James Ledesma

Technically brilliant— Val Kilmer is excellent as Jim Morrison; the costumes and sound and cinematography are top-notch. But Oliver Stone misses the mark when dealing with Morrison’s life: his childhood is reduced to one singular incident, and his adolescence is completely ignored. The movie is titled after the band but it’s Morrison’s life Stone is interested in, and yet he never gets underneath the surface to discover the real person beneath the artifice. But it’s a helluva ride, and fans of the band and their music probably won’t be disappointed.