not horrible nor great

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Nebraska in the late 1950's. Angry and disaffected teenager Charles Starkweather (capably played with brooding intensity by Brent Taylor) and his blithely amoral 14-year-old girlfriend Caril-Ann Fugate (a fine performance by Shannon Lucio) embark on a brutal killing spree in the heartland of America.Director Byron Werner relates the engrossing story at a steady pace, makes nice use of the dry and desolate landscape, offers a flavorsome evocation of the 50's period setting, and maintains a grimly serious tone throughout. Stephen Johnston's tight and compelling script deviates quite a bit from the documented facts of the case, but nonetheless still paints a dark and disturbing portrait of a bitter penny ante loser with a burning chip on his shoulder due to his status as an insignificant nobody who desperately wants to prove to a cruel world that he's a "real" man by committing a series of heinous murders. Jerry Kroll lends sound support as the cagey and determined Sheriff Merle Karnopp while Lance Henriksen puts his familiar gravelly rumble to quite effective use as the voice of a gruff and browbeating mentor who eggs Starkweather on. The moments of sudden savage violence pack a pretty fierce punch. Werner's crisp cinematography provides a strikingly stark look. A solid little film.

Awful, awful, awful. Brent Taylor as Starkweather is passable, barely, as is Shannon Lucio. I'd give either another watch in something else - for a second chance. But here they're stuck in a formulaic, unimaginative script that seems terribly impressed with itself and its import. Worse, one senses the director cackling as he imagines how stunned we'll be seeing the murderous pair casually watch television, oblivious to blood still splattered (oh-so-artfully) across their faces. Excerpts from an episode of "Ozzie and Harriett" play in the BG as Caril-Ann's family is slaughtered. Goodness, how ironic! I note that actor Jerry Kroll's very few credits are also among those listed for Dir. Byron Werner. (Kroll was the sheriff.) Given Kroll's performance here, one has to assume Werner sees something in him that NO ONE else can.This film is packed with many more eye-rolling moments like those described above, and some truly appalling performances. Sheriff Karnopp and his partner - Al Sepianza - are especially dreadful; wooden, self-aware and thoroughly unconvincing. (Sepianza, a reliable, workman-like actor, seems to be performing for a film other than the one we're seeing. I just can't figure out if he's awful, if he's horribly miscast, or if he was terribly misled by the so-called director.) I gather Starkweather was shot with Acton, CA. and Palmdale, CA. passing for Nebraska and Wyoming. But I honestly thought the embarrassing performances unintentionally gave (desperately needed) credibility to the locale. That is, one had no trouble imagining they were shooting in the hinterlands of Nebraska, and so hired every last local community theater player to appear in major roles. The Governor, the "rich lady" and her maid, the happy, sweet couple, the patrolman coming upon the killers on the highway, Sheriff Karnopp and the deputy...and on, and on, and on.For a quick example of the hideous editing and directing, catch the patrolman radioing information in as he spots Starkweather wrestling a prospective victim - eventually PASSING the pair wrestling over a gun, and the subsequent "chase" scene (The deputy seems to "rack" his shotgun two or three times before every ridiculous shot).Even the wardrobe wanders from merely pedestrian to truly ridiculous. Witness the sheriff's ludicrous outfits throughout, and the "rich ladies" absurd housecoat and head wrap. The clothes put me in mind of the "it's best we can do" scrounging of college kids producing a short film... kids who are actually in the college's veterinary program.I rank the movie a TWO only because I save ONEs for movies that are this bad AND include (intentional) scatological elements. Starkweather rated R, and that should be R for "It's just Rful."

I have studied Charles Raymond Starkweather for the past six months. I was excited when I saw that it would be on Showtime. Not being able to order Showtime, I picked up a copy at Blockbuster. The review is as follows: In the winter of 1958-1959, Charles Starkweather murdered 11 people with his girlfriend Caril-Ann Fugate as his accomplice. Their symphony of murder is told through this movie inaccurately. The hour-and-a-half runtime it has is too short to tell a story of this magnitude. They could've done so much more with the material they had. They could've explored Charlie's personality. What they produced is a film lacking depth and any reason. The psychological effects that Starkweather's crimes had on the public was not displayed at all. And Starkweather's murders are not portrayed accurately.This movie could've been great given a longer running time and an accurate portrayal. But what the viewing public is left with is a Lifetime Movie on a different channel.4/10

First off, I have lived in Lincoln most of my life and I lived through the days of the killings. I know what went on. Now let's get down to the film. This is a very low budget film and it shows in every way possible. You are forever seeing microphones and set people on the screen. The cars are the wrong years. The killings started in December of 1957 and ended in January of 1958, yet the trees and other plants all have green leaves on them even though Nebraska is very cold in winter. They have Lincoln in the desert of what could be Arizona or Nevada while Lincoln is in fact located in typical Midwest farm country and is hundreds of miles from the nearest desert. They show Lincoln as a very small town when it was around 100,000 or more people at the time of the killings. The one real picture of Lincon in the film shows the capital building with fountains in front of it, even though the fountains were put in on what was once 15th street and is now called Centennial Mall many years after the killings. It shows Starkweather being captured in Nebraska by the Lancaster County Sheriff when in fact he was captured near Douglas, Wyoming by local Wyoming law enforcement. I could go on and on. There are just too many mistakes in this movie to list. To it's credit they did get the names and order of events right, but that's about all they got right and that's why I gave it two stars.The story of the killings does deserve to be told in a movie and one that would be factual and show the fear the killings put in the people who lived though them, but this is not that film. If you want to learn about the killings and what they did to the city just do a web search for the name Charles Starkweather and you will learn the real story. If you want to watch a movie with so many mistakes you'll be laughing at it from beginning to end then watch this movie.