ACROCATS! (2017)

"As I get older, time just slips by."

This was a mildly interesting little documentary.  When I rented this DVD (yes, I still go to a video store in 2019), I was hoping for an light-hearted and delightful film about cats jumping all over the place and doing wacky tricks.  Instead, the majority of ACROCATS! 57-minute runtime is about Samantha Martin, the person behind the show.  That's all well and good and it was definitely interesting (as well as depressing), but I would have been happier had there been more actual cat action.  The name of the movie is ACROCATS!, after all, with an exclamation point...not ON THE ROAD WITH THE CAT SHOW.

Lack of cat action aside, ACROCATS! is still worth watching.  Samantha seems like a genuinely nice person who really loves her cats.  Ummm...I can't really think of much more to say.  Quick runtime, good pace, way more serious than I was expecting, very little actual cat tricks, unexpected appearance by Pauly Shore (via old MTV footage), multiple conversations about lack of money that stressed me out, good camera work.

I am curious if the cats get any enjoyment out of doing the tricks or if they'd rather just be at home chillin'?

NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994)

"Media's like the weather, only it's man-made weather."

[This review is for the 122-minute Director's Cut, even though my old ass did see the Theatrical Version during it's initial release in 1994.]

When NATURAL BORN KILLERS came out way back in ye olde 1994, it caused quite a bit of controversy (real or manufactured, I have no clue) due to the subject matter and violence.  Revisiting it now, the entire thing seems dated as fuck and honestly, kind of naive.  (Remember, this was all pre-internet.)  That said, it's still an interesting time capsule back to early 1990's American culture.  

The story is about Mickey and Mallory Knox.  Two self-righteous scumbags who murder almost as much as they talk.  When our love story begins, Mickey and Mallory are dropping into a desert diner "for a bit of the old ultra-violence" as Alex from A CLOCKWORK ORANGE would say.  After the highly entertaining massacre, they leave one witness alive to pass on the legend of Mickey and Mallory.  Awww, how sweet!  Next, we're given some backstory of M + M, then brought up to speed on their current situation: driving around the desert while murdering the fuck out of everybody.

I like NATURAL BORN KILLERS.  Storywise, it's not really unique since there were numerous films like it released around the same time (TRUE ROMANCE, LOVE AND A .45, KALIFORNIA, THE DOOM GENERATION and so on), but I really admire the frantic way the story is presented in NBK with wonky camera angles, animation, rear projection, insane amount of cuts (rumored to be close to 3,000!!!), black and white moments, distorted faces, clips from random movies, etc.  There's even a real Coca-Cola commercial.

Fast pace, surprisingly small amount of nudity, excellent acting (I especially enjoyed Robert Downey Jr. and Tommy Lee Jones), surrealism, insane colours, the "World Famous Buzzard Burger with Cheese", numerous movie references (everything from SCARFACE to RIO BRAVO), a young Jared Harris wearing an Albert Fish t-shirt, some guy (the prisoner trying to steal the TV camera) who looks a lot like Trent Reznor...and speaking of Trent Reznor: that soundtrack was really good.  Leonard Cohen, L7, Patti Smith, Nine Inch Nails, Bob Dylan just to name a few.  Good stuff.  Recommended...both the film and the soundtrack.

If you look back through the box office reports you'll see that in week 34 of 1994, NATURAL BORN KILLERS knocked FORREST GUMP out of it's #1 spot.  I'm sure somebody who's intelligent could write a long, thought provoking essay about good vs. evil in American popular culture based off of that fact alone, but that's not me.  I just thought it was interesting.