Doesn't reinvent the serial killer roadtrip wheel but it helps that it has a strong cast. Brad Pitt always plays a good bad guy.

Not that bad .. Brad Pitt plays good as a psychopath.

Back before David Duchovny became ‘Mulder’ in the X-files, he made this little film. Then again, many didn’t really see it as ‘his’ due to the fact that it also starred the highly-bankable Brad Pitt and Juliet Lewis. And for a reason, both of the established Hollywood A-listers stole every scene. However, that doesn’t mean that Duchovny didn’t play his part. ‘Pre-Mulder’ plays a writer who’s working on a book about serial killers with his photography girlfriend and they decide to go on a cross country drive, visiting the sites where infamous killers struck (ending in California – with a C!). But, to share the costs, they agree to bring along Brad Pitt and Juliet Lewis – another couple, but from a very different background. And it doesn’t take long before the two couples start to rub each up the wrong way – with some pretty fatal consequences. It’s pretty hard to find a bad performance from any of the four stars. Pitt and Lewis naturally stand out because their characters are wilder and they have more to play with, but Duchovny is a sober ‘ying’ to Brad Pitt’s manic ‘yang.’ Basically, if you like road movies, dramas, serial killer films, or thrillers in general, you should watch this. It really is all those and more, plus it contains some pretty awesome scenery to really add to the ambience.

Predictable killer that panders to low grade video

Best Brad Pitt movie ever!!!!! Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis had a perfect chemistry and they did a good job together in this movie.

This movie has all the right pieces but ultimately couldn't make it work. Its really unfortunate how bad this is when It could have been a 90s classic. 20 minutes I to the movie I absolutely hated this movie and every character in it. It's not the actors fault. It's the writing and directing. It's laughably awful. I'd rather watch my own poo being flushed down the toilet on repeat for an hour and a half then ever sit thru this stinker again. God I hated this movie.

The actors make it quite intense.

A road trip movie that takes a nasty turn. Not bad, but not memorable either.

i thought it was boring; i couldn't finish it.

There's nothing more 90s than writing "California" with a "K". The movie is a time capsule of 1990s fashion and, what it truly believed at the time, to be transgressive art — Brian (David Duchovny) as the "bleeding heart" writer who wants to understand serial killers, and Carrie (Michelle Forbes) who takes photos of naked, faceless bodies. These are the struggling artists who have outgrown Louisville and can only be satiated with a move to the Golden State. On the other end, we have Early (Brad Pitt) and Adele (Juliette Lewis), who are "white trash," simple folk — Adele is certainly on the spectrum, although, that may not have been the intention at the time. The couples become a foursome as Brian leaves a rideshare advert in a local university for Cali, where Early sees it (for some reason). Back in the early 1990s, Brian's narrations of empty murder sites were likely cutting edge, but I can't help but roll my eyes at this future true-crime podcaster. His descriptions and pseudo-diagnoses of the killers are comical. Early is a homicidal maniac. The back half of the movie concerns Adele, Brian, and Carrie placating the snorting hick, Adele being the last to fully accept her boyfriend's true colors. I expected this one to be a stinker, but once Early is on his manic rampage, the thrills accelerate and the plot intensifies. I loved when Early responds to Brian's book learnin', psychoanalytic jargon with an immediate, "I know that, idjit!" poking fun at the heady artist and his ilk. Somehow, Brian and Carrie can afford a quaint, beachfront property in Malibu all before Brian publishes his book… but I will say, the book he is going to write would be one helluva read.

Kalifornia is trash, but it deserves an award for making Brad Pitt, in the 90s no less, look like the most feral disgusting man you've ever met. I didn't enjoy the film at all, but I managed to sit through it till the end, which means it's at least watchable.

The film has an interesting premise and good acting. Interesting social critique of responding to violence.

So Brian (David Duchovny) and Carrie (Michelle Forbes), a writer and his photographer girlfriend, embark on a country-wide road trip to California to do research on serial killers. In order to help the starving artists pay for gas, they advertise to find travelling companions. The only takers are Early (Brad Pitt) and Adele (Juliette Lewis), the former…wait for it…a serial killer. What are the chances? Pretty good, apparently. If you can get past the total absurdity of the situation and the predictability of it all, it's actually surprisingly entertaining. Pitt and Lewis take on their roles as drooling, sociopathic rednecks with vigor, Forbes is great as the baffled ‘why are these people in our car?' voice of reason, and Duchovny plays the same role he always plays, the monotone stoic.

a serious horror film. Serious in that it was realistic. Horror as in a really scary horrible predicament being an innocent couple on a road trip with a psychotic killer. SPOILER: in movies like this they never really kill or disable the bad guy enuf. He always comes back at them. Saw on tv set 12.23.2021

Kalifornia succeeds in its stylish allure with a real dark grungy side to it. This film profiles serial killers in an intriguing way trying to shed any sort of light on the maniac mind and what makes them stir. Brain, played by David Duchovny & his wife are the educated, privileged journalist couple on the road investigating old serial killer murder sites when they pick up a simple country couple. Juliette Lewis is the innocent sweet young woman with her boyfriend Early, played by Brad Pitt whose a dimwitted sociopath clearly haunted by a troubled past. As we progress on the trip we see Early become more and more unstable and his vicious and violent tendencies come to face, Brain learns he may have a killer in his back seat. Brad Pitt plays the unhinged and cold hearted psychopath frighteningly well and certainly one of his better performances.

The story was good, Brad Pitt was pretty good playing his character, but the rest of the acting seemed a bit stale and had some silly bits. At the end of the day it was passable.

The best thing to say is that it largely kept my attention. Otherwise it's a completely forgettable and directionless film. As a mystery there simply is none. As a slasher there is far too little gore and tension. As exploitation of an extremely attractive cast skin is in very short supply even in the "unrated" version. As a character study there is no more depth than a reflecting pool. Duchovny plays the same character he's been doing ever since the X-files--Mulder--with the exact intonations and pretentiously spoken asides laden with largely inane observations pretending to be profound. Pitt does a fair job of acting as a psychopathic white trash redneck but his contrived backwoods accent is laughable. Forbes and Lewis (particularly) have some moments but are mainly along for the ride but like the other wind up no thicker than cardboard. Based on the newest vehicles I saw the film is set in the very early 80s but there are anachronisms like color video surveillance cameras at filling stations and a testing ground for air blast nuclear weapons that while "aged" simply would not exist.

To borrow from Roger Ebert, I hated, hated, hated, hated, hated this movie. It thinks it's clever. It's not. The performances are phony and forced (Brad Pitt as a redneck serial killer, give me a break), the story is totally implausible, the violence is ghastly and serves no purpose other than making you sick to your stomach, and the so-called "message" (ostensibly that we are all basically violent animals) is pathetic and sophomoric. If people think this is entertainment, there is no hope for humanity.

Without Pitt and Lewis, this movie would be a DOA.

I gave this movie this rating because of the flashes of brilliance by. Juliette Lewis and Brad Pitt.