Riverside California King starts with promise, then drifts into noise.
Travis Bennett plays Perry, a mattress salesman with a dumb idea. He fakes a kidnapping to impress a girl. That’s the whole movie.
Bennett, best known from Odd Future and Dave, isn’t bad. But he’s not enough. He plays it small, maybe too small. There’s no spark behind his eyes.
Jimmy Tatro plays his partner, Wyatt. Tatro’s a YouTube guy turned comic actor. He gives the movie its only real pulse. He knows how to land a line. He knows how to move.
The script is sharp at first. The lines crackle. The tone feels fresh. The music works. It hums under scenes, gives them rhythm. The first act moves fast and weird.
Then Joel McHale shows up.
He plays Zane, a crime boss. He’s supposed to be the villain. But he isn’t. He’s a void. He looks lost. The smirk from Community is still there, but it’s useless here. He’s not funny. He’s not scary. He’s not anything.
The movie falls apart around him. There’s no tension. No stakes. No story left to care about.
Victoria Justice plays the love interest. She’s fine. The script gives her nothing. She reacts. She disappears.
The plot spirals. It forgets what it was about. Scenes stretch too long. Jokes stop landing. The fake crime becomes a fake movie.
Even the look of the film loses steam. The color, the pace, the energy—all fade by the halfway point. What felt indie-cool turns lazy.
There are moments. A few lines hit. A few scenes breathe. But they’re buried. The movie doesn’t know what it wants to be. A crime comedy? A buddy film? A sketch?
It tries to be Community with kidnapping. But without the wit. Without the structure. It tries to be weird. It ends up dull.
California King sells chaos, but never closes the deal.
