Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Spoonatects Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

sean kenney It reminded me a bit of my father and felt nostalgic and adventurous. It was my kind of quirky with a touch of reality. It brought out the child in me and reminded me why we believe in anything and the magic of it. An exploration into the complicated relationships with family while freshly building promise that a single goal, no matter how awkward, can be the binding piece of the puzzle in a fragmented father and daughter bond. Displays how judgment of those we do not understand is sometimes unwarranted and without any imagination, while the imagination of those we judge roams freely without lack of faith. Humbling, funny, and happy go lucky.

BuunDawg King of California ("KOC") is one of those movies where if you don't pay attention, you might miss the punch-line.Basically what is boils down to is this: The slight zaniness of Charlie (Michael Douglas) in his search for long lost treasure, is a metaphor for the long-standing allure California has had on hundreds of thousands (millions) of people over the years.Like moths to a flame, the intangible allure which is the promise of a better life, has drawn legions of seekers to California over the years.But the genius of KOC is that it waits to the ending scenes to confirm for us the viewers that Charlie's obsession is, by the standards of the allure of California, 100% correct, 100% valid and in his instance, it actually pays off for his beloved (and loving) daughter in the end.Think carefully about the symbolism of the illegal immigrants emerging for the ocean in the movie's final scene and also about the scene in which Charlie last appears and you'll make the connection regarding the utter immersion which the allure of personal fulfillment compels people to. People want the dreams of their lives to be fulfilled and they will indeed throw caution to the wind seeking it.The symbolism of the Costco (so much is there, it has everything) is also a metaphor for California itself.I'll leave the rest to the viewers, but I'll just say that Evan Rachel Wood is very believable as a loving daughter and Willis Burks's ingenuity in the Costco scene is for me a modern version of the can-do pioneering spirit which carried people westward in the past.

ausmanager It's the Sideways vibe and feeling again. Watching generates that 'sweet feeling'. Music is well planted to some scenes of the movie giving it 'sweet flow'. Ending is a bit complicated initially. Had to watch it again to pickup on details. 1st Charlie preparing dishwasher gift. He gave her credit card that she could use. Then he uses plastic container to make extra trip to the 'hole' just before they turn on the lights in Costco. What do you think is he doing? 2nd he looses scuba diving gear to get through the narrow passage. I thought director left it to the viewer to create own ending and decide if Charlie lives or not. It's not so. The final scene- had to play that scene twice to confirm: Chinese swimmers. There are 7 men coming out of the ocean but only 6 continue walking together. Who is the 7th man? :-)

Robert J. Maxwell Michael Douglas has just been released from a mental hospital. During his years as an inmate, he read a great deal about California history, especially the stories left by monks of lost treasure. One monk in particular, left behind a diary of his journey in 1651 in which he lists clues of the treasure's whereabouts. Douglas returns home and enlists the aid of his estranged daughter, Evan Rachel Wood, in his besotted quest. She supports them with her job at McDonalds. They pawn or sell everything except their house in order to buy the equipment necessary to track down the lost doubloons -- back hoes, scuba equipment, and so forth.It's a gentle family comedy, not a zany laff riot. There are no pratfalls, little vulgarity, and nothing raunchy or violent. The model of madness is fey and whimsical. There's nothing dangerous about the deranged Douglas. He's funny.And it's Douglas's kind of role too. He's superb at wild-eyed restraint. At one point he's about to drive away in Wood's heap of a car and she rushes out to stop him. She shines a flashlight through the window and when he explains the purpose of his midnight trip his eyes are so wide open that the irises are surrounded by white, as in a cartoon. I looked in the mirror and tried to do it myself and couldn't.Wood is less effective. She looks and sounds as if she'd just been extraordinarily renditioned from the streets of Sherman Oaks. She was stunning as an early adolescent in "Thirteen," where she embodied a sort of savage innocence, whereas here she's a generically beautiful young woman.The script depends a lot on the performances because there really isn't much to the story except air. One mildly amusing incident follows another, and they'd all be pointless if they weren't built around Douglas's obsession with the monk's leavings.The dialog is warm and funny without the willingness to crack the viewer up with laughter. Everyone seems so charming and good natured. Here's an example of one of the more ludic lines.Wood: (Shouting) "You think the world is only here for your own amusement!" Douglas: (Shrugs) "Look at the world." Now, an exchange like this must necessarily make a great big thud unless it's carried off perfectly, with neither party acting as if they realized its absurdity. And they do it.There was one sad underlying impression that I'm not sure the writers/director meant to elicit. I mean the striking contrast between the landscape descriptions from the monk's diary. They're all about pure valleys and unspoiled heaving hills and rivers and caves and rocks. The landscape that Douglas and Wood explore is mottled with housing tracts and strip malls. These developments seem to have been caught in mid flight, while spreading like some malignancy across the natural features of the land. Douglas needs to break into CostCo and drill through several feet of concrete to find the monk's river, now driven underground, hidden under a multitude of shelves with boxes of consumer crap. There's nothing especially funny about purity lost.