Kill Me Again (1989)

We're approaching the end of the first decade of Kilmerness. He's gradually made the transition from a rock star, to a college whiz kid, to a sword wielding champion. He's achieved moderate fame primarily from his harsh but fair turn as Iceman in "Top Gun." Now he plays something a bit more classical. In 1989's film noir "Kill Me Again" Kilmer plays a Reno, NV detective who chases after his lovely female client (in this case played by his real life wife... at the time). I'd be lying if I didn't say that most of my notes relating to this film involve varying exclamations of what a stunner Joanne Whaley(-Kilmer) is in this movie. Seriously, what a babe:

A black leather jacketed Michael Madsen (pre-"Resevoir Dogs") plays a psychotic and jilted ex-lover who had a suitcase full of cash taken from him by our lady of craps pictured above. Kilmer plays a mob-indebted widdower who decides to help her get away from Madsen by faking her death. The one film class I took in college was about film noir so I'm going to briefly list all the tropes of this genre that are featured in this movie: detective protagonist, barren setting (desert), venetian blinds, neon signs, smoking cigarettes, elaborate use of shadow, scorchingly hot but troublesome female love interest. You see, it's basically "The Maltese Falcon" in Nevada. There's some running away through a Native American reservation that I feel obligated to point out because of Kilmer's partially indiginous background and the prevalence of such characters in the next two movies.

For a movie with a movie star couple, they actually seem to have legitimate chemistry so it's not as unsufferable as similar vehicles. It's a decent if not especially memorible movie to close out the decade.