a>) takes over a prohibition-syndicate to runs things his way, and that features a comic-relief crony... There it's Frank McHugh, here there's a bumbling, completely out-of-place Vince Barnett while <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/10/R20s.html">ROARING</a> tough-second Humphrey Bogart's role is played by his <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/DriveBelowTheHiddenRoadblock.html">THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT</a> brother, providing George Raft a resilient, slow-burn gunman that should have had far more importance and screen-time...

action, ann dvorak, boris karloff, exploitation, george raft, howard hawks, karen morley, mobster, osgood perkins, paul muni, thirties, vince barnett

PAUL MUNI IN HOWARD HAWKS ORIGINAL MOB-EXPOSE 'SCARFACE'

Title: SCARFACE Year: 1932 Rating: *** Howard Hawks' SCARFACE is like a Cliff's Notes for a book that's yet to be written... an...

ROBERT DOWNEY JR WITH VAL KILMER IN 'KISS KISS BANG BANG'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTj5QgmC1f71xgyKkF0lcZiIl1qKi7hBW0KNvl06PgXD04-mamsq10Y2JMAxEkIlLb03I86x2sTX8rRudWdE3dK3izMCVcxAKxGR-92jvJ5VQ-io-r7G6iTdXlkjE6aEBHIHvBJmtQ9FcB9bJLG_ioQmt87uiG_u7OS2vMqdc5lHctsHNS0u3tfGwocmjX/s2394/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-04%20at%2011.12.14%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="2394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTj5QgmC1f71xgyKkF0lcZiIl1qKi7hBW0KNvl06PgXD04-mamsq10Y2JMAxEkIlLb03I86x2sTX8rRudWdE3dK3izMCVcxAKxGR-92jvJ5VQ-io-r7G6iTdXlkjE6aEBHIHvBJmtQ9FcB9bJLG_ioQmt87uiG_u7OS2vMqdc5lHctsHNS0u3tfGwocmjX/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-04%20at%2011.12.14%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michelle Monaghan in KISS KISS BANG BANG Year: 2005 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Famous for writing the original LETHAL WEAPON, thus receiving story credit for the entire hit-and-miss franchise, Shane Black energetically attempts to trade mainstream action for a Quentin Tarantino style wheelhouse of humorously neurotic criminals who still do violent, desperate, horrible things... And instead of outright ripping off the PULP FICTION auteur, Black goes back even further, basing the adapted KISS KISS BANG BANG on his love of Pulp Fiction itself: detective novels that inspired everything in the 1940's/1950's Noir lexicon, making this a mile-a-minute Neo Noir that runs itself ragged before the first fifteen minutes...

ariel winter, buddy, comedy, crime, dark comedy, genre tarantino, gumshoe, michelle monaghan, neo noir, robert downey jr., shane black, shannyn sossamon, stephanie pearson, val kilmer, zeroes

ROBERT DOWNEY JR WITH VAL KILMER IN 'KISS KISS BANG BANG'

Michelle Monaghan in KISS KISS BANG BANG Year: 2005 Rating: **** Famous for writing the original LETHAL WEAPON, thus receiving story credit ...

