Brad pitt alone can be the reason to watch this film. He shines in this, one of his career best performance. Won't tell you anything about it at all. Let it hit you raw as it did to me. Just do yourself a favour and watch it. It's totally worth it. Great story, performance, direction and magnificent brad pitt.

There's an interesting examination in the psychology of a serial killer, and the explanation of what drives them to be the the sadistic blood thirsty savages to be handed here. While this dark thriller directed by Dominic Sena sadly fails to supplement these concepts into the film, we are fortunate enough to experience a dark, heart-pounding execution of a story following a man and woman on a cross-country trip while carrying a stowaway passenger with a something deeply monstrous behind the mask. All of this is carried out by Brad Pitt in arguably his strangest and most villainous role he's ignited in his career, a role that allows him to expand upon his cinematic variety and exercise on the opposite side of the moral compass. The film follows the story of Brian Kessler (played by David Duchovney), a criminalogy journalist researching serial killers for his novel, and Carrie Laughlin (played by Michelle Forbes), his girlfriend and photographer set on a cross-country adventure to California to research infamous murder sites. Sharing a ride with them is trailer-trash criminal Early Grace (played by Brad Pitt) and his needy girlfriend Adele (played by Juliette Lewis). But as they progress on their journey, Brian and Carrie find their lives in danger when Early begin exhibiting violent, sadistic behavior -- the behavior of a real-life serial killer.Director Dominic Sena offers something more intelligent in mind rather than a simple, violence-driven character study; and to some extent Sena manages to make this work. His biggest strength is establishing a vile, sadistic antagonist with a traumatized past and a extreme bloodlust, and this antagonist happens to be Brad Pitt's Early Grace, a man with multiple run-ins with the law, dating a sweet hotshot who he whips around all the time, and is a subject of a dark past the film makes rather vague attempts to explain. The major flaw that lies into this morally grey character is the story's failure to dig deep into the psychology of his mindset. Why is this guy such a savage killer? Why does he treat his girlfriend like dirt? His girlfriend played by Juliette Lewis who gives a sweet, innocent performance similar to her other roles, is portrayed as more morally constructed woman who's forced to respecting Early as more of a authority figure than a soulmate, which is best demonstrated in a scene where she's seen smoking a cigarette and tells Michelle Forbes's character "I used to smoke, but Early broke me from it", clearly implying domestic abuse. This one of the harrowing elements that defines Early Grace by Brad Pitt who is delivers a terrifying and darkly funny impression of a Charles Manson-like serial killer with a cynical attitude towards the general society and murders innocents bystanders for the sake of his own pleasure while squeezing out a thick Southern accent. As the story progresses and the body count (including the law enforcement officers) with his vicious savagery graphically racks up, the film strikes the heart of the viewers with relentless shock value (and gore), rather than pinning you at the edge of your seats with creeping suspense.Kalifornia is dark, tense road trip thriller blessed with a harrowing, and sadistic performance by Brad Pitt in one of his rarest roles; but doesn't quite leave a long-lasting impact to result in a truly memorable picture. This film as a whole is nerve-racking in many senses, but not quite smart nor does it showcase a satiral edge.

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!