Review: True Romance

By SKillBot on 2003-11-10 23:36:56

I'm roughly one decade behind release on putting out this review. But, I saw this movie for the first time tonight at the Clinton St. Theatre. If you live in PDX, you should go for a dip in the 35mm sauce. You have until Thursday.

On to the review!

Christian Slater (soon to be seen as star of Alone in the Dark), Patricia Arquette, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini (aKa Tony Soprano), Brad Pitt, and Balki are but a handful of major and minor characters lovingly crafted for chaos and violence at the hands of Quentin Tarantino. This cast mixes great with all the finest ingredients for a satisfying slice of Tarantino pie. Package contents include call girls (not to be confused with whores), pimps, a case of cocaine, guns, more guns, a purple Caddy, phone booth lovin', Sicilians, and a mysteriously compelling plot - a relatively simple structure on which all these characters connect. The movie's tagline says it all: "Not since Bonnie and Clyde have two people been so good at being bad."

Just so you know, this story originally came packaged as Natural Born Killers. The two became separate stories and spun off Resevoir Dogs. Tarantino was an upcoming and relatively unknown writer, having only the Resevoir Dogs screenplay produced (directed by him) prior to this release directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun, Enemy of the State, Crimson Tide).

Christian Slater plays Clarence Worley, living as a discpile of Elvis with an affinity for Kung-Fu movies, pie, comic books, and burgers that don't fuck around. He meets and immediately marries Alabama (Patricia Arquette), kills her pimp (a great role for Gary Oldman) and jacks his narcotics, which turn out to be Christopher Walken's narcotics. And as any fool with half a clue knows, when you mess with Christopher Walken, people die.

There are really no "good guys", but almost every character comes off as likable. The mortally dispensable characters in this movie make for some good times (Samuel L. gets blasted two minutes after his appearance), and the actively amorous couple of main characters show plenty of strength and vulnerability as they're followed through the movie. All of these actors shine in their roles, although I wasn't quite comfortable seeing Balki perfectly not strange.

Consider this movie to be essential Tarantino, and by all means see it if that describes a flavor you crave in movies.

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