Hi!

As longtime readers know, during the pandemic, I spent a lot of time rating every movie I’ve ever seen. To date, I’ve rated more than 700 — you can peruse them all on my Letterboxd profile — and I’m a hard grader. Only 15 films have earned five stars from me, 21 have earned four and a half, and I’ve only given four or more stars to about another 65.

This week, Val Kilmer passed away, and two of his movies are in that realm: Tombstone (4.5 stars) and Real Genius (4 stars). And I think those ratings underrate both, but again, I’m a hard grader. For sake of completeness, I’ve also seen and rated Top Gun (3.5 stars), Top Gun: Maverick (3 stars), Heat (3 stars), The Prince of Egypt (3 stars), and Batman Forever (2.5 stars). I’m not a big fan of Michael Mann’s everything-blows-up movies, so Heat isn’t really for me; the Top Gun movies are fun but again, I don’t have a full appreciation for action-adventure movies. Batman Forever we won’t talk about, as I really like good Batman movies, and this wasn’t one. (The Price of Egypt is animated and I rarely recognize the voices of voice actors.)

Tombstone and Real Genius are my Val Kilmer gems. In both cases, I found Kilmer to be one of the best parts of the film. Real Genius would be a mediocre-at-best movie without him — it’s a bunch of no-name actors with an absurdist plot, and a weaker lead would have made the whole movie fall apart. And if you take Kilmer out of Tombstone, it’s a slightly above-average movie, but he’s so good as Doc Holliday, the movie becomes elite. The only other movie I can think of where a supporting actor gives a movie that much lift is The Dark Knight. (Kilmer should have won an Academy Award for the role, but he wasn’t even nominated.) My opinion on Tombstone is hardly unique, either.

If you’re looking for something to watch this weekend, I suggest one of those two. Tombstone is a historical-ish western; Real Genius is a coming-of-age 1980s comedy. Both are fun as as a baseline and great if they click for you — and neither would be nearly as good if it weren’t for Kilmer’s performances.

The Now I Know Week In Review

Monday: Diagnosis: Kevin: Or, why you shouldn’t name your kid after a movie character.

Tuesday: Dormant and Tired: In 1974, a volcano believed to be dormant started to smoke… but no worries, it was just an April Fools’ joke. (But, as reader Aaron R. shared, that may not be true in the future — the USGS has been monitoring the mountain for volcanic activity since 2022!)

Wednesday: The Math Test That Failed: I actually have another story I’m working on about a broken math test. If my math is right, that’s three such stories!

Thursday: The Man Who Takes Apostrophes Very Seriously: After sharing this, it occurred to me that he doesn’t have a tool to remove errant apostrophes. So he’s an apostrophe added, not fixer. Hmm.

Long Reads and Other Things

Here are a few things you may want to check out over the weekend:

1) “Winter’s Tale: Read the original series about the famous Clearwater dolphin” (Tampa Bay Times, 24 minutes, November 2021). I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed this dolphin before but I can’t find it. In any event, it’s a wonderful story about a dolphin that was entangled in a crab trap at a young age, causing her to lose her tail. The Clearwater (Florida) Marine Aquarium outfitted her with a prosthetic tail, allowing her to thrive.

2) “Plano Senior High Alum’s Instagram Quest to Find 1,122 Former Classmates” (D Magazine, 18 minutes, October 2024). The subhead: “An optometrist and Pokémon master Minh Nguyen has tracked down nearly 200 former classmates. It may have saved his life.”

3) “Gary Gulman On How The States Got Their Abbreviations” (Gary Gulman on Conan/via YouTube, 6 minutes, 2016). Reader John G. shared this — long a favorite of mine — after Thursday’s email about contractions and other abbreviations. It’s fun and worth the 18 minutes (because you’ll probably watch it three times).

Have a great weekend!

Dan