3/5
Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers is a frenetic film, filled with so much energy and bombast it practically leaps off the screen and slaps you in the face. The movie follows Mickey (Harrelson) and Mallory (Lewis), two lovers who go on a mass murdering rampage, and the media that glorifies it. In the wake of recent school shootings and suicides publicized on Twitter, it feels even more timely than ever. People will always want their 15 minutes of fame, no matter how they get there.
The movie is visceral--it shouts loud and it hits hard--but somehow manages to be less graphic than more modern movies. It is violent, though, in every sense of the word: an offensive assault on our senses and sensibilities. Its aggressive pacing involves us in the story, exhilarating us and titillating us without giving us any room to breathe and process what we see. And we become awe-struck by the images of violence on the screen. Is that not precisely the kind of voyeurism we are supposed to condemn?
But despite what he has to say, Stone uses a sledgehammer to pound his point home. To say it lacks subtlety is to say that an elephant is larger than a mosquito. It blasts its message nonstop, using anything and everything from random video projections in the background of scenes to story elements like Downey Jr's sensationalist television series. It leaves nothing to the imagination, and our imagination is stronger and more horrific than anything Stone has to say.
Tarantino came up with the story, and I can tell that if he directed this it would have been a masterpiece. But Stone's version is messy and chaotic, unvarnished and unfocused. I'm glad I saw the movie just so I can say for sure that I don't need to see any more Oliver Stone films. Not that this is a bad film; it's just not my style. There's nothing deeper here than what Stone shows you. But Natural Born Killers does spark the conversation, and that's definitely worth something.
Tarantino came up with the story, and I can tell that if he directed this it would have been a masterpiece. But Stone's version is messy and chaotic, unvarnished and unfocused. I'm glad I saw the movie just so I can say for sure that I don't need to see any more Oliver Stone films. Not that this is a bad film; it's just not my style. There's nothing deeper here than what Stone shows you. But Natural Born Killers does spark the conversation, and that's definitely worth something.
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110632/