Review of Kalifornia (1993) by Derek S — 16 Aug 2011

You know,for a movie about redneck serial killer on a road trip to California, this movie, for the most part, is pretty uninteresting. There's nothing bad about this movie in any way, but it just didn't engage me in any way until Brian and Carrie find out that Early is a killer, then the movie gets great.

The problem is, this was more than halfway through the movie and it's really a shame. But the movie's good, the acting is very strong. Particularly Brad Pitt, he was tremendous. You know, being someone who didn't start to enjoy Brad Pitt's work until his stuff this past decade, I must have to admit that this guy probably always knew how to act.

But, at the time, he probably didn't get much of a chance to show this because of his looks and he was cast in movies where his looks were really the most important thing. So, naturally, this created a backlash among some people.

Sort of like how Leonardo DiCaprio was fucking HATED after Titanic came out, even though, at the time (and still is for that matter), a tremendous actor. But since Brad's looks have now started to fade as he approaches 50, he's had to rely SOLELY on his acting talent.

..and you know what??? He's fucking great. He won't win any important awards for his acting, but he's better than people give him credit for. So the point is, Brad is great here and he pretty much carries the movie with his performance.

It's kind of a shame that, unfortunately, the movie still isn't that interesting in spite of his performance. But I don't blame Brad for that, I blame whoever wrote the movie for not writing a more interesting movie.

So, overall, the movie is good at best. It should've been better, but it wasn't.