OC LIVE : Fans Who Count On Brad Pitt Can Forgive Some of the Sins of ‘Seven’

In “Seven,” a classy but burned-out police detective (Morgan Freeman) and an idealistic but hot-headed rookie (Brad Pitt) must outwit an intellectual but psychopathic serial killer before he exacts the ultimate price from practitioners of each of classical literature’s deadly sins: greed, gluttony, wrath, pride, lust, envy and sloth. (Rated R).

*

Brad. Brad. Brad.

Why else would two teen-age girls who don’t even like action movies turn out for a grisly, gruesome, blood-soaked, stomach-churning, dark nail-nibbler like this?

“I didn’t even know what it was about,” said Nina Gomez, 14, of Irvine, who came like a lamb to the slaughter with her friend Mara MacColl, 15. Indeed, Nina was at a loss for words to describe the film, which graphically pictures each of the killer’s first five victims: a naked, obese man force-fed until his stomach burst; a lawyer with a pound of flesh removed; a vain socialite with her face cut out; a prostitute with, well, let’s not discuss that here, and a cadaverous sinner of some stripe who had been tortured for a year.

Not to mention the thrill of finding out that someone who looks dead isn’t, really. “Oh, oh gosh,” the girls said together. “That was absolutely the worst part,” Mara said. “I jumped out of my seat. I literally jumped.” Said Nina: “That was so nasty. That was too much.”

But the worst of it, Nina said, wasn’t even anything she actually saw. It was a sadistic killing that was only described, but in such graphic detail that it left an even more indelible picture in her imagination.

Nevertheless, Mara affirmed that, yes, despite Pitt’s gritty role, punk haircut and widely publicized protestations, he remains the sexiest man alive. Just maybe not the greatest dramatic actor.

“In some parts, he was just too cocky, maybe,” said Mara, who would prefer that Brad stick to such romantic roles as handsome heartbreaker Tristan Ludlow in “Legends of the Fall.”

Still, she said, the movie is better than she’d expected; it kept her guessing, soap-opera fashion. Would Brad’s wife decide to go through with her pregnancy despite her reluctance to bring a child into this violent world? Would Freeman really quit the force? Would the killer get all seven people? Would there be another close-up of Brad’s eyes?

Sixteen-year-old Casey Jerome agreed that the movie is suspenseful. “They scare you out of the seat when they start shooting and stuff,” Casey said. “When they hold a gun to the guy’s head, you think, ‘Oh God, is he going to die?’ ”

But it also was too gratuitously graphic for him, as well as for the parents who brought him. “My mom said she shouldn’t have brought me to see it. But I thought it was good anyway.”

In addition, there is a full range of street language common to police homicide detectives.

The kids agreed that they never saw the final plot twist coming and were surprised at the end as the detectives faced down the stubble-headed psychopath.

But “Seven” might be a perfect candidate for an interactive, audience-controlled ending, because the kids disagreed on how the plot was resolved. Casey liked it, but Mara was disappointed.

“The ending was not what I think it should have been,” she said.

Without giving anything away, let’s just say it has something to do with . . . Brad.