King of CaliforniaA surreal oddity that jells  September 26,
2007 1:03:20 PM
VIDEO: Watch the trailer for King of California.
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Back in 1975, Michael Douglas produced a small social commentary about the state of America as told through the trials of an eccentric caged in a sanatorium. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest chewed it up at the Academy Awards. This time, as actor rather than producer, Douglas fills the Jack Nicholson role as Charlie, a free-spirited coot with a 15-year-old daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) who’s been toiling at McDonald’s to pay the mortgage while Charlie’s been in lock-up for two years. Now out, Charlie’s still not quite right; he believes that Spanish gold is hidden in an underground waterway below a Costco. And so as dad persists in scuba-diving in shit, Miranda (Tempest analogies no doubt intended) surrenders her childhood for her father’s delusional shenanigans. Kooky as it sounds, the two actors forge a palpable familial bond, and director Mike Cahill tosses in some nice quirks to make this surreal oddity jell.
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Cheap and flimsy
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Taut, but the pieces don't fit
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A fruitcake of a film
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A call to action
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Call the script doc
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Not quite the Bourne franchise
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Full-blown FX
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A sex-gore flop
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Hokey charms and convictions
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More gory pranks
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- Hard to knock it
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