7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Mickey Knox and Mallory Wilson are two young, attractive mass murderers in love. After killing Mallory's loathsome parents, the pair perform a ritual "marriage" and take off on a "honeymoon" killing spree that wipes out 52 people. Bloodthirsty tabloid reporter Wayne Gale reports their every move to an adoring public while supercop Jack Scagnetti becomes famous for chasing and capturing them.
Crime | 100% |
Dark humor | 79% |
Drama | 62% |
Surreal | 35% |
Action | Insignificant |
Romance | Insignificant |
Video codec: VC-1
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
German: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps)
Japanese: Dolby Digital 2.0
Dir. cut is Eng. DTS-HD MA 5.1 & Span. DD 2.0 only
English SDH, French, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Indonesian, Korean, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Turkish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Our coverage of Warner Home Video's Diamond Luxe editions continues with Natural Born Killers (or "NBK"). For an introduction to the Diamond Luxe series, please see the review of the Gremlins Diamond Luxe edition. The NBK Diamond Luxe edition has only one new feature. Its appeal for first-time buyers is the combination in a single package of the two editions of Oliver Stone's trippy and divisive satire about media and mass murder. The theatrical cut of NBK, which was heavily trimmed to obtain an R rating, was released on Blu-ray in 2008 and reviewed here. The unrated director's cut, which Stone considers to be the definitive version, was released on Blu-ray the following year, and reviewed here. I am a long-time fan of NBK, and I reviewed the director's cut Blu-ray for another site. As much as I would enjoy revisiting the film, the purpose of these Diamond Luxe reviews is to describe what is new. Besides, NBK is and always has been a polarizing film. The reaction was foreshadowed at the preview screening described by editor Hank Corwin in the new featurette, where half the audience thought the film was the best thing they'd ever seen, while the other half thought it was the worst. Indeed, the same radical split can be seen in the two reviews published at Blu-ray.com, leading to wildly divergent scores—a subject to which I will return below. Both discs have been re-authored to accommodate the new featurette discussed under "Special Features and Extras". Also, the theatrical cut now contains the additional extras included with the director's cut. The transfers and video mastering are unchanged, but the lossless encoding for the main soundtrack has been changed from Dolby TrueHD to DTS-HD Master Audio.
As noted in both reviews, and discussed in detail in the new featurette, Stone and cinematographer Robert Richardson used every then-available medium of photography for Natural Born Killers, and the editorial team freely blended them together. (Stone calls this technique "vertical editing" in the commentary.) The result was often strikingly rough and distorted even in the theater, and both Blu-ray editions effectively capture this effect. Greg Maltz's review of the theatrical cut conceded that the Blu- ray accurately reproduces the image, but then gave the Blu-ray a video score of 2.5, because he didn't like the image being reproduced. Accordingly, for the Diamond Luxe score, I am using Jeff Kauffman's video score for the director's cut of 4.0, which, in my judgment, is a far more accurate assessment of the technical quality of both discs.
Here again, one must deal with a disparity in technical evaluations by different reviewers. Greg Maltz gave the theatrical cut's audio a 3.0, finding weakness in the reproduction of the dialogue. Jeff Kauffman gave the director's cut's a 4.5, finding the dialogue "crisp and clear". Both reviewers noted the immersive quality of both tracks (which is hard to miss). As someone who has owned every version of this film since laserdisc, I'm not surprised that the director's cut scores higher for audio, because it received a complete remix for home video. Still, the theatrical sound mix was no slouch, which is why I am giving the Diamond Luxe a combined score of 4.0. (I am not making any allowance for the change from True HD to DTS-HD Master Audio, since both formats are lossless.)
The director's cut carries over all the supplements contained on the theatrical cut and adds more. The Diamond Luxe edition of the director's cut adds yet another:
NBK is not a film to blind buy. Anyone who owns either version of the film already knows what they think of it and whether they want to experience more of it. If you've seen it but don't own either version, then the Diamond Luxe edition is well worth considering. The only thing you're missing is the DigiBook released with the 2008 theatrical cut and the insert that came with the 2009 director's cut. In their place, you're getting some interesting new interviews, plus the Diamond Luxe packaging, for whatever that may be worth to you and, if you only have the theatrical cut, the excellent "Chaos Rising" documentary that was omitted from that initial release.
1994
1994
The Director's Cut
1994
Collector's Edition | Theatrical on BD
1994
Theatrical on BD
1994
Theatrical on BD
1994
Limited Edition
1993
2017
2012
1994
Limited Edition
2005-2012
2012
2009
1999-2007
1996
1990
1998
Collector's Edition
1990
1998
2008
2012
2013
10th Anniversary Edition
1999
1997
2013
2000