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Natural Born Killers

Natural Born Killers

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: ¿If you got me locked then take your shot¿
Review: NBK is a parody on the tabloid medias sensationalism of violent news stories which also exposes the corruption of officials and professionals who use this same system to benefit themselves. This is probably Oliver Stones most revered work to date which was panned by the critics and public alike who saw it as nothing more than an excuse for a violent and offensive movie. It was banned and censored in many countries and Warner Brothers pulled the VHS release from many places and television stations choose to censor certain scenes.

NBK is a hybrid of a film. It is everything from comical, to arty, trippy, violent, stupid, pretentious, wonderful, sad, gripping, dramatic, action packed, sexual, mystical and psychological. In many ways this is because Stone choose to let the story and actors take the film where it wanted to go. In this DVD presentation you see many documentaries, makings off, deleted scenes and a directors cut with commentary which show how the film evolved from Tarantinos screenplay to a sort of roller coaster film making that strayed from conventional Hollywood production standards and often left the script because of it. Tarantino himself hates this version of his script but basically Stone just let everything ride along by itself, almost with nobody at the wheel at times. This is what gives the film that "out there" nervous edge to it. Many of cast and production crew also took drugs when making this film and sometimes just headed off into the middle of nowhere to see what they could come up with. Stone also uses every type of media available from cartoons, to video, to Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and black/white and color film with lots of stock footage thrown in.

This is Guerilla film making with a high budget. The story is in two parts and basically revolves around Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis), who meet up in their youth and decide to go on a massive killing spree across America followed by Wayne Gale (a massive performance from Robert Downey Jr.) a producer and presenter for a tabloid television hit show that focuses on mass murderers. Also trailing in their wake is the serial killer hunting psychopathic detective - Scagnetti (played by Tom Sizemore), who has written a book called "Scagnetti on Scagnetti". The first half of the film is full on crazy but you have not seen anything until the second half of the film appears which mostly takes place inside an overpopulated penitentiary run by Warden Dwight McClusky (could be Tommy Lee Jones best performance. Wonderfully overacted and he hits the right moments at all the right times) in which all hell literally breaks loose.

Its a mad mad mad guerilla film and the DVD extras are must to get the full effect. Wonderfully insane but many people will hate it for all of its excessiveness. Its plays more like an Acid Trip that a movie. Only Stone could do it and you should be thankful that he put the spin on Hollywood with this monster of a movie.

Hell-bending stuff.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Insanity Re-defined.
Review: Only Oliver Stone could of pulled off something like this. It's one of those movies that just sticks with you, whether you love it, hate it, or think it's okay.

Don't watch this movie expecting the feel-good movie of the year. Obviously, that should be the last thing you would expect from a movie titled 'Natural Born Killers' (or any other Oliver Stone movie). This movie makes you realize just how fragile the human body is, and makes you pray you never run into anyone half as mentally unstable as the main characters. However, just because there's lots of killing in it, this doesn't make it your typical action movie. This is satire of American culture at its best along with a bad LSD trip to make it interesting.

Some of the best moments in the movie are brief but haunting. One of the best scenes is when the main character Mickey Knox is being interviewed for television and gives his personal point of view on killing and why he does it, Oliver Stone's personal spin on the Heraldo/Charles Manson interview. It's too bad they deleted the court room scene though, but you can still watch it in the deleted scenes menu.

The best performance in the movie is given by Tommy Lee Jones who plays the hyper redneck prison warden. He plays it with a lot of energy and you know he's just waiting for one of the prisoners to make a mistake.

The only problem with the movie though is that it can just feel like too much sometimes. So much over the top, cartoonish violence and zaniness can either make your mind wander off someplace, or it can hold your attention.

This movie won't appeal to traditional or mainstream movie-goers, but anyone who's into something different and something that can be both intelligent and low-brow at the same time should check it out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: nate is a hollywood manipulated zombie
Review: How ever the person listed above considered the direction of this movie ruining it blows my mind. Oliver Stone read this fine script and understood every fine point the script had and did his finest part to bring his understandings to the viewers. This movie is put together great and you will find a differant plot to the movie every time you enjoy it. It is truely one of the finest films made right behind Pulp Fiction.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: insanely stupid and it sucks completly
Review: oliver stone mad a mess of himself over this flick. didnt go for me because of its really bad performances by rodney dangerfield, tommy lee jones, tom sizemore and the ever so annoying robert downey jrs reporter guy. downey jr chewed up his scenes. Woody Harrelson was the only one to save this from being a total flop of a gay movie. Juliette Lewis' character is a chick I wouldnt want to have sex with even if the world was about to end and we were the last 2 people on earth. id rather make love to a chimpmunk. they should retitle this thing as The Natural Born sucks my ass

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Future is Murder
Review: Mickey Knox is my hero and Quentin Tarantino my god. The whole world's comin' to an end Mal'!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best action/comedy movie ever
Review: Oliver Stone has made lots of excellent movies such as Platoon,Born on the fourth of July,Any given Sunday.but this is his best action and comedy ever made,lots of artwork,weird colors such as black and white,green colors,and red and blue colors,also has lots of camera angles.the whole story is about two murderers named Mickey and Mallory Knox the both had weird childhoods such as child abuse and sexual abuse so they murder.this movie was either liked or hated by people but it is awesome and quite artistic.the Unrated version is available on dvd or vhs.

