True Romance (Unrated Director's Cut)

Rating:
Summary: Unprecidented
Review: One of my all time faves (Fave being a word I dont abuse). This film is terminally Hip. Everyone is perfectly cast, and you can just tell it's Quentin from the standard of character interplay and fly on the wall chit chat. He actually has commentary on this, too. Which, for a budding writer like myself, is gold dust.
The extras are pretty good, too. Especially when you find out that the '[...] eatin' scene is actually about 3mins longer, and was more of an issue for the censors than Alabama's whippin,' courtesy of Tony Soprano. As Chris Walken so cleverly points out in his interview clip on the extras; 'Quentin write these Elizabethen style, intricate pieces of dialogue that you just cant help but be absorbed into.' It's true, if Shakespeare were around today, these are the kinds of scenarios and people he'd be accomadating.

Rating:
Summary: A Love story, Tarantino style
Review: One of the more scholarship-worthy films of the past ten years is A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. The merits of the film do not lie in the plot, crafting or acting, but rather the happy dance of compromise by the two architects of the film, Steven Speilberg (director) and Stanley Kubrick (writer/developer). With radically different ideas about drama, ambiguity and continuity, the marriage of these two artists seemed impossible. But after Speilberg took over for the late Kubrick and picked up the film, A.I. became the most interesting collaboration in recent history, and to date is the most unconventional film of Speilberg and the most populist of Kubrick.

The same type of compromise is at work in True Romance, a film directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun) and written by Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction). Without getting into filmmakers on the margins of Hollywood, no two creators are more different. Disagree? Try to find commonalities in Pulp Fiction and Top Gun. And so, like A.I., True Romance becomes a child whose very existence speaks to the differences in the aesthetics placed on the craft of filmmaking by its two fathers.

True Romance follows Clarence, a comic book store employee with a fascination for Elvis and Kung Fu, and his new bride Alabama, a former call girl who takes pride in only turning three tricks. After they are married, Clarence goes after his wife's former pimp and comes away with a suitcase full of cocaine. Unsure of how to unload their new score, the self proclaimed "minimum wage kids" head off to California to try to sell their product in one big transaction to a movie producer who is a friend of a friend of Clarence. With mafiosos on their tall and the police closing in on them, the film climaxes with Taratino's favorite device, the Mexican Stand-off, with bodyguards, cops and mobsters all pointing guns at each other.

A better cast has never been put together, but much of that is owed to luck, as future superstars litter the scenes in extra roles. Made in 1993, the film features performances by Brad Pitt, Sam Jackson and James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano) all before they became Hollywood power-players. In addition, the principle cast features solid stars like Christian Slater, Rosanna Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Val Kilmer, Michael Rappaport and Christopher Walken doing what Christopher Walken does: walk into a movie, spend five minutes on screen and create a moment that no viewer will forget.

The earmarkings of Tarantino are everywhere: the long monologues, the super cool criminals and the references to Kung Fu, Elvis and comic books. But Tony Scott creates a film from the original script that will be enjoyed by many folks turned off by Tarantino's avaunt gaurde form of directing. The film does not contain a confusing narrative and does not end with ambiguous questions. Rather, Scott does with this script what he does with most of his films: he makes a conventional film with a happy ending that most people will understand. At the very least, this is a lesson in collaboration.


Rating:
Summary: Hey there's ACCUALLY something on TV
Review: I never payed attention t this movie at all despite it came on HBO all the time. Then When I had nothing to do I just left it on HBO 3 nights ago and decided to watch it. And I must have been a complete idiot to miss out on this 3 weeks in a row cuz this movie is freakin' awsome.

It all starts off with a detroit comic book clerk, (Slater)marrieing a hooker(Arquette), and takes a load of coke from her employer. And tries to sell it in Hollywood.

But his actions put him in a pretty big situation. I'm not gonna say to avoid spoiling it for those who have yet to see it, but man it's just a great plot(Written by Quentin Tarantino, who definitly had a lot to due with the ending, I'm talking gore fest!)

