Um Dia de Sorte

I'm with llanderson - I really signed up today on IMDb just to leave a comment on this movie. I was surprised to someone else had the same thought, and within 24 hours of me.

I'm a Val Kilmer fan - I saw this in RedBox and was surprised I hadn't seen it, and expected something along the lines of Spartan or Heat, or even that movie where he's like 1/32nd Indian and he's an FBI agent out on some reservation. He literally walks around in a park the ENTIRE movie, makes a gazillion phone calls to three cute actresses you recognize but probably don't know their names and Fez from that 70's show. Fez tells him at one point that his colleagues buddy probably has his nuts in a vice somewhere and is giving him up, so you really expect to see some hardcore torture or gruesome action coming up, but instead Val pays some guy feeding pigeons to take care of the unusually short kid who's been following him around all day. That really is it.

Reading the cover of Columbus Day i thought i was in for a tense heist film. Wrong. This is Val Kilmer after a heist in a park on and off the phone with an annoying child in tow. Marg Helgenberger of CSI fame is completely sidelined and wasted in a small role. The little action there is is badly shot and amateurish. Val Kilmer does what he can with the role he is given but even he cannot save this film. At 1 hour 26 minutes this film is short but to me felt like an eternity. You take your chance with low budget B movies like these, and you can uncover some gems. This however is not one of them.

Bobb'e J. Thompson (playing an African American boy, who befriends Val Kilmer in the movie, "Columbus Day" (2008), have a wonderful chemistry. It is their friendship, and their experience in Echo Park where Kilmer is hiding out, that makes the dialog work. Wilmer Valderrama puts in an electrifying performance. Marg Helgenberger provides much emotion and tension, as we learn about her relationship with Kilmer, and the little girl he does not know.

The acting, editing, cinematography, and music are good. The dialog is written effectively, so that it pulls you in, and makes you want to know more about the individual relationships interwoven with the people Kilmer telephones from Echo Park. Without any doubt, an excellent script helps to bring the people together, in a custom-designed patchwork quilt of messages (on the telephone) and conversations (in Echo Park). Bobb'e J. Thompson's goal is to help Val Kilmer find a better life. Will the boy succeed? This film is definitely worth watching, and I rate it an 8 out of 10.

The script doesn't make sense to me. Kilmer rides on a lake with a boy who reads poetry? What's in his little bag he carries around? Hard to follow.

I don't know what movie a few of those reviewers were watching because this is Val Kilmer at his best. Columbus Day is a fantastic film all of the way through. I absolutely loved it.

To start, the acting is superb. Even more importantly is the exquisite way in which this film was shot. The attention to detail, high level camera work and manner in which the story unfolded and was depicted was beyond impressive.

I was also fully engrossed in the story and the romantic plot was organic and engrossing. I think that this film is totally underrated and deserves high level praise because it was a seriously captivating and entertaining watch for me.