Natural Selection

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.

I had the joy of catching this flick at a film festival and it is truly a find. Very off-the-wall independent stuff. And very funny. At times you may think it goes over the top, and then it goes further. With the right circumstances, this could have been a great cult hit, as it is much more entertaining, thought provoking and well-acted than something like Donnie Darko.

And Carradine is absurdly hilarious. Is he being serious? Is making fun of himself? I don't know, watch the movie and make your own choice.

The script is the true find of the production as it reads like the perverse parody that 'Natural Born Killers' never amounted to. It jumps back and forth between a sort of film noir and pseudo-documentary - and I wish there had been even more that interplay. It's almost as if the director stumbled onto a movie and didn't realize it was as funny as it ended up being.

I love this movie, which, dare I say, with some well deserved luck, could be the "Blair Witch" of comedy. "Natural Selection" is a movie within a movie about a good ole boy gone very very bad in a small Texas town. Willie Dickenson is a fugitive serial killer who's body count stands at eight. A documentary filmmaker interviews the cops, the neighbors, the family, the groupies, and the victims' parents and attempts to solve the riddle of Willie, i.e., "what makes a time bomb tick?"

"Natural Selection" is an original, hilarious satire that never plays it safe. It skewers our perverse obsession with twisted hero worship. After all, in this country we don't know what to make of the notorious, so we just make them celebrities. There's so much to like about this indie underdog: the look-- eye candy way beyond the budget; the sensibility-- yes, Virginia, a movie about a cold-blooded killer can actually be at its heart warm and homespun; the soundtrack-- featuring welcome contributions from the greatly underappreciated Texas rocker Charlie Sexton; and especially the inspired performances from a tremendously eclectic cast.

Michael Bowen, as Willie, gives a complex and unbelievably delicate performance. As a father-to-be, he is a man who is capable of tenderness, but is driven by his demons to cold-blooded murder. Here's a man who mails his victims heads, yet we feel a measure of sympathy for him. That's acting. David Carradine delivers a wonderful, comic performance unlike any you've ever seen as a wacko FBI agent on Willie's trail. NewsRadio's Stephen Root is as funny as he's ever been--and that's damn funny--as a victim's father, and proves once again that in comedy, monkeys are always hilarious. And veteran character actor Bob Balaban is a riot as a crackpot psychiatrist with an ego bigger than Texas. And just trust me about Willie's cousins. You can't go wrong with rednecks, beer and shotguns either.

"Natural Selection" is a wonderful surprise. Scene after scene, it's like you're scooping up another unexpected gem.

Natural Selection is a zany romp though a small east Texas town. Its frightened and sometimes frightening characters are drawn right out Jerry Springer's guest list. This film pokes fun at almost every aspect of life in the small towns all over east Texas.

The movie starts as a documentary about a serial killer, "Citizen Willie". In the opening scenes we get to meet three of Willie's cousins. The cousins are a clear (and hilariously frenetic) sign that all is not well in Willie's gene pool.

The movie cuts between the narrative of the story, and the documentary in a way that leaves you either on the edge of your seat or doubled over with laughter.

The best character in this film has got to be Willie's psychotic mother. We can get a real insight into what it takes to completely destroy a child's developing mind by watching this nutty bi***. If she's not pantomiming masturbation she's using a toothpick to remove the casualties of her continuing war on the fly population from a battered filthy flyswatter. To say this film is over the top is to put it mildly. Wimpy little mama's boys/girls need not apply. The laughs that come from this marvelously acted and written film will have you grabbing for your asthma inhaler (whether or not you are so afflicted).

When I first finished Natural Selection, or Monster Hunter, I didn't know what to think. The movie comes at you like a breeze, quick and without much of an impression.

The movie itself was not that interesting. A plot about serial killers and a couple of jokes.

What really bothered me was its side-plot, the one that involves David Carridine. I can't tell you much about it, but it's "interesting" The movie obviously had some vision, which I liked. It tried something new. But it just fell short. Way too many problems with me, which I can't tell you much about.

This movie is obviously one of those "you love it or hate it" kind of movies. So I hope you get the chance to see it to make up your mind.