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True Romance - Unrated Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

True Romance - Unrated Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: No Dice.
Review: I must admit I'm not a Tarantino fan, and movie buffs mostly aren't. He gets it wrong again and again. It's arrogance at work disguised as an adventure. He's obviously prejudiced(your Sicilian slept around, The Compton schmeel in Res. Dogs), ect. The close-ups of the actors, again and again. Yes, I know they are pretty/cute/important, but just because the director says someone is outta sight, doesn't make it so. Oh, and how can I forget the rambling. On and on about whatever just as long as it doesn't make sense. Like discussing a drug deal on a roller coaster. This is supposed to make Christian Slater hiper than hip, but let's face it. Anyone buying 200,000 dollars worth of cocaine should be able to handle a roller coaster, right? I'm glad he hasen't put out any movies recently so people can get back to what a good movie should be like, such as "Trees Lounge" or "The Fellowship of the Ring."

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great shoot-em up love story!!!
Review: I feel that the keys to success in this film are the acting and script. It is one hell of an accomplishment on both areas. The film serves as a black comedy, an exciting action flick, and a thrilling crime caper. It has some great singular roles as well. Brad Pitt is hilarious as stoner Floyd, Christopher Walken is wonderful as the anti-christ, and you can't forget Gary Oldman as wanna-be-black- pimp Drexle.

The writing is hilarious and rich with thoughtful dialogue. It is one hell of a twist at the end. Make dibs on who gets out of the shoot out alive!!!!

Great flick, and fun for a Saturday afternoon. the DVD is fabulously souped-up and impressive. It is definitely worth the money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WHAT WHAT WHAT a movie
Review: Man WHAT a movie. What a love story...what a beginning and what an ending. Fabulous laughs from Brad Pitt (Floyd...the interminable house guest), Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper (re; the trailer scene...as poignant as it is vengeful, and still achingly funny). Gary Oldman my man..what'cho'on man...gimme-sommmmme! Elliot...(Bronson Pinchot..."And to what is it pertaining"-Beverly Hills Cop. Remember?) You a weed boy...a very funny weed. We even have the ghost of Elvis...AND IT WORKS...WHAT! Loved it! loved it! loved it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another Tarantino Classic
Review: The first film ever written by Tarantino shows no differences of his other movies. Just like Pulp Fiction and Resevior Dogs, True Romance keeps you in your seat the entire movie and offers a great variety of violence and crime. I wish Tarantino could have directed this movie because I believe it would have been up there with Pulp Fiction as one of the best crime thrillers of all time if he did, however Tony Scott did a fabulous job.

The bloody stand-off at the end of True Romance reminds me so much of the Resevior dogs stand off and the happy ending reminds me of the ending in Pulp Fiction.

Bottom line is if you liked Pulp Fiction, Resevior dogs and if you are a fan of Quentin Tarantino's movies, than this DVD is the one for you. You'll watch it over and over!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: True Romance is Truly Outstanding!
Review: Great movie, recently recommended as a "re-rent" by Roger Ebert's new partner (can't remember his name). Outstanding performances by Gary Oldman (a personal fave) Christian Slater and Dennis Hopper. James Gandolfini and Christopher Walken add hard-edged muscle to the well-written script.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Flawed, but still engaging and distinctive.
Review: True Romance is, in certain ways, an even more accurate representation of Quentin Tarantino's works than Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction, for it contains both Tarantino's strongest and weakest forts. Notably, True Romance was his first sold script, so it acts as a kind of express ticket into Tarantino style.

Director Tony Scott deserves a big round of applause because here, as in The Last Boy Scout, he is able to adapt his cinematic style to a very different kind of script. True Romance the film stays very true to the tone of the script, right down to the excessive corniness, brutal violence, and hyperkinetic energy.

The story really aims to be a love story. But I think it only succeeds half way. Tarantino has never been good at crafting female characters -- fortunately, Alabama is one of his best attempts, and she is definitely better than the whiny Fabienne and Honey Bunny from Pulp Fiction. Her relationship with Clarence (Christian Slater, in one of his best roles) is a little shallow because their initial attraction is a little too brief and riddled with Tarantino's favourite male-female device, baby talk. Sorry, I have a weak stomach for this device. But Patricia Arquette gives her all here in a fierce, brave performance that she's never quite topped; whatever problems I have with Alabama stems from the writing, not the acting. Alabama and Clarence's "connection" scenes pale visibly in comparison with the ferocious scenes with the male characters including the now legendary "Sicilian" between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken; the scenary chomping of Gary Oldman as Drexl, a role which utilizes Oldman's over-the-top hamming better than any other; Chris Penn and Tom Sizemore's quick, machine-gun interchanges as hotheaded narcs; and the hidden jewel, a young, lean James Gandolfini -- who hints at his future greatness here with a delivery that is both sadistic and human, humorous and scary, just like his immortal turn later as Tony Soprano.

The corniness of the romance is part of the character of this film, though when it reaches critical mass levels in one or two scenes (such as the airport scene, the "what you did is so romantic" scene, and the incredibly craven final -- and official -- ending), it's painful for me. I kind of wish they could have kept the best elements from both the official and the deleted original ending (available here): The toughness and character depth of the original ending but without the pretension, and the hope for redemption of the official ending. Did they *really* need that last beach scene? I don't think so.

