Very Cool!!!

That was an excellent one.

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

It's more than twenty years since I last saw this and I didn't really remember anything. Not even how violent it was, not even that it had a serial killer theme. I just remembered that it was a film to watch again some time because it was great. And so it is. Clearly not for everyone, this is one hell of a violent road movie with Brad Pitt in crashing, cruelly uncaring and at time even incoherently hateful and his little lady by his side, Juliette Lewis. We have seen her do her Southern, waif like kiddie stuff before but here she is allowed to go full throttle and so we have the most disturbing couple. Wild and horrific Brad and 'he only whips me if I deserve it' Juliette. Not an easy ride then but David Duchovny seems not too put out, certainly at first. He's already started up the Red Shoes Diary machine, about to become a real star through X-Files and Brad Pitt freaking out isn't going to ruffle his feathers, well at first anyway. Possibly a tad long, some have criticised the prolonged and crunchingly violent ending but if you fancy an off the wall road movie featuring one of Brad Pitt's best performances plus Juliette Lewis doing what she does best and then some, you can't do better than watch this mini classic

Brian Kessler, who fancies himself as a writer, has the idea for a book: he will visit places where mass murders occurred, describe the murders, and have his wife photograph pertinent details of the sites. Trouble is they do not have the money for the trip, especially since their car is a gas guzzler that gets eight miles per gallon. Kessler posts a note on a university bulletin board asking for people to share the trip and expenses and this puts him and his wife in contact with a lower than low class couple, Early and Adele. One problem I had with the story is that Brian and his wife would surely have vetted their potential road companions before committing to a major trip with them. And within a few minutes of being with Early and Adele, Brian and his wife would realize that this was not going to work. The personality and class distinctions would be insurmountable. Nevertheless they press on with their adventure and things unfold in a predictable manner in support of a creepy thriller. Early becomes more and more unhinged while his girlfriend behaves in accordance with the stereotypical behavior of a poor, clueless, simple, young woman.I cannot determine if David Duchovny is just a boring actor or whether he was trying to play Brian as a boring person. Juliette Lewis competently plays Adele. Brad Pitt's performance as Early is a bit over the top, but he does seem to be enjoying playing such a low class psychopath. Of the four main characters I found Michelle Forbes' portrayal of Brian's wife to be engaging and believable. I usually appreciate Carter Burwell's scores, but his work here struck me as generic.There is some good cinematography, particularly of the landscapes. The lonely melancholy of America's back-roads is nicely captured. The editing keeps the plot moving along.There is little insight offered as to how Early wound up being a psychotic killer and what triggered his outburst of self destructive violence at the time of this trip. Brian questions Early, and unbelievably even taunts him, about his upbringing but only gets some harsh comments about his dad. There is no neat explanation, if any, for how a person like Early comes to be, but this movie apparently was not interested in going into that at all.

"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.

This is the first movie that I have seen that Erbert has given four stars. He raves about how well this movie was made and how realistic the characters are. I wouldn't give it a score that high, but I do agree that the characters in this movie are really well done. Atlantic Video (my video store, excellent place for cheap videos, and they have a huge selection) labels this as an action, and others say that it is a thriller. I would consider this movie to be a psychological examination of people. It exposes us to the harsh reality of life and is far for falling into the category of mainstream Hollywood. I first heard of this movie when it was advertised in the Mercury Cinema, the old alternative cinema in Adelaide.My gripe is the character of Brian Kessler (David Duchovney). There is nothing wrong with the character itself, but it reminded me a lot of agent Mulder. The twist between Kessler and Mulder is that Kessler considers himself a psychologist but he is not. His ambition is to write a book on serial killers and why the do what they do. Kessler knows that he cannot learn about serial killers by sitting in a library so he decides to go to California with his girlfriend, Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes) and on the way there visit the sights of famous serial killers to try and uncover why serial killers do what they do. Kessler realises at the end of the movie that he has absolutely no idea as to why they do what they do. After his experience with Early he realises that some people do things because they want to.This brings us to Early (Brad Pitt). Brad Pitt's portrayal of Early is brilliant. Upon seeing this one comes to the conclusion that Brad Pitt does know how to act. Beyond this is the character of Early. Kessler does not understand why Early is the way he is but it seems to me that Early just does not perceive anything beyond his own experience. He does not see that there are repercussions for his actions. Erbert says that Early is intelligent, but I disagree. Early does things on the spur of the moment and never plans his actions. He needs money so he kills a man with lots of money. He just doesn't care that he just killed somebody, and this comes from a man who has probably done it a lot before.Adele Corners (Juliette Lewis) is a very well developed character. She is a character that lives in a dream world and believes everything that is told her. She is a child that was thrust into adulthood quite violently. She does not want to grow up so she remains a child at heart. She has a preconceived idea about who Early is and she does not want to believe that he is anything else, even if she is confronted by it.Kalifornia is a movie about reality. It is two couples from different backgrounds who have come together and are influenced by each other. Brian slowly becomes influenced by Early while Adele becomes influenced by Carrie. We notice something when Adele enters the restaurant with her hair cut, and slowly she becomes to look more like Carrie. The only differences are the clothes. Carrie dresses very dark and wears trousers while Adele wear scanty dresses. This is a movie about the way people behave and how some people are just evil.