This interesting serial killer tale offers us a fascinating glimpse into the mind of such a killer, but unfortunately destroys impact by relying too much on clichés and the conventions of film-making. However as one of its type it's not half bad, with plenty of murders and mayhem to keep one's mind off the occasionally over the top piece of acting. The film is essentially a modern day variant of Bonnie and Clyde, with the four stars travelling across America and Pitt dispatching anyone and everyone who crosses him in any way. At least this is an excuse for some nice scenery, as it's a road movie there are plenty of shots of winding roads, deserts, and blowing tumbleweeds.The acting is generally good in this film, with Pitt giving perhaps the best performance of his career (at least I prefer his performance in this to the ones in SEVEN and TWELVE MONKEYS). He's an out and out maniac, and yet nice and friendly too - he just kills people occasionally. Unfortunately at the end of the film Pitt goes way over the top into sheer mania, screaming, shouting, and killing everybody in his wake. Juliette Lewis gives the best performance of the film as his simple-minded love interest, who doesn't fully realise that he's a murderer (or doesn't want to realise); Lewis has the child-like mentality down to a tee. David Duchovny is the hero of the film, in a role which seems surprisingly similar to his Mulder in THE X-FILES. He even gets to walk around old warehouses with a torch. Michelle Forbes isn't bad as Duchovny's lover.There are lots of horrible deaths in this film, the worst being the first shown, where an old man is brutally murdered in a toilet. The film makes us care about the people being killed, shown best in a gas station sequence where a young assistant is shotgunned to death. It doesn't show Pitt in a bad light though - instead, it simply portrays his actions and lets us make up our minds about him. There are also some interesting things said about why serial killers do what they do, as Duchovny researches for his new book. All in all, KALIFORNIA is perhaps not the best of its type but it's a good attempt anyway.

It's hard to say whether the Pitt couple is good at acting, because their accents are so bad. Good gosh! Can't they hire real Southerners to play these parts? I'm amazed at how this issue keeps perpetuating itself. Over and over again, it's almost 100% bad in any movie that wants a Southern character in it. If they want a dialectal speaker, just have the actors speak in their own regional accents rather than 'newscaster English'! David Duchovny appears in stark contrast to the Pitt couple, if only for this reason (Pitt is ordinarily an excellent actor). Why didn't they make Duchovny have a Southern accent? He surely could have had one, so it seems pretty random if they have to have one couple with an accent and one without. Why do casting agents/directors/producers do this? Is it to make all Southerners look bad? Hm...

It was a good movie, but also scary, because there are people like that serial killer Early Grayce (Brad Pitt). It started out, when Brian Kissler (David Duchavny)placed a flier on a Pennsylvania state College bulletin, about someone going to Kalifornia (California) with him and his girlfriend Carrie (Michelle Forbes). The serial killer Grayce saw that ad on his way to an interview for the janitorial position there. Grayce quickly answered the call. Kissler took him and his girlfriend Adele (Juliette Lewis)in. Carrie was not thrilled about picking up those two without doing a background check. Soon dead bodies start popping up. Will any or all of three heading to California become murder victims themselves? Watch it to find out!

Brad Pitt at his most evil. He is Early, an amoral human being who will destroy anyone for any reason whatsoever. Juliette Lewis is Adele, his companion in their world of woe. Early answers an ad to share a car ride with a journalist, Brian(David Duchovny) who has written a book about serial killers and is traveling to various sites of notorious crimes with his girlfriend,Carrie(Michelle Forbes), a photographer. The law abiding couple have no idea that their driving mates are completely insane.Even before the road trip Early had killed his landlord over a rent dispute and then did away with a gas station attendant during a robbery with his passengers unaware of the events. At one of the stops along the way, Carrie watches a television report about Early as a murder suspect. She and Brian become hostages and witness further mayhem, including a home invasion and police shooting. The four eventually have a violent last stand and the payoff is o.k. as far films of this genre go.