#52stations

HELLO so sorry for getting to this late! your message came just as i was embarking on vacation. but i’m back and settled now and ready to share my fave VK movies with you!!!

top secret— his film debut and a pretty funny spy/musical parody film!! he plays his role totally straight here, which imo just makes it even funnier bc everything happening around him is so absurd. there’s some dated and offensive jokes here, but that frankly is just to be expected from a 1980s US comedy i think.

real genius— I LOVEEEE this movie!! it’s another early comedy from him, but his character in this film has so much swag that it hurts. i also appreciate that this film is 1) anti-war and anti-military 2) doesn’t have any jokes in it that are offensive or punch down, 3) has very clever humor and dialogue! i wanted to be chris knight so bad when i was a teenager.

top gun— I know i literally know. but the thing is that iceman was SO formative to my understanding of my gender and sexuality and the sort of man that i wanted to be that he’s become a strand of my dna as an adult. i legitimately wrote an essay about it if you’re curious. these days it’s hard for me to turn off my critical thinking brain and enjoy this film in the same way i did when i was young, but i still love it as an accidental(?) piece of queer filmmaking.

kiss kiss bang bang- another HUGELY formative film and role for me; this film has been in my letterboxd top 4 ever since i made my account. it’s both a noir-comedy-satire AND a noir in its own right, and val plays a very bitchy and tough openly gay detective in it! this was the first gay character i ever saw in a film and it made a huge positive impact on me.

tombstone- this is like his career-defining performance, and for good reason. kilmer CARRIES this movie and delivers a fantastic sense of weight, drama, and even a little bit of camp to the story. it’s also just a really great western in its own right!

thunderheart- it’s been awhile since i’ve seen this one but i remember liking it pretty well!! it’s a drama following some murders that take place on a native american reservation. i’m overdue for a rewatch tbh, i’m sure there’s a lot here that i missed or overlooked when i was a kid

prince of egypt- a fantastic animated movie, and one i personally still enjoy despite not fucking with the christian church. his voice work as moses is very compelling!

the real mccoy- not a great or particularly noteworthy movie, but i remember it being fun! he plays a goofy sort of blue-collar type character, so it’s fun to see him play against type a bit.

the saint- i’ll be honest this movie is DEEPLY mid but he wears a lot of fun disguises and plays with accents a lot in it, so it’s fun to watch just as a showcase for him. this is also the movie that made me realize just how often he dips into campy, catty, or fey affectations in his acting, and that maybe explains why i responded so strongly to him as a youth.

batman forever-again, this one is better watched for the camp factor than anything else. the script is a mess but all of the actors are giving it everything they’ve got, it’s just that they’re all trying to go in completely different directions. again, val plays it ALARMINGLY straight and serious, which ends up coming across as kind of camp in its own way. i haven’t watched this one in years but it used to be a perennial sleepover staple film for me and my childhood best friend.

Hi there!

I watched it originally on CTV as it aired in 2005 and had it recorded to VHS tape—transferred to DVD. I don’t think it is commercially available anywhere.

I have found episodes 1-7 on YouTube, however:

YEAHHH SPECIAL AGENT SUCKS-SO-BAD

first impression— a shot in the arm for what was otherwise a pretty lackluster movie. he feels almost like a parody of a “thriller cop character,” but in a way that’s SO fresh and entertaining!

current impression— there is just something so compelling about how fucked-up and weird and shitty he is. simultaneously the most grounded in reality AND the most unhinged out of the entire hoffman cycle cast of characters. i would never ever want to meet him irl but as a character i could watch this guy do his taxes and probably be enthralled by it.

favorite moment— either his first meeting with hoffman or— and this is a throwaway moment— the very strained and forced “MOVE PLEASE” that he says to that one cop in saw 4. i know it took everything in him to say please.

idea for a story— i’ve had the wip of my werewolf hoffstrahm series sitting in my docs for quite some time i’m afraid 😔

unpopular opinion— that man is a strict top. sorry to bottom!strahm coffinshippers but i have to speak my truth.

favorite relationship— perez!! it’s fascinating how much they’re able to build up the relationship between the two when they only have a few scenes together in one single movie. still, i would have loved to see more about how their partnership came to be!

@52stations I mean that's pretty much it! |D excluding the ff.net fics because. well. it's a 00s franchise, I love following fandom histories, and there are some surprisingly good fics there! (+ also Strip the Paint which is the one I'd marked for later years ago and which I need to reread now I know the Context)

@52stations she watched saw ii at 3 in the morning and yelled at her bf when he asked her to turn it down she is ABSOLUTELY one of us. here are some certified Paris Gellar sawblogger headcanons:

has seen every film in the cinema six times at least because it takes that many tries to reach the end credits without being thrown out of the cinema for loudly complaining about the timeline

has a very detailed corkboard of the timeline as she sees it and who created which trap etc

HUGE poster on House of Jigsaw (the old saw forum I believe)

particularly enjoys going into detail over the surgical traps due to her own med degree. she has SO many opinions on Lawrence

hates the Hoffman era (she's a whannell og trilogy truther)

has rewatched amanda and especially lynnmanda scenes multiple times. her saw iii dvd is scratched to hell no matter how many times she tends to it

writes novel-length fanfic of OCs making their way through various traps/trials, all of her own design. they're not popular but they have a few loyal reviewers

has full blueprints/sketches/dioramas of these designs. Rory and Doyle stumble on them often and then can't sleep for weeks for fear they might wake in them