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Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone Collection

Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone Collection

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: awful.
Review: you will never see a film like "natural born killers" ever. this is not nessescarily a compliment.

this film is pure drivel, an exercise in drug-induced hallucinations and unashamed overacting. oliver stone will gladly say that the reason so many people hated this movie is because it contained radical political ideals that people cannot accept.

ha.

let's examine a few of the film's flaws now. the editing bears an unnatural resemblence to the works of ed wood (yes friends, when oliver stone does it the world proclaims him genius). the acting cannot be described as acting, as everyone here, (who are intended to be people that may just really exist), speak in unintelligible diolauge that no real person would succumb to saying, and act as if they have narcolepsy. the most delicous irony of this comes when, in the deleted scenes area, when oliver stone says that he deleted the hun brothers sequence because they were "overacting". it turns out that the hun brothers act the most humane of any of the actors. there are a series of pointless interludes that only serve to the film's incompetence, including one in which woody harrelson and juliette lewis visit an indian shaman and we get nothing out of the sequence other than some racial sterotypes and some irrelevant stock footage. and i'm not even going to touch "i love mallory". the violence is way, way over-the-top, the prison riot sequence is horribly photographed, and the so-called "media satire" is nothing but a bunch of awful diolauge (including the ever-so-predictable "i'm purer than you" line) and really stupid symbolisim (the media-man dressed as the devil. come on).

to some point you may want to see this film, with all the controversy surrounding it. but there's no other reason to see it. perhaps maybe it should've been banned in the states. maybe 90s cinema wouldn't have been so pitiful then.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Stone attempts to justify this wild ride
Review: I'm not really going to review Natural Born Killers because whether or not you like this movie is completely different from one person to the next. Since it is such a wild film, I would like to look at Oliver Stone's first commentary on this film. The commentary on this DVD is very well done. Stone simply states the reason Tarantino's script intriqued him and why he decided to make it. He talks about the media and violence, and his use of several images and soundtracks to convey certain points about Mickey and Mallory. With this insight, I was able to appreciate the film on a whole other level. If you like the film or hate, just give Stone a chance to explain himself to you in this commentary.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Natural Born Killers is Naturally Trash
Review: I saw Natural Born Killers a few years ago and it was one of the most dumbest movies I have ever seen. What I hate most about the movie is that it tries (and fails) at being artistic. This is evident in the use of camera angles and use of colors. The main characters are the type of people you see in movies that you want to either be killed or arrested. There is no way that I could feel any passion for either one of them, just hatred. Watching the movie brought out the worst in me. I wanted Harrelson and Lewis stopped, I wanted them to suffer like I suffered after watching this piece of garbage. Oliver Stone has just lost "it". He doesn't have "it" anymore. By "it" I mean fresh ideas and some talent. If you have any self-respect for yourself and for others, stay away from this bomb of a movie and get something worth your time.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Stone and his satirical films...
Review: Media vs. murderers. Who is the demon and who is the angel? Well, Oliver Stone makes the case that there is that fine line and sometimes we step over that line into that other side. The real demons in our world are portrayed in a kind of super-hero fashion. The more evil, the more you want to be closer to the action. So, what Stone does here works very well, and it paints a vivid and unholy picture of human nature in general. Watching this movie leaves you with a numb feeling - and I would guess that's the way Stone wants it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bonnie & Caligula
Review: Oliver Stone manfully endeavors to violently critique [ab]use of artificial blood, a trend to which his own arts &/or entertainment produce has contributed substantially over the years. Was Stone always so OBVIOUS? Maybe? The movie is hamfistedly hip/pretentious/cute/surreal, attempted satire, but wishes aren’t horses? Stone projects his usual manic energy, has been operating commercially for decades by romanticizing alienation. The Director’s Cut features a brazen & self-serving explication. Introducing a film that can only be defended as a swipe at professional use/creation of violence as popular amusement stuff (sufficiently effective to twist/.../influence human animals), Stone blithely insists that his own popular amusement stuff is QUITE different, merely reflects us as we are... is NOT aimed squarely at a prevailing taste, perhaps media-assisted, that he claims to abhor. Trust Ollie? It’s ART?...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Id exposed
Review: Natural Born Killers opens with a shot of a snake, then cut to one of a wolf, before introducing the humans that have no human consciousness. The stars Mickey and Mallory hunt prey and enjoy the kill like a feline who hunts to survive, or a reptile that attacks anyone nearby, only they do not need to kill to survive. The film exposes the dark side, or Id, of human nature, the side that has been buried and at odds with society and morals. Oliver Stone says the snake represent wisdom. Is this the wisdom of the subconscious or Id, inside humanity? All the characters in the film, save Mallory's little brother, and the Indian who tries to purge Mickey of his inner demons and who knows that the pair are no more human than the snake in his hovel, are using violence in some way. The media, the jail, the inmates, and the stars of the film, are without morals. It is the role of the artist to raise questions, break on through to the other side, to expose the underside or dark side. Society, with all its veneer of contentment via the canned laughter sitcoms and abusive childrearing practices that created the cold blooded human reptiles Mickey and Mallory, has failed to address the dark, hidden, antisocial side of the human psyche. Stone has brought this into human awareness and raised questions about our humanity by exposing what is inside all of us. We can shoot the messenger, or we can choose to recognize what is evil and dark and deal with it head on. Once all animals were natural born killers. Now humanity no longer kills to survive. It is counterproductive. How evolved is humanity? To examine these issues boldly and stop hiding beneath the veneer of sitcom contentment and lies is what Stone has begun. Forging a path into the darkness of the human psyche takes guts. We are all formed by the media, the society, the culture, and by the old brain, mammalian brain and human brain that all co-exist inside the psyche. To become fully human mean examining all these forces inside us and within our social structure. I commend Stone and Tarantino for bringing some of these issues to light of day.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good Surrealist Effort for the 90's
Review: Natural Born Killers is worth some appreciation for Stone's effort to bring classic surrealism back to the screen while still maintaining accessibility and mainstream appeal. As a work of art, Natural Born Killers ultimately wins, but unfortunately, the film is too choppy to provide Stone's message in a coherent form at times. Sometimes they're obvious, and other times they're contradicted. Stone has created some excellent characters regardless, and it's surprising that the show stealer here is none other than Robert Downey Jr. (this is excluding Tommy Lee Jones's performance, as should be noted).

