Disc Reviews

Natural Born Killers The Directors Cut Review

25th Nov 2014

On its release in 1994, Natural Born Killers was surrounded in controversy for its violent and hard hitting subject matter. Directed by Oliver Stone and penned by Quentin Tarantino, Natural born killers depicts the killing spree and eventually capture of Mickey and Mallory Knox portrayed by Woody Harrelson and Juliette Lewis.

Although this does come almost as a sub plot as the films main aim to shock is the glorification of the crimes that the Knox’s commit and the almost superstar status that the media creates for them. Even 20 years after its release, a point that is still pretty valid today.

With great supporting cast performances from Robert Downey JR, Tommy Lee Jones and Tom Sizemore, Natural Born Killers is still an original and influential piece of cinema history today and now it can be seen in all its Hi Def. glory with the blu ray edition of the director’s cut of the film.

Although the director’s cut has previously been released on DVD, is the blu ray going to be worth spending out for again? Well, if the special features are what you’re after then maybe? This edition offers everything that the DVD release had with a couple of new items for your viewing pleasure. Including an introduction to the movie by Oliver Stone and a new featurette on the evolution of Natural Born Killers. The features carried over from the DVD release include a commentary by Oliver Stone, the Chaos rising featurette, deleted scenes, an alternate ending and interview with the director. So far, so good then.

Obviously the picture quality will be the next factor in deciding whether or not to stump up for the new edition. Is it better than an upscaled DVD played in a blu ray machine? In some scenes, yes. The colourful nature of some of the scenes, like in the drug store when they are after the snake bite medicine and other scenes of a psychedelic nature look great in hi-def. But due to the grainy nature of some of the scenes (which was intentional!) This is probably going to be the best we will ever see it.

So to summarise, loaded with some old and new features with a good Hi Def transfer as well, it’s definitely worth replacing your old DVD copy for the new 20^th anniversary edition.