Mickey Knox (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis) are two psychotic, married, serial murderers who are on a rampage across the country (USA). They become infamous thanks to the work of a tabloid television journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey Jr) who is Australian.

They get arrested.

"I had a girlfriend like Mallory once. She died kick boxing a kangaroo. I still keep in touch with the kangaroo though."

"A movie guaranteed to upset 95% of its audience, and 99.9% of those who have heard about it but not seen it yet."

"What this movie taught me was that I could be upset to a state of letter writing frenzy but still grow spiritually. Thankfully, I was fine after the seventh verse of Koombyaaa."

"A soundtrack to die for, or at least to be choked to unconsciousness."

"An important statement about the abuse of the media, cops who kill for pleasure, and Australian reporters, said wittily using copious amounts of blood."

"A rare achievement. Oliver Stone's 'guaranteed to piss them off' assault on the journalism 'profession.' An amazing movie, if uncomfortable to watch in places."

Our heroes succeed in a jail break when a live, televised (Super Bowl special!) interview from the prison with Mickey, goes wrong. Wayne Gail (who ultimately becomes as murderous with guns as our heroes) gets shot by our anti-hero's on camera, pleading for his life at the end.

Mickey and Mallory end the movie free.

A brilliant satire on the media and how it packages people into a commodity, in a corrupt world where cops murder women and red necks dance all funny in out of the way diners...

A scream fest of 'So who are the bad guys these days?' proportions. In this world, serial killers are now just a commodity used to build a sheep like television audience to sell advertisements to, journalists build a career on the deeds of criminals, and corrupt cops write best seller books. Folks, this movie is about packaged sin, sin as a commodity in the free market and, be honest, apart from the killing, wouldntcha just do it if you could get away with it? The money's mighty fine!

The movie is both harsh and bloody - it is not a painless ride - this is one of those fulfilling long walks along a familiar trail, at times difficult, but, ultimately, rewarding (if a little too peppered with blood, giblets and BANG! for my liking).

That this movie was pilloried by the tabloid press when it was released is testament to how effective the movie is. The gutter press should hate this movie, else the movie would not have succeeded in delivering its message.

One of those once in a while movies that caused a media frenzy when it comes out, including the inevitable allegation of copy cat killings etc.

June 16, 2003