Ah "Starkweather" so much story to tell, so little budget to do it in. "Starkweather" is an honest and anxious attempt to tell the story of two of the most notorious serial killers from the 1950's, but the problem is it has very little time or money to do it in. "Starkweather" tells the story of serial killer Charles Starkweather and his young teenage girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate whom both drove across the country killing travelers and taking people hostage. What "Starkweather" does is attempt to tell this story but obviously has very little resources to do it in. It also doesn't help that the writing pretty much sucks. But its worst crime is that "Starkweather" relishes in distinct inaccuracies. It's Nebraska but there is desert land, cacti, mountains and many of the characters speak with thick redneck accents to one another. It's apparent that not only was this filmed in California in locations dressed to look like Nebraska, but the production crew never really bothered to go to Nebraska and do their research on the community.

But that's not the biggest caveat when approaching the film, though. You tend to get past that when you see boom mikes over the actors' heads, and see the stars' performances for what they are. While Brent Taylor and Shannon Lucio do resemble both killers heavily, their performances do fall short of tolerable. The topic of  Charles Starkweather could serve to be one of the best portrayals of a serial killer if done the right way as witnessed by the classic film "Badlands" inspired by him. I don't usually say this, but with a big budget, "Starkweather" could be a great film, but "Starkweather" attempts much too often to get pseudo-psychological and sidesteps any attempts at emphasis. Caril's father declares that she's pregnant and big as a house, but she doesn't even have a belly, she and Charles fall in love much too quickly, there's never enough focus on their love that they felt warranted murder, and the first murder isn't gruesome enough to keep us watching. Not to mention there's never enough focus on Caril's life to bring us in to her mindset that had her give Starkweather permission to kill her entire family before her eyes.

And what was the point of Starkweather's dark mentor who often talked to him egging him on? Lucio gives a better performance than Taylor basically being reduced to sitting around watching her boyfriend murder people with boredom, while Taylor's portrayal is forced. He's threatening enough, but we never get the sense he's psychotic in spite of his acts during the film. "Starkweather" also lacks any real tension or pacing in its story with the narrative lagging on with pointless and often times repetitive dialogue, and exchanges between the two that isn't as compelling as it should be. We should get the sense that these two sick freaks are in love with one another and are willing to kill whom ever they come across just to show that. But the translation is lost through the repetitive sequences that lacked any atmosphere. And what was the point of the comedic officers tracking Starkweather? Did the real man have Abbot and Costello tracking him or what?

Unless you're a hardcore fan of "The O.C." and absolutely have to see Shannon Lucio, I really don't see what you could learn here that you can't from reading about Starkweather. "Starkweather" has the right idea, and it seems to want to get it all right, but ultimately it's a weak, under-developed, and listless portrayal with inaccuracies, and limp performances.

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