Review: True Romance

By SKillBot November 10, 2003 11:36 PM

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.

| comments: 8

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Kick Ass Movie   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on November 11, 2003 1:07 PM

Easily one of the greatest Casted Movies of this Generation. Truly memorable roles by Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, Gandofini, Michael Rappaport, Dennis Hopper, Chris Walken, Gary Oldham, and the role of a life time for pretty boy motherfucker Christian "Chrissy" Slater.

RE: Kick Ass Movie   reply

Posted by Skullfire (hulacete@ubbi.com) on November 11, 2003 5:57 PM

How about a review of 1915's Warship Potemkin? It's almost new...

RE: Kick Ass Movie   reply

Posted by sKillBot (travis@pulley.org) on November 11, 2003 7:01 PM

My review originally started out saying "I'm sure some of you will feel clever pointing out this movie was released in 1993..." but it sounded lame to me and so I just started by pointing this out right away.

If you want something a little more fresh, I could review the latest episode of "night with your mom" (and the crowd goes, "oh he did *not* just say that!"). Sorry, I'm just too busy to think of anything better than your momisms.

RE: Kick Ass Movie   reply

Posted by Jack (jack@dtheatre.com) on November 11, 2003 10:10 PM

If you got one, post it!

"Sorry"   reply

Posted by Skullfire (hulacete@ubbi.com) on November 12, 2003 5:04 PM

True Romance is a classic Tarantino's: 90% of the characters dead at the end.

"np"   reply

Posted by sKillBot (travis@pulley.org) on November 12, 2003 11:43 PM

And that whole scene where Alabama stabbed Tony Soprano in the foot with a screwdriver was classic.

True Romance   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on November 21, 2003 8:18 PM

While this film is one of my all time faves, (note the Walken-Hopper interchange) I seem to be unable to find the original theatrical release on DVD. The director's cut ruined (for me) the feeling that Clarence and Alabama were truly "charmed" only killing when directly threatened. Any help on this issue would be nice.

true romance   reply

Posted by A random shemp (No Email) on December 21, 2003 1:40 PM

and no one mentioned the fantastic music by hans zimmer