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Overall Rating : 3.5/10
Directed By : Oliver Stone
Woody Harrelson (Zombieland)
Juliette Lewis (Whip It)
Tom Sizemore (Black Hawk Down)
Rodney Dangerfield (Back to School)
Supplied By : Warner Home Video
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October. 13, 2009
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| PLOT The story of a husband and wife who are serial killers involved in a cross country killing spree that elevates them from fugitives into media celebrities. |
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| THE REVIEW In 1994, the original cut of NATURAL BORN KILLERS was released, but not before Director Oliver Stone was forced to make over 150 cuts to the final cut of the film. It's claimed that the MPAA was so shocked by what they saw that they asked for excessive violent scenes to be cut, so much so that they had forgotten what they were complaining, siting the film's chaotic nature as the reason for their overall concern. In this new DVD and Blu-Ray release of the film finally released as the film was originally intended by Stone, restoring four minutes that had been previously cut from the film, and as I understand, a few selections of the music has now been restored to there original positions within the feature. Penned by a young Quinton Tarantino and like TRUE ROMANCE before it, obviously inspired by the case of Charles Starkweather, NATURAL BORN KILLERS follows two love-bird criminals who become unlikely media celebrities. Through various vignette type pieces, we see how the two of them met, and how Mickey and Mallory Knox murdered Mallory's sexually abusive father before hitting the road, embarking on a killing spree, in which the two have an on-the-fly self-orchestrated marriage ceremony. Amidst their travels, the two commit multiple arrays of murders, the nature of which finally catch the attention of the media, a media that is hungry for a profit. Eventually, the names of Mickey and Mallory become household the world over and it seems as if we can't get enough of the two as media outlets go out of their way to sensationalize their every move. The obsession with the self-proclaimed "natural born killers" is so great that they are still noteworthy long after they are captured, in fact they grab the attention of top true crime show, American Maniacs and it's lead reporter, Wayne Gale. After so long under the media's spotlight, Mickey and Mallory begin to quite like the attention and get accustom to saying and doing what the media wants to hear. The ending result of the film sees Mickey and Mallory use the fame in which they garnered against the very people that made them famous when the two seemingly vanish without a trace. As of late ot seems that I have been reviewing a lot of older movies that beforehand, I had yet to see. Although NATURAL BORN KILLERS was originally released in 1994, it was one that I had not previously seen, simply for the fact that it did not look like the type of film i'd be likely to enjoy, although I do like films based on, and around the subject of serial killers. Nonetheless, I have always heard good things about it. As it turns out, my initial assumptions about the film were correct - I just did not dig this movie. Now, don't get me wrong, the plot is brilliant because it presents a fact that was and is still true, our media as well as us in general, just cannot get enough of our celebrities, no matter who they are> Current celebs can say and do anything that they want, and in a good majority of cases, they can get away with it. The world's sensationalism has actually become something of the norm since the production of this film, especially with the seemingly inescapable form of entertainment called reality television. These days, just about anyone can be famous, because now we have people becoming famous for reasons we are unsure of - they're famous, just for being famous. The subject matter of the film couldn't be anymore true and some 15 years later it's still relevant, even more in these current times, actually the plot is brilliant in my opinion. So with me saying this, you might be wondering what it was that made me not care for the film as a whole, well it wasn't the plot, it was the editing and use of silly green screened backdrops that made absolutely no sense at all. In my opinion, this is a story that would've been told better had there been a greater level of seriousness added in. I get the sense that stone was going for seriousness when he shot the film, but with the trippy images and the random and rapid black and white and other miscellaneous edits, I had a hard time taking it serious, to me it made the whole thing seem like some silly parody of sorts, I had difficulty staying interested in it all. Although this film wasn't much to my liking, NATURAL BORN KILLERS is a film that is highly regarded by some, and I don't blame them. It has a good plot and great performances by the two stars, Harrelson and Lewis, as well as from notable supporting performances by the likes of Tom Sizemore, Tommy Lee Jones and the late Actor/Comedian, Rodney Dangerfield. Honestly it has all that is required to make a great film, but as I said, I wasn't very fond of the special effects used, which in my opinion pushes everything into territory less serious. |
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| GORE
METER 4.5/10 Bloody knife slashings, severed limbs, stabbings, impalements and blood splatter. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 The soundtrack ranges from Rock and Rock-a-Billy to your more traditional scoring. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, I found that I didn't enjoy NATURAL BORN KILLERS as much as some have over the years, and maybe that is because I expected a much more different film. Here we have a serious story that is placed in a world that is sometimes almost surreal, to be honest, i'm not quite sure what the filmmakers were going for at some points in the film....it just didn't resonate with me on the level that I had hoped for with this film. This 2 disc set contains the following features : Disc 1 * Introduction by Oliver Stone (New Intro HD) * Commentary by director Oliver Stone (from original SD release) Disc 2 * NBK Evolution: How Would It All Go Down Now? - New documentary providing a look at how the film might be different if today's technology advancements were available (in HD) * Chaos Rising The Storm Around Natural Born Killers - Shocking 'making-of' documentary about the storm of controversy surrounding the film( from original SD release) * Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Oliver Stone (from original SD release) - The Desert - Steven Wright - The Courtroom - The Hun Brothers - The Drive-In - Denis Leary * Alternate Ending with introduction by Oliver Stone (from original SD release) * Charlie Rose Interview - Charlie Rose interviews Oliver Stone on the making of this violent film (from the HD DVD release in SD) * NBK Director's Cut Trailer | ||||
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