Stone has guts, I'll grant him that; but he needn't have spilled so much of it in our laps.
In the end, Stone probably desensitizes his own viewers. We just want him to get on with it and could care less about the moral. In fact, the funniest bit in the film is one of the most restrained: A prison guard has a shotgun in one hand and a doughnut in the other. Mickey tells him to drop it. He drops the doughnut.
Video:
Good luck trying to evaluate the video in a film whose picture quality ranges all over the map. Given that Stone uses everything from grainy black-and-white through blurry, early color television to crystal-clear photographic reproduction, my guess is that Warners' 1080p, VC-1, high-definition, 1.85:1 ratio, Blu-ray reproduction probably does the various images justice, and it's certainly the best presentation the film has ever had for home viewing. The disc's accompanying notes say that Stone shot it using 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm film, plus a video camera. There's no question the grain shows up distinctly when it's present, as does the blurriness, as does the crystal clarity in alternating segments. Colors are bright throughout, without being too garish in the realistically filmed scenes and then looking appropriately cartoonish in the surreal moments. The overall picture looks a tad soft on detail, but who can really tell?
Audio:
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio does what it can with a soundtrack comprised primarily of prerecorded pop material that varies in quality. The sound has a reasonably good frequency response, a fairly wide dynamic range, a broad stereo spread, good deep bass when necessary, a natural midrange, and strong transients. The rear channels don't deliver a ton of information, but what they do convey they do for maximum sonic effect, things like fire and wind and car noises. Switching back and forth between TrueHD and regular Dolby Digital 5.1 did not reveal a lot of difference, though. I'd say the TrueHD sounds very slightly smoother and clearer to my ear, but without making almost instantaneous comparisons, I doubt that most folks would notice any disparities.
Extras:
Given the first-class treatment Warner Bros. provide the packaging, there is a surprising lack of bonus materials on the disc. First, there is an audio commentary track by the director, in which he gives us inch-by-inch explanations of everything he did in the film and why. Second, there is a series of deleted scenes, with optional director introduction, lasting a total of about twenty minutes. Third, there is an alternate ending, about three-and-a-half minutes. And, lastly, there is a Charlie Rose interview with Stone, eleven minutes.
The extras conclude with forty scene selections; a full-screen theatrical trailer; English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Japanese spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Swedish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. The disc comes enclosed in a Digibook, a hardbound, forty-two-page, fully illustrated volume of information about the film.
Parting Shots:
I couldn't help thinking as I was watching "Natural Born Killers" how much more effective the black humor was in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," a dark comedy that satirized an even more serious subject than here--world annihilation. Kubrick continued throughout his film to make telling jokes and devastating comments on the stupidity of Man in a manner that evoked laughter, sympathy, and agreement. No so here, with Stone's sledgehammer approach. There is no denying that "Natural Born Killers" can sometimes be highly entertaining or that the director has something important to say. But he makes his point in the first ten minutes and continues to hit us over the head with it for the next two hours. Stone has guts, I'll grant him that; but he needn't have spilled so much of it in our laps.
Video:
Good luck trying to evaluate the video in a film whose picture quality ranges all over the map. Given that Stone uses everything from grainy black-and-white through blurry, early color television to crystal-clear photographic reproduction, my guess is that Warners' 1080p, VC-1, high-definition, 1.85:1 ratio, Blu-ray reproduction probably does the various images justice, and it's certainly the best presentation the film has ever had for home viewing. The disc's accompanying notes say that Stone shot it using 35mm, 16mm, and 8mm film, plus a video camera. There's no question the grain shows up distinctly when it's present, as does the blurriness, as does the crystal clarity in alternating segments. Colors are bright throughout, without being too garish in the realistically filmed scenes and then looking appropriately cartoonish in the surreal moments. The overall picture looks a tad soft on detail, but who can really tell?
Audio:
The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio does what it can with a soundtrack comprised primarily of prerecorded pop material that varies in quality. The sound has a reasonably good frequency response, a fairly wide dynamic range, a broad stereo spread, good deep bass when necessary, a natural midrange, and strong transients. The rear channels don't deliver a ton of information, but what they do convey they do for maximum sonic effect, things like fire and wind and car noises. Switching back and forth between TrueHD and regular Dolby Digital 5.1 did not reveal a lot of difference, though. I'd say the TrueHD sounds very slightly smoother and clearer to my ear, but without making almost instantaneous comparisons, I doubt that most folks would notice any disparities.
Extras:
Given the first-class treatment Warner Bros. provide the packaging, there is a surprising lack of bonus materials on the disc. First, there is an audio commentary track by the director, in which he gives us inch-by-inch explanations of everything he did in the film and why. Second, there is a series of deleted scenes, with optional director introduction, lasting a total of about twenty minutes. Third, there is an alternate ending, about three-and-a-half minutes. And, lastly, there is a Charlie Rose interview with Stone, eleven minutes.
The extras conclude with forty scene selections; a full-screen theatrical trailer; English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Japanese spoken languages; English, French, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, and Swedish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. The disc comes enclosed in a Digibook, a hardbound, forty-two-page, fully illustrated volume of information about the film.
Parting Shots:
I couldn't help thinking as I was watching "Natural Born Killers" how much more effective the black humor was in Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove," a dark comedy that satirized an even more serious subject than here--world annihilation. Kubrick continued throughout his film to make telling jokes and devastating comments on the stupidity of Man in a manner that evoked laughter, sympathy, and agreement. No so here, with Stone's sledgehammer approach. There is no denying that "Natural Born Killers" can sometimes be highly entertaining or that the director has something important to say. But he makes his point in the first ten minutes and continues to hit us over the head with it for the next two hours. Stone has guts, I'll grant him that; but he needn't have spilled so much of it in our laps.
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[release]23581[/release]