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Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone Collection

Natural Born Killers - Oliver Stone Collection

List Price: $24.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A chaotic vision of murder, media, and love in 90s America
Review: Almost 25 years before this movie was made, a movie was released that touches on almost all of the subjects explored in 'Natural Born Killers'. That movie was 'Clockwork Orange'. Few would doubt that Stanley Kubrick was a better director than Oliver Stone, but what makes this movie fascinating is how the ideas in 'Clockwork Orange' are presented on a 90s backdrop. The 60s was a chaotic, revolutionary era and the 90s is the age when all the children of that scary yet beautiful age are growing up. These people have watched their country turn almost 180 in just a few short decades. If the 60s was the flower power generation, then the 90s is the trailer park generation and Mickey and Mallory were a product of it. Both 'Clockwork Orange' and 'Natural Born Killers' touched on the subject of murder in the eyes of desensitized people. What made the Oliver Stone version of this topic interesting was the relationship between Mickey and Mallory. It was odd to see two sick, twisted individuals actually care about another person but what was downright *scary* was that, when you thought about it, their relationship was no different than your average 90s couple. This may not be a groundbreaking film and it may be pretentious in parts, but it is definitely a break from the average Hollywood fare because it actually makes you think about the world in which you live. Pick this and 'A Clockwork Orange' up ASAP.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Yuk! Stupid, Sophomoric, and Ugly....
Review: Don't waste time or money on this banal nonsense. Stone says nothing in this uh..."film"...that hasn't been said more cogently and with far more intelligence in other films and books.

One could possibly live with the sheer ugliness of the screenplay...if it weren't so...well...just stupid. You may hear the word "creative" bandied about by the studio's apologists...but don't believe them. There's no creativity in here; it's all utterly predictable. You've seen it all in TV sitcoms, "movies of the week", and an assortment of brainless commercial things that pander to teenagers and the basest of adult tastes.

The only difference is that Stone & Company try to "outshock" the others under the pretensions of being an "art movie." It's pathetic.

If you want an intelligent...and entertaining...cinematic exploration of the nature of violence go back nearly 30 years to Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange." Now there's a master film maker interpeting a literary materpiece on the subject.

This thing: it's just awful...in all regards. Worthless.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Another romantic comedy for the grunge set
Review: One night Oliver Stone was watching David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" (1990) and he thought, "I'll show that half talent how a romantic comedy for the nineties is REALLY done," and he made "Natural Born Killers." It was a lot of fun. Well, actually he also watched Kalifornia (1993) and thought, "Juliette Lewis is kind of sexy and she has potential. She doesn't really need to be THAT dumb." And so he reprised her role from that film, and saw that it was good.

Juilette Lewis as Mallory is Laura Dern on speed, and Woody Harrison as Mickey is Nicolas Cage tweaked. This is one bad ass film. Ah, but there's a deeper layer. Oliver Stone has targets. Somebody has to be satirized or what's the point? Well, TV's Geraldo gets it with both barrels, that is obvious as Robert Downey Jr. plays Wayne Gale, a sort of Geraldo with a Brit accent. (It plays since the British invented sleaze journalism). But beating up on Geraldo is too easy. What is really being satirized in this film is the audience! Ah, yes, pick their pockets and laugh at them. As Red Cloud in the film says, we've-that is us, Mickey and Mallory in our dreams-we've been watching too much TV. Mickey replies (innocent of being the target) "It's kind of like the twilight zone." Yeah, that's TV, the twilight zone. Red Cloud further says we're (again we are M and M) "lost in a world of ghosts"-the ghosts of TV and the movies and the tabloids. Funny in support of this satire is the Japanese media girl who remarks as a commentary to the "Drug Zone" drug store capture of Mickey, "He has a rather large gun." And when Mickey has to surrender, she adds, "He's now rendered impotent."

In case we miss the attack on the media, we are surrounded in our motel room by images from the TV coming through the windows. (We are literally surrounded by this crap!) It should be pointed out that we get the media we deserve, just as we get the politicians we deserve. Somebody's buying those supermarket tabloids; somebody's watching Jerry Springer and the nightly news. As M and M get ready to do the mating dance, on the small TV plays animal shows with lions and beetles and such doing the wild thing. Attacking animal shows! Is nothing sacred? Of course not. Stone's main purpose is to satirize the American psyche and get paid for doing it. And he does. And it's fun.

There are so many nice touches: "Route 666"; Wayne Gale's vain use of a nose hair clipper; his calling M and M "the most charismatic serial killers ever"(!) for his TV show "American Maniacs," which is logo'ed like "American Gladiators"; the adoring crowds cheering our psychos on like the Beatles in their prime. But what I especially loved was the sit-com clips near the beginning with Rodney Dangerfield as a "Father Knows Best," "Married with Children," burlesque of a psycho dad.

But it's really sad how Oliver Stone loses his concentration toward the end of his movies. Here we have something close to a satirical masterpiece, but he just can't finish. The absurd near-finale as they break out of prison dodging bullets as in an old time Western just wasn't up to the quality of the rest of the film (although Tommy Lee Jones had fun as the warden). The tacked-on little sit-com ending with Mickey as something like Chevy Chase in a Land Cruiser with a pregnant Mallory as his wife in maternity garb (with a cute little boy and girl already in tow) was precious and should have been expanded to replace the silly shoot 'em up at the prison.

Philosophically speaking (and of course an Oliver Stone movie has a philosophic position, otherwise where's the pretension?) we really are just animals who kill anything that gets in our way, the rain forests, all those cows and chickens (burp!), any other species, each other-what the hey, death's not that big a deal. It happens to everybody.

