But in noting this, you are simply identifying one of its essential postmodern characteristics. It is supposed to invoke meaningful cultural objects from previous eras and empty them of their original resonances. They Live by Night and thoroughly worked over and examined in Badlands . But Stone has taken this idea one step further and bled the genre totally dry, serving it up as a stew of human cultural entrails which doesn't comment on genre, but makes it merely another ingredient floating in a filmic mire designed to end all film. In fact, Natural Born Killers posits the end of all culture.
All human endeavour is reduced to a simple question of predator versus prey.
As far as actors are concerned, Harrelson fares best. His is the only character with a modicum of identifiable humanity and he plays it well. Everyone else is encouraged to indulge their scene-stealing fantasies, and outdo each other in histrionics. Tommy Lee Jones emerges from the lunatic bunch with the most laughs, and clearly inspired himself to play and wreck Two Face in Batman Forever . But none of it actually engages the viewer.