Sadly Over-hyped

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

"Kalifornia" is the story of two couples who set out on a road trip to the west coast together. One couple is a writer and his photographer girlfriend. The other is an ex-con freeloader and his psychologically damaged girlfriend.The writer, Brian Kessler (David Duchovny), intends to visit sites of various murders on the trip as research for a book. His girlfriend, Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes) will photograph the sites for the book. But their main purpose, it seems, is to leave the area where they are living and head to California, like it is the promised land.Brad Pitt plays the role of Early Grayce, their passenger who passes through life with little intention. Juliette Lewis is Adele Corners, the girl who thinks she loves him. All four major performances are adept, but the characters of Early and Adele are so extravagantly drawn that they are the best things about this film.I am not a fan of this film, because it feels rather pointless. We might compare it to Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs"--about another academic who was naïve to the threats that exist in the world, but "Kalifornia" wallows in the sociopathy of Early, where "Straw Dogs" is about Dustin Hoffman's character, who represents society as a whole and is a proxy for the viewer.

"Kalifornia" is a violent road movie that features two couples who, for different reasons, want to move to California to make a fresh start. The couples come from different social classes and are worlds apart in terms of education and sophistication. These differences and other tensions that exist between them as individuals, create a consistently strained atmosphere which becomes even more intense as they gradually start to learn more about each other.Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) is a psychology graduate who, having written a well-received magazine article about serial killers is given an advance to write a book on the subject. His girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes), who's an aspiring photographer, wants to move to California and so they plan to use their cross-country trip to visit famous murder sites to gather material for Brian's book. As they don't have sufficient funds to pay for their trip, Brian places an advertisement on the bulletin board of the local University for anyone who'd like to make the same journey and share the costs.Brian's ad is answered by Early Grayce (Brad Pitt), an unemployed ex-con who's just killed his landlord because he was demanding payment of rent money that was owed to him. When Brian and Michelle go to pick up Early and his girlfriend Adele (Juliette Lewis), Michelle's first impulse is to pull out of the agreement as Early and Adele look impoverished and common. Brian, however, is anxious to get on with the trip and persuades Michelle to put her concerns to one side.Brian is a man who likes to think the best of everyone and believes that murderers are victims of their backgrounds which have effectively made them into killers. He's absolutely fascinated by murderers and enjoys studying their motivations. During the journey to California, he slowly starts to become aware of the real nature of his travelling companions and things turn extremely violent and scary before he discovers why he has such an intense interest in killing and also has to re-think some of his long-held views.Brad Pitt puts an incredible amount of energy and drive into his role as the embodiment of pure evil and is completely convincing as a psychopath who simply does whatever his instincts dictate. Michelle Forbes does a great deal of frowning and scowling as the cold, pretentious Carrie who's a voyeur and can't help being fascinated by things that she also finds repulsive. She's hard and cynical and even her hairstyle is severe! David Duchovny is good as the naive and gullible Brian who learns more about his specialist subject than he could ever have imagined and Juliette Lewis is amazing as the tragic, undereducated young woman with a traumatic background which has left her so damaged that she sees the manipulative Early as being a well-meaning man who's dedicated to protecting her."Kalifornia" is stylishly made, fast moving and beautifully photographed but certain passages are also uncomfortable to watch. Its real strength lies in its characters who make it compelling from start to finish.

Why the K? I don't know, but then I don't really understand who the intended audience for this film is either. It's not extreme enough to appease fans of disturbing cinema, not cerebral or cool enough for art-house types, nor is it mainstream enough to appeal to the general public; it's there, treading a fine line between all three—frustrating, because Kalifornia has plenty of potential, and if director Dominic Sena had just chosen one definitive route to take, the film might have been a great addition to the serial killer genre instead of an average one.The plot explores several fascinating themes—class divide, the allure of danger and violence, psychotic behaviour and the complexities of the brain—but Sena's indecisive approach means that he only lightly addresses each issue, and often in a trite and predictable manner. A dreary narration from David Duchovny's obnoxious yuppie is intended to make events seem more profound, but only serves to make the film seem highly pretentious. Sena's glossy visuals give an 80s music video vibe (not that surprising given his previous work with Janet Jackson) which seriously jars with the content.Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis' memorable performances ensure that the film isn't a total waste of time, both actors taking 'poor white trash' to a whole new (and sometimes hilarious) level, and there are one or two effectively shocking outbursts of violence, but this is an ultimately empty experience that says much less about its subject matter than it would have you believe.

Brad Pitt at his most evil. He is Early, an amoral human being who will destroy anyone for any reason whatsoever. Juliette Lewis is Adele, his companion in their world of woe. Early answers an ad to share a car ride with a journalist, Brian(David Duchovny) who has written a book about serial killers and is traveling to various sites of notorious crimes with his girlfriend,Carrie(Michelle Forbes), a photographer. The law abiding couple have no idea that their driving mates are completely insane.Even before the road trip Early had killed his landlord over a rent dispute and then did away with a gas station attendant during a robbery with his passengers unaware of the events. At one of the stops along the way, Carrie watches a television report about Early as a murder suspect. She and Brian become hostages and witness further mayhem, including a home invasion and police shooting. The four eventually have a violent last stand and the payoff is o.k. as far films of this genre go.