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.

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.

I was walking through my local big-chain video rental place looking for something cool to watch. I come across a video box that says "David Carradine is THE MONSTER HUNTER." Sounded promising. The cover picture was of good IL' Mr. Carradine looking really cool in a black suit with sunglasses and holding a gun and there were pictures of demon-looking guys in wanted posters. It looked as though it was gonna be like a cheap Men In Black. I pick up the box and look at the back and the tag line reads "Evil Dead meets Natural Born Killers," and being a big Evil Dead head I liked the direction is was going. There was also a quote about the movie on the box. Generally they are something like "An Awesome Thrill Ride!!!" (more than one exclamation point is a must) and they are usually said by some film critic from a publication that you've never heard of. This one said "Great!" - Quentin Tarantino. This was another good sign because Quentin knows movies.Based on all of these things I thought it'd be a gory, low-budget, Buffy-meets-MIB flick. However it wasn't. The reality is that it is a comedy, half-mockumentary about a serial killer in an East Texas town. Carradine is less of a bad ass and more of a half-crazed rogue FBI agent who can see the "demon" inside serial killers and their victims. The real star of the film is Michael Bowen who plays Willie the serial killer and does a phenomenal job in making him a somewhat sympathetic character in a film where you really feel sorry for no one. However, once I got over the fact that the box was lying, I really enjoyed the silliness of this film. Nothing like the Evil Dead and only kind of like Natural Born Killers, The Monster Hunter (or Natural Selection as I came to find was the real title) is a funny little low-budget movie. As long as you know the truth of the movie's premise then you should enjoy it.

I saw this late at night recently on premium cable, and I got more amusement from it than from any of the top moneymakers of 2002. Is it me? I guess. Maybe my brain's been rotted by one too many formulaic thrillers and vacuous big-budget special effects extravaganzas. At any rate, five minutes in it was obvious this was my kind of movie. It has that spark.The bad news first: David Carradine sucks. Fortunately he's only in a small part of it, in spite of top billing. And, ok, some other subpar acting, but not by the main characters. Some of the 'real' characters (in the parallel documentary movie w/i a movie) are bad actors, but in a way this is covered by the fact that they're supposed to be real people put on camera -- so hey, wouldn't you be a bit stiff?The good news. The script is so witty and multi-leveled you wouldn't mind reading it. You want to savor this stuff, there's so little of it around. These writers are funny.Since there are alot of great characters, I want to credit them. (Not that many people are likely to read this.) I particularly enjoyed Bob Balaban's seemingly off-the-cuff performance as the smarmy, BS'ing and yet bestselling psychologist -- speculating for the camera on why serial killers kill. Maybe there's a prototype for this character somewhere, but to me it was deliciously original. Darren Burrows I loved as the wacky and cheery young guy who has unusual ambitions. And Joe Unger as the morose local yokel cop who get's the case (and hot tuna surprise in the face) but who gives as good as he gets: Asked the eternal question by the documentary crew about why serial killers kill, he remarks without emphasis: "I don't know, I never thought about it until I met you guys." (Or something like that.)The whole movie is rife with this kind of understated humor. It's great.BTW, if you're into this intellectually perverse, low budget, twisted but not sick kind of black humor, check out these other underrated gems: Eating Raoul, TerrorVision, Re-animator, $lasher$, and The Evil Dead.