VAL KILMER, JOANNE WHALLEY AND WARWICK DAVIS IN 'WILLOW'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hwG_MuPaN2tmGuZWNpk4oyYor_NY6zcb6c4MlTh2ImtwU1f3dyeDdls4rIUJb-ry3Y-po5jeUfUReMkI6QkjmyEUXyF7S3vRxjJZhEp2qUdioNTcjtJVS_gWoJ-4Bm_W5mq0oNFqsZO9NuI2WXUPnolMcu0sdDBysET_8HoltOhyphenhyphen4tHqDXjIQlT3j4ti/s1878/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-06%20at%208.39.17%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="1878" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hwG_MuPaN2tmGuZWNpk4oyYor_NY6zcb6c4MlTh2ImtwU1f3dyeDdls4rIUJb-ry3Y-po5jeUfUReMkI6QkjmyEUXyF7S3vRxjJZhEp2qUdioNTcjtJVS_gWoJ-4Bm_W5mq0oNFqsZO9NuI2WXUPnolMcu0sdDBysET_8HoltOhyphenhyphen4tHqDXjIQlT3j4ti/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-06%20at%208.39.17%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: WILLOW Year: 1988 Rating: ***</td></tr></tbody></table>There's a point in the George Lucas production WILLOW directed by Ron Howard, a cross between STAR WARS and THE LORD OF THE RINGS, when Val Kilmer's ragged heart-of-gold scoundrel Madmartigan is battling an antagonist at the back of a horse-drawn carriage, and Lucas's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK also comes to mind... Overall paced more like a rugged Western than Magical Fantasy, Ron Howard seems more at home with fast-paced action than thrusting the viewer into another world where, like in STAR WARS, an important someone has to be rescued by a naive farmer... in this case the titular WILLOW played by former Ewok Warwick Davis, who goes on the initial foot journey to protect an infant that will overthrow a vicious sorcerer-queen...

action, adventure, eighties, fantasy, gavan o'herlihy, george lucas, jean marsh, joanne whalley, pat roach, rick overton, ron howard, val kilmer

VAL KILMER, JOANNE WHALLEY AND WARWICK DAVIS IN 'WILLOW'

Title: WILLOW Year: 1988 Rating: *** There's a point in the George Lucas production WILLOW directed by Ron Howard, a cross between STAR ...

VAL KILMER PLAYS JIM MORRISON IN OLIVER STONE'S 'THE DOORS'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvKDjLXfUM9_9fsqGIt1sqYcpXW8OKOrxdHLeYA1fejE17S8rln5T0zQBpVbVr9Cmyl3dBNrN1AaYcjNlp64Y-mkpLMHYHfq-ZkF2SH7S5K3F7uEFqeuAd27mlFbFzFqBmrfrni0wLz3fK4ok-jlyNA-D2hnR0t4FiRgJ_U0pVH8tkGtONT11DAcduGun/s1386/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-06%20at%2010.19.44%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijvKDjLXfUM9_9fsqGIt1sqYcpXW8OKOrxdHLeYA1fejE17S8rln5T0zQBpVbVr9Cmyl3dBNrN1AaYcjNlp64Y-mkpLMHYHfq-ZkF2SH7S5K3F7uEFqeuAd27mlFbFzFqBmrfrni0wLz3fK4ok-jlyNA-D2hnR0t4FiRgJ_U0pVH8tkGtONT11DAcduGun/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-06%20at%2010.19.44%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CineGraphx image of Val Kilmer in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS Year: 1991 Rating: ***</td></tr></tbody></table>At one point in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS, Jim Morrison is told by one of several female admirers that he's better than the band itself, and that everyone only cares about him... that HE ALONE is The Doors... which is basically how Stone's movie winds up, far too quickly shifting away from an involving biopic about how four guys met in Venice, California and started a band, wrote great songs and played (from nightclubs to auditoriums) before screaming audiences... So the first act harbors the best scenes, with Kilmer's brooding Morrison meeting founding member keyboardist Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzerek, a kind of uptight Felix to Jim's grungy Oscar... as Stone's PLATOON tough-guy Kevin Dillon plays drummer John Densmore as the band's Doubting Thomas, while Jim's real life favorite Robby Krieger's portrayed by Frank Whaley like he's never taken a single drug in his life...

biopic, counter-culture, crispin glover, frank whaley, kathleen quinlan, kevin dillon, kyle maclachlan, meg ryan, michael madsen, music, nineties, oliver stone, olivia barash, sam whipple, val kilmer

VAL KILMER PLAYS JIM MORRISON IN OLIVER STONE'S 'THE DOORS'

CineGraphx image of Val Kilmer in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS Year: 1991 Rating: *** At one point in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS, Jim Morr...