But enough analysis (though the film deserves it). True Romance is unique. While not as uniformly great and ambitious as Reservoir Dogs, this film takes a lot of risks and enough of them pay off so that the flaws are easily forgiven. And this double-disc rerelease's bonus materials, to me, are much more appealing than those of the recent Reservoir Dogs reissue. A key film of the '90s, and to me, Quentin Tarantino's second most important contribution to cinema.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: True love within true romance...
Review: The tital is slightly misleading ...
Clarence Whorley (Christian Slater) is a lonely guy,working in a comic store and celebrating his birthday alone.His boss had arranged for a ...-girl named Alabama(Patricia Arquette)to spend the night with Clarence.As the night goes by Alabama finds that she has fallen in love with Clarence,she tells him and thats when it all begins.The couple get married.A trip to to get Alabama's clothes results in Clarence killing ... Drexal
(Gary Oldman)and the newly weds end up with a bag of pure [narcotics],but along with the bag comes lots of angry [persons] who want there [narcotics] back.So the couple now on the run decide to visit Clarences dad an ex-cop to find out if they are wanted by the law but everybody knows cops dont care about [Drexal].However there are STILL a [lot] of angry [persons] who won't forgive and forget.The love between Claernce and his Alabama is so stronge the it is fate that they should be together.My only advise is watch this film and you will realise what true romance is ,and if not for that Brad Pitt's in it girls what more reason to watch a film???

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW!
Review: Christian Slater, Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini, Val Kilmer, Patricia Arquette, Gary Oldman, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Michael Rappaport, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Bronson Pinchot, Ed Laughter, Sal Rubinek, my God what a cast! This is a great movie! It has also adged very well considering that it's practically a decade old already! This movie will satisfy fans of Tarantino and those who aren't! Amazing, amazing, amazing! This WILL be the best money you ever spend on a DVD, not to mention the gretest DVD in your collection! BUY THIS TODAY!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Romeo and Juliet of the 90's
Review: "If there's one thing this last week has taught me, it's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it."

This Quentin Tarantino scripted film uses the theme of 'boy meets girl.' Here, though, boy meets girl, boy kills girl's pimp, couple takes pimp's coke, and bad boys chase couple. And Elvis is their Guardian Angel.... Clarence and Alabama are newlyweds who acquire an unexpected wedding present. Unknown to the blissfully happy couple, ruthless gangsters are on their tail, determined to reclaim their lost property

The film was written by Tarantino, and directed by Tony Scott. That automatically means that it is a fun film. The curses, while excessive, show the audience what kind of people these really are. Also, being written by Tarantino, expect to see lots of violence, and lots of characters without much screen time (Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt..)

Fans of this film might want to know that the screenplay of True Romance was originally a part of another very long screenplay that was written by Tarantino and R. Avary. The other half of it was used for the film "Natural Born Killers". In both of these films Tom Sizemore stars as a cop. Quentin sold the script to True Romance in order to fund Reservoir Dogs.

Fans of the film, Tarantino, great writing, and violence should buy this 2 disc special edition DVD. The extras include:
*Three Commentaries: Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, Tony Scott, Quentin Tarantino
*Innovative Storyboard Tracks
*More than 30 Minutes of Deleted or Extended Scenes with Optional Director Commentary
*Alternate Ending with Optional Director and Writer Commentaries
*Interactive Behind-the-Scenes Multi-Angle Featurette
*Animated Publicity and Photo Galleries
*Vintage 1993 Production Featurette
*Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots
*Web-Enabled
*Cast & Crew Film Highlights

Definately the most packed DVD of the upcoming round of 2-disc warner brothers DVDs. If you want to read about the other sets coming out, I wrote reviews for them as well.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: True romance and gratuitous murder do not mix.
Review: The main characters are two commonplace, identifiable, likable people, who very much fall in love, and then start killing other people in an orgy of mindless violence. After his first unnecessary murder He comes back home to tell her about it, and She starry eyed finds that what he did sooo romantic. At the end of the movie She too kills people, in one case for no better reason than apparently to stop her victim from making noise.

Now Pulp Fiction works because it is a parody, Natural Born Killers and Silence of Lambs works because in all their excess we understand that the killers are psychopaths. But here we are talking about normal people, and this makes True Romance incongruous through and through. It trivializes murder in a way I found deeply troubling. Sure, the actors get slapped around a bit before doing the killing, but this is such a flimsy and artificial excuse for introducing the murders that I found my intelligence insulted too. After seeing this movie I started thinking that Hollywood's love story with violence and the way that viewers in general have been anesthetized to it, does not bespeak well of the direction our culture is taking. This is not a trivial matter and I am not moralizing here. Cinema of this caliber is an art form, and art has power.

We do get a long string of recognizable actors, but I found their acting rather forced and pretentious. Technically the movie is ok, but I think that the director himself felt that something is wrong. In the specials he rather defensively claims that this movie is not about violence, but rather about true love being able to withstand violence. This does not make sense either: in this story it is the lovebirds themselves who start and cause the mayhem. The script writer could have achieved a very similar dark and violent effect, and could have helped create a much better movie, by having a loving couple of questionable (i.e. normal) morals being caught up in the violence and surviving - But to express the idea that it was love that inspired and guided normal folks to murder, is really sick.


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