Good concept, poorly executed.

best movie i've ever seen.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I had high hopes for this movie, it had a good plot. Could have been a great movie, especially considering the actors/actresses . However this movie was just SO slow, almost nothing at all really going on until the last 3rd of the movie. I really like Juliette Lewis so I got this mainly because of her, and the plot sounded promising but boy was I wrong. Besides the painfully slow majority, the "southern" accents are absolutely terrible, I live in the south. It doesn't sound like that. And the weird noise Pitt's character makes, and the "doors" he yammers about ...what on earth is that about?! Oh and let's not forget Juliette's child like goofy bs....overall just a crap movie.

Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) writes true crime stories. His girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes) is an edgy photographer. They consider themselves liberals and decide to drive cross-country visiting crime sites. Sharing the ride to California are criminal type Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) on parole, and his waitress girlfriend Adele (Juliette Lewis).Juliette Lewis is playing her traditional flaky white trash girl. David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes are playing straight characters. Brad Pitt plays the more volatile unstable Early. It's Pitt's performance that stands out. It's his best early work. Lewis' innate innocence actually raises the tension. Everybody does good work here. It's a tense suspenseful thriller that we know will come to no good.

"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.