Conrad Billings I'll avoid the obvious critique of "this movie poo poos our society's tendency to glamorize serial killers while simultaneously glamorizing serial killers." A little hypocrisy now and again never hurt anyone and certainly never stopped a movie from being made. It does make a valid point: we do like to make our worst killers into celebrities.What does bother me is that this movie is not funny or suspenseful or scary. The only emotion this movie will make you feel is bored. The makers of this movie made it by formula, pulling every trick from every movie that everyone has seen and trying to pass it off as their own, as if a convenient bit of repackaging will make us forget where we saw that before. David Carradine: we saw The Omen. The whole movie: we saw Natural Born Killers.Bob Balaban gives this movie its only bright spot, playing a funny, overly earnest psychoanalytical goof who feels the pain of the killers.The movie doesn't suck, since there are movies that are much, much worse, but it doesn't entertain, either.3 out of ten.

Mason-4 David Carradine (yes, the Kung Fu Carradine) plays a major role in this film, and, while he brings considerable talent to the cast -- perhaps the only talent -- much of the time he looks like an actor desperately seeking direction. I feel a little sorry for him. Carradine plays a maverick FBI agent who has gone a little haywire from brushing up against the madness of his serial killer quarry. He stays in a motel room lined with pages torn from a Bible -- a reference to The Omen in which a priest, driven mad by his quest for to confront and battle the Ultimate Evil, lives in a Bible page-lined cell. Carradine's delusional special agent sees his quarry going into a horrifically fast seizures, much like the terrifying spasms of the figures haunting the protagonist in Jacob's Ladder. There are, perhaps, hints of Pulp Fiction here and there as well. Yet these allusions are not enough to save the film -- if anything, they seem to be adolescent expressions of adulation rather than homage to the filmmaker's influences.

Paul-312 WARNING - CERTAIN PLOT LINES MAY BE REVEALED IN THESE COMMENTS.A few weeks ago, I attended an advance screening of NATURAL SELECTION. As key grip on the picture, my comments may seem rather slanted, but I feel compelled to share a few thoughts. I shall make every attempt to be objective.With a quirky, provocative script by BJ Burrow and Allen Odom as his foundation, Bristol has built a crafty film. Even though I was on the crew and watched the scenes as they were being shot, I shall have to watch the final cut several times before I catch all of the surprises that the film offers. It moves along at a brisk pace, and takes us on a wild ride.In a nutshell, NATURAL SELECTION is a story of boy meets serial killer, boy copies serial killer, cop stalks serial killer, and all hell breaks loose in every conceivable direction.NATURAL SELECTION wrung from me many different reactions as I watched the story unfold before me. A moment after laughing hysterically at one of the film's many moments of curious comedy, I would find myself jumping involuntarily at one of its startling little twists.The story revolves around a faux TV documentary which follows a series of killings by Bowen's character, "Willie," and its impact on a small town.The body of the film chronicles the changes that are inflicted upon the town and its people under the focus of the media.One of the most compelling moments is a pivotal scene between Bowen and Carradine, in the seedy little motel where Carradine's character, an FBI agent gone over the edge, eventually meets his end. The dichotomy between these two actors - half brothers, incidentally - is palpable.After the chilling scene in which Carradine's "Dehoven" character is brutally killed, actress Laura House whips us right back into laughter mode. As the motel's housekeeper, she basks in second-hand fame before the camera of the "documentary" crew and leaves the audience with the guilty pleasure of another good howl.As Dehoven, Carradine demonstrates his skills as one of the great Hollywood journeymen. Throughout the film, I was torn between pity for Dehoven's delusional existence, and biting myself in the lip to keep from laughing at the poor guy's Oliver Hardy-like awkwardness as he shadows Willie. One moment the stammering nebbish, the obsessed predator the next, Dehoven is a joy to watch.Known for years as "Ed," the young Indian filmmaker in "Northern Exposure," Darren Burrows turns in a riveting portrayal as a small-town guy, transformed by the media attention that the killings have brought to his little berg. He explodes from one emotion to another with chilling fluidity and, with Bowen, emotes both rail-gripping terror and side-busting laughter during their final confrontation.The lynch pin of the cast is Detective Richards, played by Joe Unger. Richards is the gruff, jaded cop, numbed by a career full of murder investigations, and a downright snarling contempt of the media. With a matter-of-fact take on the situation, punctuated by several well-chosen expletives, we follow this tough-ass cop through the "documentary" and the body of the film as he pulls the story together.The "TV documentary" is where cameos by such talent as Root, Balaban and Laura House really shine. These performances are beyond excellent as they lead us through the maze and deliver us to its unexpected exit. Root, in particular, is captivating as the father of one of Willie's victims. His turn before the camera is, at the same time, poignant and riotously funny.The "MVP" of the NATURAL SELECTION production crew has to be Rhet W. Bear, the director of photography. This young cinematographer and his minimalist style gave director Bristol the ideal paint with which to create his witty picture of the Burrow/Odom screenplay.Again, as one of the film's department heads, it is difficult to be as objective as I would like. Still, I have to say that the film has a bright future ahead of it. NATURAL SELECTION is haunting and hilarious at the same time. It is a complex film which provides a stimulating counterpart to many contemporary works.I gauge a film by the number of times it would have been okay to skip out to the lobby for a nine-dollar hot dog. When you go see NATURAL SELECTION, I suggest that you eat first.One thing's for sure. You'll never look at your mailbox the same way again!

