Natural Born Killers: Tarantino Cut - thecuddlyninja
Furious edit of Stone’s N B Killers slices away all lulls, dream sequences, and moralizing. This is a blistering grinder of Tarantino’s original script that hurtles ahead like the running of the bulls in Pamplona. thecuddlyninja’s version does not resemble a Stone film, nor one of Tarantino’s knockoffs. Instead, this reminds one of full bore Takashi Miike. I mean that as high praise.
Video - 1920 X 1080p AVC. Outstanding mix of color and black n white, distortion, inappropriate zooms, hard cuts, etc … Many visual tricks and changes keep this film popping. Even what could have been mistakes work well and look amazing - in this down and dirty, drive-in thrasher.
Audio - 192 kbps, 2 Channel stereo AAC. Very good sound, though suffers occasionally where original score was wiped. Dialogue generally clear. No subs.
Cuddly learned a lot from his first draft of this. FE members aired complaints about his song selection, which aped Tarantino scores. Every time I heard a familiar cue, I cross checked it in my memory. Reservoir Dogs - Kill Bill - Pulp Fiction - Death Proof - Pulp Fiction again … Distracting and yanked me out of cuddly’s edit, especially when I got stuck trying to recall which QT film the cue was from. I watched several of his workprints, and by V2, Cuddly had reworked the music to excellent effect.
Narrative - With so much footage sheared, coherence suffers. When Mickey is in Drug Zone we figure out he needs anti-snake medicine. How and when he was bitten? How did that Botango riot start? Throughout, I knew what was occurring, but I think 5 minutes of bits added here and there would clarify confusion caused by cutting. (alliteration alert!)
Enjoyment - Absolutely. Pedal down, all the way. Cuddly, using Tarantino’s script, has given NBK a Swisha House “chopped and screwed” treatment. Delicious. In many ways this is an authentic companion to the original. I could envision this being included in the DVD box as the “storyboard print.”