Natural Born Killers - Probably not as controversial as you've heard

Back in the nineties, and Quentin Tarantino's name was the epitome of 'cool' and 'hip' film-making, the prospect of another of his films coming out (after both the much hyped 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction') was almost too much to handle.  Yes, there were many who pointed out that - technically - 'Natural Born Killers' was not actually one of his films were he did all the writing, producing and directing, but, as it has his name attached, none of us cared.

Then it got banned.  Apparently, it was too violent for the general public and its depiction of serial killers randomly executing innocent people would turn us easily-influenced viewers into the monsters we saw onscreen.  All it really did was make us want to watch it even more.

Back then we were forced to watch it on, er, 'less official' means which certainly could never live up to the experience of seeing it on the big screen, or even on your own TV (properly).  Therefore, everyone enjoyed it - despite it being blurred, juddery and a terrible picture.  No one dared say anything other than it was a 'masterpiece.'

Luckily, these days, 'Natural Born Killers' is available to buy on most good DVD sellers online and you can see it in all its glory (albeit on the small screen).  Plus, without the 'mythos' surrounding its release, you can relax, sit back and actually watch it with a little more of a neutral head on.  Yes, it's still a good film, but probably not one you'd watch often.

Two killers: Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Malory (Juliette Lewis) go on a killing spree and that's about it.  Yes, there are plenty of people who see the story as some type of satirical take on the American way of life and try to read 'deeper' meaning into the story.  It's one of those films that probably hard to truly recommend.  Yes, there's plenty of grotesque and uncalled for violence.  And, rather than Tarantino directing, Oliver Stone takes the chair and gives us one hell of a psychedelic trippy ride, using every directing trick in the book in order to give the feeling that you've been taking every illegal drug possible before you sat down to watch.

There's plenty of famous faces on the cast list, not just the main two, but expect Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Downey Jr also chewing up the scenery, really giving us 'cartoonish' impersonations of cold-hearted - yet supposedly good - characters.

Is it a masterpiece?  Well, it's definitely not your normal 'Classic Hollywood' film.  If you're in the mood for something very different to everything else that's on Netflix these days then it will certainly make you think  Just make sure you have a strong stomach when it comes to excessive violence, swearing and generally bad people getting away with things.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that