Product Details

• Actors: Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, Kathy Larson, David Milford, David Duchovny
• Directors: Dominic Sena
• Writers: Stephen Levy, Tim Metcalfe
• Producers: Aristides McGarry, Gregory Goodman, Jim Kouf, Kristine J. Schwarz, Lynn Bigelow
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Polygram Video
• VHS Release Date: September 27, 1994
• Run Time: 117 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302979919
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #201,653 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

David Duchovny is a blocked author with a fascination for outlaw killers who hatches a plan to road trip through America's mass-murder landmarks to finish his book. He enlists his frustrated photographer girlfriend Michelle Forbes, who desperately wants to leave the East Coast for L.A., to illustrate the tome, and they advertise for riding partners. Luckily for them, they wind up with a veteran killer, the greasy trailer-park ex-con Brad Pitt, who decides to skip parole with his cowering child-woman girlfriend Juliette Lewis. Duchovny is enamored by gun-toting Pitt's recklessness and lawless disregard for, well, everything; he's simultaneously terrified and thrilled by Pitt's brutal beating of a barfly. Meanwhile, Pitt's leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

Directed with a cool remove by Dominic Sena (Gone in 60 Seconds 2000), Kalifornia falls somewhere between Badlands and Natural Born Killers. Pitt brings a ferocious magnetism to his part, but it's still hard to buy genial Duchovny's odd attraction; Juliette Lewis conveys a terrifying sense of victimization with her poor dumb creature. Despite the film's best efforts, it never really plumbs the psyche of Pitt's simmering psycho--he's just plain bad, you know--but it does fashion an effective little thriller out of the tensions brewing in the restless quartet. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars CHECK OUT KALIFORNIA KAPTIONS!, April 1, 2000

By 

S. Schwaller (Crystal, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kalifornia (DVD)

Not only is this a completely entertaining flick, but I just discovered a cool tidbit. Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes stop at several points on their crosscountry tour, and the movie provides little "captions" ala "X-Files" from time to time. Six minutes in, they arrive at BRADbury Textile Warehouse in PITTsburgh, Pennsylvania. Twenty-seven minutes in, they're at Novak Farm in FORBES, Tennessee. Then at one hour and six minutes they get to LEWISton Abattoir in Mt. JULIET, Texas. And my favorite, one hour 22 minutes in, they finally arrive at DAVIDson Mine in DEW COVE, NEvada. I know this isn't really a review, but it is so damn cool that I just had to share. Enjoy!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Those Who Doubt Brad Pitt Can Act, January 22, 2001

By 

carol irvin "carol irvin" (United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Kalifornia (DVD)

If you come upon this movie after seeing Brad Pitt play one gorgeous leading man character after another and you think he wouldn't have had a chance in Hollywood without his looks, this movie will change your mind. In fact, I wonder whether his great looks have kept him from getting the deep, dark roles he is well capable of playing. Pitt plays a low-life, red-neck, serial killer who is presently living with Juliette Lewis in his hovel of a trailer. He includes the trailer park owner in his long list of victims and then pulls up stakes to leave for California. His way of getting there, with Lewis in tow, is to share travel expenses with two yuppies, a couple, driving there. At this point, the movie adds black comedy and satire to its orginal mix, which lifts it quite a bit above the standard serial killer plotline we've grown accustomed to seeing. David Duchovny is the male yuppie driver and he is a liberal writer who wants to write a book about serial killers. He even has stops along the journey at different crime scenes of various serial killers. The supreme irony is that he doesn't realize he has a serial killer in the back seat of his car while he pontificates endlessly about his book in progress. I know this actor is a big tv star now and one can see by watching this film why one actor became big in tv and the other big in film. Pitt simply eclipses everyone in the movie as far as acting talent with only Juliette Lewis coming close to him in total impact. If you are looking for the typical sexy Brad Pitt movie, this isn't it. If you are looking for Brad Pitt, the actor, this is the movie to see.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great overlooked film, July 25, 2007

By 

Gogol (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kalifornia (DVD)

Yeah I guess when people think of Brad Pitt they think of the pouting dope in films like Troy, mumbling his way through lines and generally acting like a complete prat. In this film though, he does a real good job.

Like in True Romance where he plays a drugged out bum he does a great job in playing a deranged hick killer. You always know when an actor has done a good job when you forget who he is and just watch the character he plays. Juliette sadly just plays the same role she plays in every other film she does. Nice but dumb hillbilly while the guy from the X files needs to stay there because he really is a bit of a plank in this film.

The basics of the film are, writer with an interest in serial killers decides to take his girlfriend across country searching out the places where some of the most brutal murders in American history took place, picks up smelly hillbilly and girlfriend for the ride (who just so happens is a serial killer) and well.......you can guess the rest.

Good film, worth a look.