Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7778 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-01-29
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com
Michael Douglas is such a great dramatic actor (not to mention villain) that it's worth remembering what a strong comedic performer he can be (War of the Roses, Romancing the Stone). In King of California, he digs into his offbeat lighter role with relish and vigor. Yet he softens the scene-chewing with appropriate poignancy, given that he's playing a mentally ill deadbeat who's essentially left his daughter to raise herself--and him. Douglas plays Charlie, a troubled yet good-humored musician who's just been released from institutional care. Evan Rachel Wood is his wise-beyond-her-years daughter, Miranda, who pays the bills, keeps house, and even buys a car as an unlicensed 15-year-old. The film examines the bond between troubled dad and grounded teen, and it's to both actors' credit that the slight (and slightly incredulous) plot doesn't diminish the impact of their love or anguish.

Charlie's convinced a buried Spanish treasure lies beneath the local Costco (one of many companies given costar billing; others include McDonald's, Petco, Target, and Chuck E. Cheese). The plot follows Charlie's single-minded, impossible-dream journey, while the world-weary Miranda is resigned to following ("Time to get on that old bipolar pony and ride," she mutters). But along the way, dad and daughter find true ways to reconnect, and therein lies the true majesty of King of California --A.T. Hurley

Customer Reviews

Nice little film with heartfelt performances
A nice little film that elicits a wonderful and (thankfully) restrained performance from Michael Douglas as a recent mental institute release who believes a long lost treasure is located underneath the local Costco. His 17 year-old daughter Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood) has somehow managed to get on with life on her own through some beurocratic foster home snafu, and has adjusted to eking out a simple life without her parents. When her Dad gets released after a few years in the loony bin, she has to slowly readjust to his presence and is not certain he is actually "cured", as he spouts off about buried treasure and naked Chinamen. But is there some truth to his wild claims?

There are some good laugh-out-loud moments here and well as some emotional ones, though there is a slight depressing feel through the movie. Evan Rachel Wood, gives another great performance with a chemistry with Douglas that just gels.

Crazy, entertaining but not great...!
The 4 stars goes totally all to Michael Douglas for the great performance given on such a peculiar script. I can't say I didn't enjoy the movie, because I did, but I found part of it a bit strange.

Personnally, I found Evan Rachel Wood was not giving her 100% and many times, her expressions didn't fit the situation. To me, that plays a lot in a movie.

Apart from this, it's entertaining and in most parts funny, especially with all the ridiculous ideas in Michael Douglas character's mind.

Why don't you call me Dad.......?
I have inadvertently become an Evan Rachel Wood fan. I have seen her in "Thirteen", "Pretty Persuasion", and now "King of California". Her performances in all three films are well beyond girls of her age. Michael Douglas is in the same form that made "Romancing the Stone" such a hit. He does not disappoint here, either.

What do you do, when you are a girl who has had to work two jobs, fit only for girls of that tender age of sixteen, just to pay the bills left behind by a) A mother who is an anal "hand-model" that deserts her family because b) Your father is a mental case just released from a sanitarium, and will now live with you? Well, that question is answered in this somewhat dark comedy. The histories of both Charlie (Michael Douglas), and Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood), his daughter, are shown in "flashback" fashion throughout the film, so you pretty much know what drives Charlie to do some of the things he does, and how Miranda has had to cope with two dysfunctional parents.

The center of Charlie's seeming delusion is what drives this film, and with it, the method of Charlie's madness. All of the weird things Miranda had to deal with as a child, and now young adult, become clear, as she comes to the realization of how much her father REALLY loved her.

Evan Rachel Wood just keeps getting better at her craft. I can't wait to see what she does next! Here is an actor to look out for! Michael Douglas, well, he's a chip off the old block, alright! His father Kirk would be proud! I've seen him in just about everything except Science Fiction, and he is an extremely competent actor. These two mesh well together, in this film.

Here is an Independent Film that comes across as a film with a much larger budget. The acting is superb, and the ending is DEFINITELY worth the wait! This is a good one!