Stone's attempt to break new ground with stylized visuals, MTV editing and a story that combines parody and satire, is more annoying than enlightening.
Natural Born Killers (1994)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:15
Rotten:14
Average Rating:5.9/10
Runtime: 3 hrs 25 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Oliver Stone's over-the-top satire on America's worshipful fascination with tabloid criminals stars Woody Harrelson as Mickey Knox and Juliette Lewis as girlfriend-wife Mallory Wilson. Commencing... Oliver Stone's over-the-top satire on America's worshipful fascination with tabloid criminals stars Woody Harrelson as Mickey Knox and Juliette Lewis as girlfriend-wife Mallory Wilson. Commencing with the dual murder of Mallory's sexually abusive father (Rodney Dangerfield) and grossly negligent mother (Edie McClurg), the anomic couple take off on a three-week killing spree across the country, telling everyone who they are so that they get the credit for their crimes. The media are immediately enthralled with the couple, especially Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr.), the bloodthirsty host of a tabloid TV show who follows their every move. By the time they're finally arrested, they've become such huge media stars that the cops treat them more like celebrities than criminals. Even the maniacal limelight-hogging warden of the Batongaville State Prison, Dwight McClusky (Tommy Lee Jones), is in awe. Stone pulls out all the stops in the prison riot, as the unwitting Gale becomes an unwilling participant in his own broadcast of the event. Again the director switches from film to video, from color to black and white, from sitcom parody to newsreel parody, and from one film stock to another, hoping to jar the audience out of its complacency with visual hyperbole. [More]
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey, Tommy Lee Jones
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey, Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield
Director: Oliver Stone
Director: Oliver Stone
Screenwriter: David Veloz
Story: Quentin Tarantino
Reviews for Natural Born Killers
Welcome to Natural Born Killers, Stone's empty, manic meditation on society's glorification of violence and the ugly heroes it loves to hate.
This film totally misses the point and turns into the exact thing Stone wanted to criticize...
Don't miss this and it's brilliance on so many different levels; film making, acting, directing, editing, soundtrack and of course the whole twisted backbone of the thing -- Quentin Tarantino's script.
NBK brilliantly leaves the attentive viewer with more questions as to whether they’re part of the solution or the problem itself.
The main problem with Killers...is that it degenerates into the very thing it criticizes.
Stone...doesn't know the meaning of moderation or subtlety, and opts instead for something that is excessive and self-indulgent. It's as if he wants to shout out the statement: 'Look at what I can do! I'm an artist!'
Berserk from the outset, Natural Born Killers lunges for our collective viscera in its opening sequence (surely one of the most brilliant establishing sequences of all time) and never lets go for the next two hours.
Seeing this movie once is not enough. The first time is for the visceral experience, the second time is for the meaning.
Few filmmakers in the last twenty years have so consistently had so little to say as loudly as Oliver Stone.
Natural Born Killers is basically a flawed masterpiece, but at least gives its message across.
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