RLP-2 WARNING: This review contains spoilers.Natural Selection is a lot fun. It's also a promising first step for director, Mark Bristol, boasting fine work from screenwriters, B.J. Burrow & Allen Odom, as well as impressive technical credits for a film of its budget, most notably eerie and evocative cinematography by Rhett Bear and excellent production design by Jennifer Bristol.For purposes of quick comparison, the movie which comes to mind as most similar is Natural Born Killers. Though, it must be said, that in Natural Selection the emphasis is placed squarely on dark comedy and not explicit violence.The film concerns itself with the final days of Willlie Dickinson's reign of terror in the small Texas town of Whitehills. Willie (menacingly played by Michael Bowen), a postman in addition to being a serial killer, finds himself the prey of two psychopaths - one, a serial killer wannabe named Glen who is nicely played by Darren Burrows (Ed from TV's Northern Exposure), and the other, an FBI agent named Dehoven who believes he is hunting vampires. Dehoven is played by David Carradine in a touching homage to his father, John Carradine. It is a delight to watch him pull his glasses on and off and jut his chin out in mannerisms that are pure John Carradine.Commenting on the action, is a hilarious documentary which boasts appearances by Newsradio's Stephen Root as a bereaved father and Bob Balaban as an addled psychologist who admits he knows nothing about the killer or his motivation but nonetheless feels compelled to expound endlessly on the killings.Still, the film belongs to Bristol who creates some wonderfully eerie and poetic images. A bound victim struggling in slow motion to escape a darkened house. Carradine's FBI Agent standing under a solitary street light breathing in a crime scene. The same FBI Agent's vampire hallucinations, which are both startling and genuinely frightening. Switching gears to the video based documentary, Bristol shows himself to be equally deft with comedy, including an inspired bit of slapstick involving a shotgun and some dim-witted hunters and a funny, yet achingly painful bit with Stephen Root as the father of the above referenced bound victim.The film does have it's faults. It is too long by about 5 or 10 minutes and could be edited a bit more crisply, moving from punch line to punch line without spending the time on set-ups, and the use of religious mania to explain the psychosis of Carradine's FBI agent does not work at all. - better if we never know why and just concentrate on his actions. But, all in all, this is an entertaining and promising first feature of which all involved can be proud. It should be quite popular with college and festival audiences.