This movie also had a huge plot behind it. Along with the great cast above, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Penn and more.

This movie just suprized me in many ways possible.(Now I can see where Knockaroud guys got their ending from[except theres was A much WEAKER ending] Now I wan't this movie in my collection. Those that love crime, action, or Quentin Tarantino plots definitly need to get this. Those who do not approve of violence, should definitly stay away, altho this isn't like a kill bill gorefest, but more realistic.( and it inspired a sceene in Kill Bill(Right in the foot)

Peace

Rating:
Summary: Awwww... that was so....... romantic!
Review: It's interesting to know that this flick was written by Quentin Tarantino, and he sold it in order to raise capital to make Reservoir Dogs. Great business idea on his side, Super plot. Great flick. This is the kinda movie you want to add to your collection. The cast is incredible. Patricia Arquette, Christian Slater, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, and directed by Tony Scott who did Top Gun. I'd hate to give you a run down on the plot... because frankly, it's best to watch it without knowing what will happen. I guarantee you'll like it.

Rating:
Summary: Forget Wuthering Heights and Juliet -- This IS True Romance
Review: After the first three scripts (this, Reservoir dogs, and Pulp Fiction) Tarantino is sometimes entertaining, always clever, duff, but this film is high art.

Some people say that "True Romance" takes a while to warm up, but I prefer the beginning. After it arrives in Hollywood and becomes an action film, it is still excellent, but in inception it is perfection.

"True Romance," refers I believe, like "Pulp Fiction," to a genre of novels that cater to the dreams of the unfulfilled. And this film shows use the sort of dream that might-satisfy. But, the tragic beauty of "True Romance" is that, unlike the genre it parodies, it is self-aware. Wow.

The emphasis is on dream. Despite what big-richard-critic below says, super-nerds know, that there is no fullfilment in this world. Like J. Alfred Purfrock, they have been through it all in their heads.

The opening soundtrack by Zimmer, complete with whistling wind, sirens, and a background of Detroit down-and-outs, hangs in my mind as theme for this movie: unfulfillable hope.

The music, and this film, crystalise the unearthly hope of those out in the cold, comic-book (or video rental) shop of despair. It nerds like this that show us the way things might have been. Think Wuthering Height's Emily Bronte, who never got to know anyone, let alone a guy, outside her immediate family circle. Tarantino was on acid, strung-out, speaking in tongues. He must have been delisciously insane. That lone super-nerd dreamt up paradise and then some, in spades.

Other reviewers have noted the fourtuitousness with which Clarence finds a girl that likes comic books and Kung Fu movies, but does she? She is a call girl that is paid to be there. All the same, even in the face of that -- the scene on the roof does it for me -- they hold on to the dream.

(Admitedly there are no women in this film. The only woman is the Super-nerd's anima. )

The rest of the movie is a collection of dream sequences, all driven by a refrain of "wouldn't it be really cool if.." the males could incarnate machismo, 'sell the contradiction'. And the scenes are very, very cool.

"True Romance" is full of monologues. The characters, walking through dreams on their own, rarely really interact. But the monologues by Hopper, Walkren, and Gandolfini rank with Shakespeare.

Even Christian Slater's phone call, "If you want my movie, Lee, you're just gonna have to come to terms with your Fear and Desire," or the hard boiled cop duo Nickolson and Dime's monologue a deux -- "somthing's rotten in Denmark," -- are redefining cool all the way.

But, just as Cathy and Heathcliff's fantasy on the moor -- they are prince and princess -- is just that, Clarence and Alabama's fantastic journey from Detroit to Hollywood never touches down. People complain about the unreality of this film, but "True Romance" is meant to be that way, at least until what should have been the end.

I think that Tony Scott did a good job (even outdoing his brother's genuius) but I wish that he had stayed with the original script's ending. At the same time, I think we know how the film should have ended.

I have been reading the other reviews. I agree with those that say that it is *one of the best movies ever made*.