The Leonard Cohen recording, "The Future" played into the trailing credits has just the right tone and feel for this cynical look at the American mass mind as we enter the third millennium of the current era. May God have mercy on our souls.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A jarbled and overly violent look at the media.
Review: This is the kind of film that leaves you feeling cold, disgusted and depressed by the end of it. I can't imagine anyone wanting to see this film more than once and for many they shouldn't see it once.

Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" is a sick, cold, out of control movie that attempts to show the media's selfish attitude towards violence. The media uses violence to get good ratings. We all know that. It's not a secret. Any points this film makes about this are quickly covered in very short sequences concerning the media and the rest of the film is just a lurid, violent, negative trip. It spins wildly out of control into a hole of violence and dysfunction and it never attempts to crawl out of that hole. The film is constantly down beat and shows no light at the end of the tunnel but instead more darkness and depravity. Maybe if Stone had bothered to try and redeem the film it could have turned out better but instead it ends on a down note. It isn't a satire, it's to savage, to cold and it sure as hell isn't funny. And we don't even get the satisfaction of seeing the two killers killed.

The story is about two people who go on a violent killing spree across America. They kill cops and people wherever they stop without thinking twice. They kill and kill and kill until they eventually get caught and thrown in jail. While in jail they end up a part of a prison riot and at closing they are free and running away.

The style the film is in is a very '70s style. It is kind of Hunter S. Thompson to extreme violent excess. The film goes from black and white to colour to green to some psychedelic image in a blink of an eye. At first this seems interesting but the novelty quickly wears off and it soon becomes relentless. I'm sorry but Oliver Stone needs boundaries when it comes to a topic like this. If he is free to do as he wants we end up with a film like this. Don't get me wrong, I think Stone is a great director. "Platoon" is one of my all-time favourite films and I also love "JFK" and "Born on the Forth of July" but this film is too much. What starts out as a point ends up as a rant and a rave.

The films only virtues are the editing, Robert Downey JR's performance and one particular scene. The editing is incredible from a technical point of view. It took over a year to edit and it shows. Downey is excellent as the British television personality and the only good scene is the interview that Downey's character gives to Harrelson in the prison. I found that quite interesting as it seems that it is the only time Stone bothers to try to get into Harrelson's character's brain.

This film started out as a good idea but turned into a film done in such a lurid manner it comes out as almost pornographic violence. Violence for the sake of violence. If you want to see a film that attacks the media but in a much more calm and in not as violent a manner watch "Taxi Driver". If you have a strong stomach and are impressed by editing maybe check this out. Others beware.

Thanxs...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: One of the most drastically over rated films of all time
Review: For some strange reason this film was regarded as a cinematic masterpiece. It has a very average plot of a psychotic couple going on a mudering rampage and having the media making them into celebrities. What image of American society are we supposed to be given here. It lacks originally in scripting, cinematography and directing. The acting isn't anything special either. Also the way they basically made the whole concept of the movie to be a joke was very disturbing (the filmakers, not the movie). Whatever Oliver Stone think he is achieving from this piece of trash is beyond me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: brilliant!
Review: it's a shame this DVD is not anamorphic - but just having it in widescreen after watching the VHS p&s version with HEAPS of footage taken out is enough for me to thoroughly recommend this dvd - such a moody film, the soundtrack is perfect - the leonard cohen song starting during the opening 'Regency' logo gives me chills every time!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: do not spend no even one dolar
Review: you will not stand it you will turn the televition off before the movie finish

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wretched
Review: Previous reviewers have said you'll either love or hate this movie - well, put me down as the latter. Stone's "message" seems to be that violence is perpetuated and glorified by the media. Gee, thanks Ollie! He doesn't just lay it on with a trowell, but with a bulldozer. Pitched at the intellectual level of a retarded slug, this reprehensible, self-important, mess of a movie isn't even in the "so bad it's good" category. In Hollywood, no-one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of their audience. An absolute dog.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Man, What a Trip!
Review: To start off, Natural Born Killers is nothing short of excellence. Like a prized dog, this film twists, turns, rolls, and has a hell of a bite. A lot of the movie is made up of spiradic and violent dilusions that the murderous couple encounter on their excapade, which gives a hint that the whole thing might just be one sick fantasy. I admire the cinematic effert put in to depict the corruption that a serial killer must endure, as well as the moral instability a murderer enherits over time, due to the media. The violence is, oddly enough, not as explicit as many would expect, but more of a pardoned obscurity that the movie chooses to tred a bit lightly. I dont feel that Natural Born Killers glamerizes violence, or even attempts to moralize it. Its a film that presents to its audience a horrible and psycotic way of life, to which the emphasis of right and wrong is not required. Everyone in the movie, even the victims, are depicted as having the same amount of corruption and demented instincs as the murderous couple do, just at a lower rate. In this way, we see how even casual contact leads each mass murderer deeper and deeper into the realm of insanity. How the sick and diluded representations that television and the media produce are accepted as a form of reality. How even the most horrid of occomplishments, such as achieving the title of "mass murder", are praised and even encouraged in society today, as though we are applauding the home-run countdown of Mark Magwyre. I did not enjoy this movie as much as I admired its exceedingly impressive use of effects and contravercial originality. Its like Bonnie and Clyde on acid. You'll leave this movie with a different view twords the media's "pop" culture, as well as an equally disturbing look on the reality behind serial killing. Its a lot of bang for your buck folks. Buy it for the kicks, but don't dig to deep.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: This movie was terrible.
Review: How desensitized to violence and murder does a person have to be to be entertained by such filth.


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