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Gene and Val

For Gene Hackman, I watched some mid-tier things that I had missed before, like Runaway Jury.  Fine, but I always go back to Heist.  A whole movie of Hackman saying things like:

”He isn’t gonna shoot me? Then he hadn’t oughta point a gun at me. It’s insincere.”

“Don’t you want to hear my last words?” “I just did.”

“I’m not that smart.  I try to imagine a fella smarter than myself, then I ask myself, what would he do?”

The little smile at the end is perfect.

For Val Kilmer, of course there is Tombstone, and Top Gun, and Real GeniusSalton Sea, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and a bunch of forgettable stuff, but Spartan is the one I watch over and over.

“In the city, a reflection.  In the forest, a sound.”

“What about the desert?”

“You don’t want to go to the desert.”

Ebert liked them both, 3.5 and 4 stars respectively.