One of the silliest films I have ever seen.

Rating: 5/10 (22 September 2007)

Oh, boy, where to begin...
Now, I'm a fan of the Doors. I'm not really a fan of Oliver Stone, but hey, a movie's a movie.
But Christ! There's OTT and then there's LSDOTT! This is supposedly a biopic of the Doors, but Ray Manzarek, John Densmore and Robby Krieger get barely a mention. At best, they're portrayed as Jim's friends, at worst, ass-holes.
So this film is basically Jim Morrison. Now I like Jim's lyrics and voice, but the Doors would have been nothing without the fabulous music. Of course, he led by far the most chaotic lifestyle so it's inevitable he would get the most screen time, but oh my god, you wouldn't believe some of the rubbish Ollie sticks in this film. He raises Jim to status of some kind of Godlike figure. He has Indian spirits dancing around him when he performs. Every second word is some kind of mystical phrase. Every time he performs it's like it's some great historical event. Even the notorious incident when got out his penis on stage is transformed in a ludicrous sacred ritual! Not to mention the mystic orgies, insane (and nonfactual) stage behaviour, long drawn-out shots of him staring into the eyes of an Indian spirit who appears for no reason at all. It's all reminiscent of those ultra-pretentious art-house movies that were prominent in the 60's which have dated so badly.
It's so utterly nonsensical you wonder what Ollie was thinking (or drinking)! That's not the only problem with the film - it's historically inaccurate too, as has been pointed out in other reviews. The goofs section will tell all you need to know - you get the feeling that Ollie idolised Jim Morrison way too much.
As for the acting - variable. I'll admit, Val Kilmer does a TERRIFIC performance - it's uncanny at times. He's wasted in this movie. There are some particularly poor performances though. The scene that takes place in Andy Warhol's factory contains the worst offenders. Andy himself is portrayed as, well, WTF?! Just too weird and stupid to believe, uttering some idiotic dialogue about "Would you like to talk to God, Jim?" And Nico, who was known to be Jim's lover before he died, has almost racist portrayal.
Still, after all this I have to say I did enjoy watching the movie. It's beautifully shot and wonderfully evocative of the era. As a piece of art-house trash, it's fun.
As a biopic, it couldn't be worse.