VAL KILMER, GABRIEL JARRET & WILLIAM ATHERTON IN 'REAL GENIUS'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfQDyV6ofG7T912smviE853CDRHdwmC4qDavvzFUqbMjZQGlS_v3A4NvYzzM3R3852d2jIIXY6u5rwSIimK_b3m0XMh1an4r4nff405z6JmTjJyaVdSfrr-xHnBT3d1cf_EgAgh8OpKDV9hbzLybQxza8U5zfgmXJ12NRFNJR4SLp2-iL3OKa1uSlRsvn/s2000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-04%20at%206.02.01%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="2000" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhfQDyV6ofG7T912smviE853CDRHdwmC4qDavvzFUqbMjZQGlS_v3A4NvYzzM3R3852d2jIIXY6u5rwSIimK_b3m0XMh1an4r4nff405z6JmTjJyaVdSfrr-xHnBT3d1cf_EgAgh8OpKDV9hbzLybQxza8U5zfgmXJ12NRFNJR4SLp2-iL3OKa1uSlRsvn/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-04%20at%206.02.01%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS Year: 1985 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>In two consecutive years, William Atherton played a smug antagonist against underdog scientific protagonists... in GHOSTBUSTERS he wanted to shut down the titular agency and in REAL GENIUS he's a television science-broadcaster using his high-tech university's two most brilliant students to create a laser that the military ultimately wants to...Well whatever's going on in the cold-war subplot doesn't make much sense, so the third-act revenge-scheme against Atherton is basically when GENIUS loses the audience (like the TRADING PLACES Wall Street sting)...

cold war, college, comedy, deborah foreman, ed lauter, eighties, gabe jarret, robert prescot, science-fiction, val kilmer, william atherton

VAL KILMER, GABRIEL JARRET & WILLIAM ATHERTON IN 'REAL GENIUS'

Val Kilmer in REAL GENIUS Year: 1985 Rating: **** In two consecutive years, William Atherton played a smug antagonist against underdog scien...

VAL KILMER, JOANNE WHALLEY & MICHAEL MADSEN 'KILL ME AGAIN'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEEfi9CCaNneN5Q4hSzb8enR8T-nTA1G62_gjPEiCdllk_cco-qI9TNJtLrFS55VSpfDQtfPPIY9vEYbjuePaOHhI9DLDTsvaudnUYCUplKYwcmhMDqAIbF0__MMRZgVXFJBGfMJW4w8ZCHJO43rSOA_tSIgRTH7pXUfC1TJfXepxw9j8oh4T9jGId0JiP/s1368/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-04%20at%207.51.15%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="718" data-original-width="1368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEEfi9CCaNneN5Q4hSzb8enR8T-nTA1G62_gjPEiCdllk_cco-qI9TNJtLrFS55VSpfDQtfPPIY9vEYbjuePaOHhI9DLDTsvaudnUYCUplKYwcmhMDqAIbF0__MMRZgVXFJBGfMJW4w8ZCHJO43rSOA_tSIgRTH7pXUfC1TJfXepxw9j8oh4T9jGId0JiP/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-04-04%20at%207.51.15%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Val Kilmer in KILL ME AGAIN Year: 1989 Rating: **1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>A perpetually sexy/sultry stare with pursed full lips in a steamy Reno-set 1980's Neo Noir fits both femme fatale Joanne Whalley and her then-husband Val Kilmer... as a crookedly gorgeous dame who just stole her crazy boyfriend's stolen cash, and the kind of private investigator that usually narrates with a world-weary monotone... But crime melodrama director John Dahl leaves the simple story more to close-up visuals than too much pulpy wordplay... Whalley's Fay Forrester actually gets the idea to hire Kilmer's Jack Andrews to pretend killing her by reading a tabloid magazine headline... all so that psychopathic Madsen's Marty will no longer dog her rural, scorching desert, cheap-motel-hopping, bag-of-cash trail...

eighties, joanne whalley, jon gries, joseph carberry, michael greene, michael madsen, neo noir, romance, val kilmer