This DVD is more or less the same collector's edition that was released on VHS. The commentary is definitely worth the extra bucks to get the DVD version, however, as Stone presents his ideas in a more understandable manner here. Also, for haters of the film's artistic quality, his commentary also aids in the understanding of the near-dead genre of surrealism in filmmaking.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A shocking film, but my God, is it ever amazing
Review: I'll be honest, I wasn't really expecting much from this movie. I haven't really enjoyed any of Oliver Stone's films, and the only reason I wanted to see NBK was because it's based on a story by Quentin Tarantino, one of my favourite filmmakers. Well, all I have to say is, Oliver Stone is king! This movie is simply incredible, and it is definitely one of my all time favourites. Woody Harrellson and Juliette Lewis give great performances as Mickey and Mallory, two serial killers who go on a reign of terror in Texas. But the best performances in the film are by Tom Sizemore, Tommy Lee Jones, and Robert Downey Jr. Sizemore plays an insane detective who's goal in life is to catch Mickey and Mallory. Jones plays warden Dwight McClusky, who is in charge at the prison where M & M are kept when they are caught. His performance is probably the best in the film, but Downey Jr. also gives a great performance as Wayne Gale, a reporter who is obsessed with the murderous pair. There are some scenes in the film that are just disturbing: the prison riot, and Sizemore's killing of a prostitute come to mind. So this movie is not for the faint of heart. But for everyone else, it is a must-see satire of the American justice system and how the media glorifies violence. Overall, a haunting, yet IMMENSELY satisfying movie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nails the coffin shut
Review:

Stone effectively nails down the coffin door on America's fascination with media-delivered sex and violence. And who would have ever known Rodney Dangerfield could be so horrifying? Cool editing and nightmarish scenes. You can't tell me "The Drug Zone" store scene didn't make you feel snakebit yourself.

- JJT

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Natural Born Klowns!
Review: First, my objection to this movie has nothing to do with violence or the quality of the film-making. The violence is stylized and I have seen more gratuitous violence in supposedly mainstream movies. And the movie is made with craft and a lot of razzle-dazzle editing and effects with every sort of technique and mixed medias.

However, I feel the movie fails abysmally as satire or social commentary, which it was purportedly supposed to be all about. Stone has tried every form of explanation to justify this sorry, ugly mess he's put on the screen, but his rationales just don't wash.

First, everyone on screen is repellent. Absolutely everyone. Except, of course, for the Indian shaman which is SO politically correct and such utter nonsense it belongs in some other film (looks borrowed from Stone's The Doors, matter of fact).

Okay, it's black satire so everyone is supposed to be repellent. Well, that would work except his purpose here is supposedly to sho!w how the Media glamorizes and sensationalizes violence and the perpetrators of violence. But, everyone Mickey and Mallory murder are unattractive and unsympathetic as well. We end up with lowlife dregs mostly killing other lowlife dregs. It's hard to care. And I think this failing undoes the movie.

The fact of the matter is that spree killers and serial killers murder your daughter. Or your brother. Or your mother. That they are then made the center of Media attention/obsession thereby giving them fame and a sort of glamour...well THAT is obscene. The fact that we will remember the Dylan & Klebolds, the Dahmers & McVeighs of this world while their victims go unheralded to their graves is an injustice worthy of exploration and comment.

Don't look for it here. Stone makes the worst sort of error in that because everyone around them is venal, Mickey & Mallory don't look so bad. He glamorizes the killers. Just exactly what he supposedly thinks the media is guilty of!, and thereby creates his own sort of love affair with these detestable swine.

Stone's protagonists are just another loathsome couple of airheads on the run in Nowhere USA, killing equally loathsome dehumanized victims. His resulting effort is loud, busy, noisy and obnoxious. It is one of the purely ugliest presentations I've ever seen. But all that heat sheds no light anywhere. At it's core it is empty and heartless. It has become what it is supposedly satirizing, and that makes this effort as obscene as its supposed targets.


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