Woody Harrelson as Mickey-A
Juliette Lewis as Mallory-A
Robert Downey,Jr. as Wayne Gale-C
Tommy Lee Jones as Dwight McClusky-B+
Tom Sizemore as Jack Scagnetti-B+
Rodney Dangerfield as Mallory's dad-A+
Edie McClurg as Mallory's mom-A+
Joe Grifasi as Duncan Homolka-B
Pruitt Taylor Vince as Kavanaugh-B
Everett Quinton as Wurlitzer-B
Steven Wright as Dr.Emil Reignhold-C
Balthazar Getty as Gas station attendant-C
Dale Dye as Dale Wrigley-B+
Eddy Conna as Gerald Nash-B+
Sean Stone as Kevin-B+
Ashley Judd as Grace Mulberry-B+
Glen Chin as the druggist-B+
Russell Means as Old Indian-B+

Movie-A+

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: absolutely stupid
Review: I don't care what kind of social or political statement this movie was trying to make, it was just plain stupid. It was all I could do to sit through it until the end. I couldn't even have an opinion about the violence or whatever statement it was trying to make because I couldn't get past how STUPID it was. And Robert Downey, Jr.'s character was insanely annoying. This is by far one of the very worst movies I have ever seen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: In tHe EyES of thE MEdIA, kilLErs cAn beCOMe meDIa savVy.
Review: To clear something up that bothers me after reading the other reviewers comments. This film is about a married duo of SPREE KILLERS. Many have made comments about how Mickey and Mallory (central characters) are serial killers or mass murderers. A complete misconception. Serial murderers choose their victims sometimes randomly, sometimes selectively but their is nearly always a purpose. However, mass murderers are different they kill large amounts of people. An entire family for example. A spree killer travels, usually cross country killing anyone & everyone they come into contact with. Of course, I'm not here
to compare and contrast each of these types of killers, I am here to write a review.

Natural Born Killers is yet another fun filled, violent ride through the artistic mind of one of the industry's top film makers, Quentin Tarantino (screenplay), and the artistically driven directorial effort of Qliver Stone. Unfortunately, a great film such as this can even have its share of problems.
One such problem is the creative struggle between these two filmmakers which can be seen if you read the original script
a very different movie. Tarantino removed his name from the credits due to this. They really must have butted heads for something like this to have happened. This can also be seen while watching Stone's version (movie today) it doesn't feel like a Tarantino piece. The direction is too artsy for the
old fashioned dialogue and action Tarantino weaves together.

To be blunt it is too weird even compared to what Tarantino normally does. This is no Pulp Fiction or even True Romance.

As far as the actual intent of the film's meaning, the best
way to sum it up is how it depicts how the media controls
its viewers. How the media always manages to involve itself
into everything. How the media uses its coverage to twist
the emotions of its viewers. How something so violent and so disturbing can suddenly become such a mockery when the media gets ahold of it. The film makes the media out to be what it
is... a carnival attraction! And does a damn good job at it.

As far as the performances, they are some of the best I have seen from these smaller, often media bashed actors. They all give solid performances, yes even Rodney Dangerfield who has only had one decent performance in his career (Caddyshack).

As far as the cinema work, although sometimes too artsy for
me it is some of Stone's best. The (original) screenplay is excellent and the revised one is pretty good too, not much changed. The biggest change is the ending of the film Stone completely changed it I won't spoil it. See it then read it!

So, in closing NBK is one of the best films of its genre. I would have loved to be able to seen Tarantino's version and compare how drastically different each would be on film. Oh
well, at least, I can kick back and read the script & watch
the movie to get the whole picture.

Reviewer advice: Get the film, then buy the original script
released through Grove Press Books. Check Amazon for a copy
of yours today!

Other films I recommend: Killing Zoe, Thursday, Love & A .45

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Kindergarten Every Day!
Review: like most Oliver Stone flicks, you either get this movie, or you don't. i happen to think its great, but those that take too literally really miss the boat.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Blurring the line
Review: While, in ways, NBK is one of my favorite films of all time, it's terribly pretentious which is why I remain on middle ground about it's rating. Like others have said, Oliver Stone was the films flaw. Had it been Tarantino-esque in it's directing, I think it would have had more appeal, and less of the headache flavor. Whatever the subliminalism in the sometimes stupid camera work is distractiong and really detracts from the replayability(sp?) of the film. Intense films are wonderful, but it can't be so intense that it's impossible to watch it a few more times and take in the full picture. Sometimes I believe that the real message is too overt, and sometimes I think it's hidden in the fact that there really isn't such a thing as good and bad. Like a Yin Yang or something. Our sympathy for Mickey and Mallory reflect the fact that they're not totally monsters, nor are many of us as normal as we would believe. However, I believe Stone overshadowed some very important events in the story (Mickey's past) with exaggerations of relatively mundane events (the shrooms, the Indian killing) and tried to shove the spoils of infamy down the viewers' throats. Mickey's version of Charles Manson was sort of cool, but also it evoked a feeling of "what is this guy on" as he tried to disset the philosophy of murder. It was also unbecoming with actual murder scenes. Mickey ranted about the purity of murder, but it was very apparent that Mickey and Mallory first killed for the thrill of people dying, and also as a manifestation of their neglect through media coverage, and in the latter part of the movie simply killed for necessity. A good foundation, but the walls are a little crooked and the building material shaky. I believe Tarantino should've undertaken his script and shown us the story, rather than Stone showing us a story and breaking the flow every few minutes to point out the cause and effect mechanism of the characters' depravity.


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