King of California

King of California is another entry in that oft-overlooked cinematic subgenre, the maybe-crazy-people-are-saner-than-us-squares movie. Michael Douglas, once the epitome of sleek yuppie sleaze, slums it up in a shaggy beard as Charlie, a recently released mental patient. Charlie, who is crazy in that inspiring, movie-cute kind of way (so it’s a fun mental illness), goes to live with his infinitely more responsible teen daughter Miranda (Evan Rachel Wood), who has left school to work at McDonald’s. Miranda becomes wrapped up in Charlie’s quest to unearth a treasure chest of gold doubloons, which he believes is buried underneath a Costco. Douglas and Wood are good actors, but they deserve better than these lame, underwritten roles, while the blatant product placement would make Bay and Spielberg envious.