Natural Born Killers (1994)

Elevator Pitch: Mickey and Mallory have got together as Mickey has more or less saved her from her abusive father, by killing him and her mother. They then take off, to perpetrate a variety of murders in different locations, pursued by a detective who has his own problems. High on drugs they accidentally accept hospitality from an Indian who Mickey subsequently kills. But Mallory is bitten by a snake resulting in them raiding a drug store, where the drugist raises the alarm before being killed. They are captured and jailed. Meanwhile a reporter Wayne Gale produces TV about killers and gets to interview Mickey in prison. The result being broadcast all over America. When Mickey turns the tables on his guards, things can only get worse.

Content: No sex or nudity. Mallory and Mickey snog a lot. There is much violence as people are killed in different ways. The two make a marriage pact on a bridge over the Grand Canyon. It looks like a place where you might do a bungee jump. The events around Mallory’s family are filmed as if it is a sitcom. There is a lot of footage which makes it appear as if we, the viewers, are on drugs, plus a lot of black and white footage (although I could never see why). And there are a lot of strange camera angles, just to keep us on edge.

A View: I admit to being a bit swayed by the reviews about this outing, otherwise I might have given it even less than 3/10. Apparently the objective was to show how the media are effectively controlling what we  watch on TV, and are therefore responsible for what macabre events take place out there. Some critics thought that this was unsuccessful. I thought it was awful and could not recommend it, even to people who like on screen violence.

I have been looking through my stuff to see if I can find some other movies containing a similar level of violence. The best I can up with are these: Training Day, Detroit, End of Watch,