Miroslav Klose is finally scoring again. I hope that'll keep going on Saturday in the Bundesliga. But that's not why I'm writing here, is it?
So: Here. We. Go.
Natural Born Killers
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Woody Harrelson ("Mickey Knox"), Juliette Lewis ("Mallory Knox"), Tom Sizemore ("Det. Jack Scagnetti"), Robert Downey Jr. ("Mayne Gale"), Tommy Lee Jones ("Warden Dwight McClusky")
Review: Mickey and Mallory Knox are killers. Mass murderers. They met, fell in love and started killing people. Their first victims were Mallory's parents. Her Dad abused her ever since she was a child and her mother dared to help her. They start out to travel the country and wherever they go they kill people and let only one person live to tell their story.
But when they drive through the desert and get lost they stumble across an Indian living in a small hut. They both fall asleep in front of the fire, but Mickey has a nightmare and shoots the Indian. Mallory freaks out, because in her eyes the Indian was their friend who did nothing wrong. She runs out into the desert but gets bitten by a snake. When Mickey tries to help her he gets bitten as well. They manage to drive to a drugstore, but they are out of antidote. When the employee recognizes Mickey he calls the cops. Mickey kills the employee and tells Mallory to wait out by the car, but when she gets out the police is already there and they take her into custody. Mickey can't fight them off and is taken in as well.
One year later, Wayne Gale, the host of the TV show American Maniacs who has already made an episode about Mickey and Mallory, visits Mickey in prison. the Knox's are about to be transferred to an asylum to be "reconfigured". Gale wants to interview Mickey again and Mickey accepts. They air live after the Super Bowl. In the middle of the interview a riot starts in the prison and the mentally instabile warden McCLusky orders his men to stay with Mickey and goes to help stop the riot.
At the same time Det. Jack Scagnetti, the detective who took Mickey and Mallory in, is in Mallory's cell to talk to her and to have sex with her, but Mallory starts to kick the shit out of him and can only be stopped by two guards who waited outside the cell.
Mickey manages to escape his guards and takes Gale and his crew to Mallory's cell where they kill Scagnetti and try to flee. The guards aren't able to control the prisoners and so Mickey, Mallory and the TV crew make it through the prison with the help of Owen, another prisoner who knows some secret passages. They fight their way towards the gate of the prison with the help of Gale who feels alive after shooting some of the guards himself. Near the gate they're cut off but McClusky and his men, but they can escape anyway. The warden and his men are left to deal with the rest of the prisoners.
Mickey, Mallory and Gale escape with a broadcast van and end up in the woods where Gale finishes his story. But instead of going with the Knox's they shoot him and escape to lead a normal life.
"Natural Born Killers" is a disturbing and intense movie. The story is always highlighted by images of other movies, cartoon versions of what is happening and different red and green filters. This makes it even more intense and creates an unique atmosphere.
The violence is shown explicitly yet it is never used just to show violence. It always seems to be some sort of superior art object. It's bloody but no splatter.
The performances of Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis as the psychotic couple is very intense as well and they both show a certain amount of mental illness within their performance.
The rest of the cast, namely Downey Jr. and Tommy Lee Jones, are as convincing and crazy as Harrelson and Lewis. Downey Jr.'s portay of the viewer ratings obsessed Wayne Gale is hilarious and brilliant. He screams, he swears and he changes throughout the riot in a way that hasn't been before that often.
I have never seen Tommy Lee Jones portraying someone this intense before. He swears as Downey Jr. does and he spits while he screams and he gets into a rage that was new for me as a fan of Lee Jones.
So to conclude, "Natural Born Killers" is a challenge for the viewer to watch, but once you get into the southern accent and the way the movie is made, with all the different images you see, you will either like it or turn it off after half an hour. I did enjoy it!
8.0 out of 10 bloody murders
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