Sorry, this movie sucks

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

I can't for the life of me figure out why Hollywood can't seem to make a GOOD movie about such incredibly fascinating stories. True life has given us amazing material in characters like Ted Bundy, The Manson Family and in this case Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate.... And yet the screenwriters deliver tripe like this. WHY?? You had sooo much to work with!Looking at other reviews, I need not go into many of the film's details here, except to add a few comments....Yes.... The movie was shot on location in Acton & Lancaster, CA - NOT Nebraska. I could tell instantly, as I grew up in Lancaster and lived near the Nebraska/Wyoming border for over 10 years! The two barely even resemble one another. That seems to me to be a stupid mistake that could have and SHOULD have been avoided.Others here have recommended the movie "Badlands" instead. I would caution any reader that BADLANDS WAS BASED ON THE "IDEA" OF THIS CASE - NOT THE FACTS!! .... Whatever merits Badlands has as a film (and it has FAR more than this movie), it is not about this case. The characters aren't even named Charlie & Caril Ann. Badlands is a work of fiction "inspired by" this case. I just felt that someone here needed to point that out.And on a film-related note.... Those like myself who love the true crime genre should go out of their way to avoid the obnoxious garbage that has flooded this otherwise fascinating arena in recent years. Namely those "one-name" films such as this one that you find on video shelves like "BUNDY" or "GACY" or "DAHMER". All of them complete garbage not worth the disc they're burned on. To call them factually inaccurate would be kind. It is painfully clear that the director and writers never even so much as cracked a book on ANY of those cases. They knew nothing whatsoever about the people they were portraying!! Stay clear of them all!!Recommended viewing in the true crime genre....On Ted Bundy: The Deliberate StrangerOn The Manson Family: MANSON by Robert Hendrickson (AWESOME!!)On The Zodiac Killer: ZODIAC by David Fincher (A few inaccuracies, but a top notch cast & cinematography make up for it)As far as Charles Starkweather & Caril Ann Fugate go, I'll recommend the same thing I would for any of these cases.... See a documentary!! You're always going to get as close to facts as possible and a much better production every time - guaranteed.--

I have seen some bad movies before, but this takes the cake. 90 minutes of my life wasted - gone forever- down the drain. What I thought might be an interesting story about a serial killer was so bad that it was painful to watch.Shannon Lucio (from the OC) and Brent Taylor gave totally uninspiring performances that appeared devoid of feeling. What little dialog they had was useless. This film could have been made as a silent and it would't have mattered.I should have know something was going to be wrong when the two met in December and he is getting yelled at in January for getting her pregnant. "She's as big as a house," yes her father. I kid you not.Finally, the chase scene at the end was absolutely the worst I have ever seen. I could have beat them on a bicycle. He was going so slow that even though he had the window down, he was able to light one of his Strikes. Starkweather kept trying to pass on the right when there was no oncoming traffic! I want my 90 minutes back!

First of all, Starkweather and Fugate were from Nebraska. So what's with the Southern hick accents and the country music?Starkweather fancied himself another James Dean. I don't think he listened to country music.What's with the "devil" character?? Added nothing to the plot. Im fact, the movie could have done very well without it.Charlie loved animals - much better than he liked people; he wouldn't have killed the toad.Charlie Starkweather was a very short, red-headed kid with bow-legs and thick glasses and a bad stutter. He also wasn't very bright.Caril Ann Fugate was NOT the stunner she was portrayed as in the movies. By all accounts, she was a very snippy, arrogant child.Both roles were miscast...badly.If they're going to do a story on a mass murderer like Charles Starkweather, at least get it right."Badlands" was a much better account of the Starweather-Fugate crime spree than this mess.

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."