El Satanico says:
"When people say that stories like Romeo and Juliet, Gone With the Wind and Sleepless in Seattle are the greatest love stories ever told then those people obviously havent seen TRUE ROMANCE yet."

not telling says:
" I don't remember hearing much press about it when it was released, but I rented it when it first hit the shelves and I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY. This is such a great movie."

kubrik2899 says
"Quentin Tarantio struck all the right notes when he wrote this fantastic motion picture, which, in my opinion, is the greatest motion picture of all time."

There are lots more, please read the reviews.

People who do not like the truth will not like this movie. This movie shows us what we want, and that it is unatainable. But at the same time, this movie tells shows us that the dream is bigger and more powerful than the truth. The truth is a lie. This IS true romance.

"So, what say we throw caution to the wind and let the chips fall where they may."

Rating:
Summary: Unbelievably dynamic table-setter for Tarantino's career
Review: Wow. This is the screenplay that got hopeless geek Quentin Tarantino out from behind the video store counter and into the consciousness of a filmgoing public that now has him firmly entrenched within all-that-is-cool from the early 1990's to the present day.

For starters, check the talent: Christian Slater (hey, he was BIG back then), Patricia Arquette, some goombah-wannabe named James Gandolphini, Samuel L. Jackson (of course you've got to have HIM), Bronson Pinchot (was he still doing that horrible TV show then?), Chris Penn and Tom Sizemore, "Psychos-R-Us" character actor gods Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, and Christopher Walken (the confrontation between Walken and Dennis Hopper is one of the most brilliant scenes ever written AND filmed), Val Kilmer (always shot out-of-focus, the voice BARELY gives him away), and Brad Pitt before he emerged as a solid leading actor for mainstream Hollywood displaying a talent for stealing every scene he's in without ever getting up from a sofa. Sheer brilliance.

This is an ensemble-cast movie that really works...everyone feeds off each other's abilities, and no one gets stepped on in a fit a primadonnery. The story itself is pure dime-store fiction designed to appeal to escapists who may have spent too much time behind the counter of video rental shops...but like most successful art, it succeeds because its creator was inspired and working from his own heart. Tarantino generally writes screenplays for the type of movie he likes; as such, when he is inspired as he was in the lead-up to "Pulp Fiction" there wasn't anyone who could match him. Judging by the caliber of big-name actors who agreed to lend their talents and curb their egos to bring this movie to fruition, this is a sentiment that many in the business shared even early on in QT's career.

Terrific, outstanding movie...extremely violent, sexy and innocent at the same time, very funny, and still hip after all these years. If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing something special.

Rating:
Summary: This is what DVD is all about!
Review: This package is what DVD is all about! First of all, this movie is one of my favorites of ALL TIME. I remember seeing this in the movie theaters and walking out of there blown away. Then when it came to cable, I watched it every time I caught it. This is truly a guy's fantasy love story. Think about it, a chick that's into a guy that loves comics and kung fu flicks.

The acting is superb... especially the scene between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. A testament to Tarantino's writing, the direction and the acting: I'm a black guy and I think it's probably one of the most classic scenes I have EVER seen in a movie. For those of you that have seen it, you'll know what I'm talking about.

The other actors were great as well. In terms of casting, this movie was sheer perfection.

Now let me get on to the DVD extras. One of the main reason I love DVDs are the extras. I am so angry whenever a studio skimps out on the extras. Especially when DVDs have so much space and the footage is available. You can slap on some uncut footage on a DVD and I'd be happy.

This DVD FAR EXCEEDS any expectation I would have had for a DVD package. Quentin's live commentary on this DVD (as opposed to the chopped up edited one on Reservoir Dogs) is priceless. There's also a live storyboard display that you can look at while watching the movie. Awesome. I also love the longer beatup scenes with James Gandolfini.

And there's still stuff that I haven't looked at yet. Like the actors' commentary and the behind the scenes stuff. And yet I already feel I got my money's worth!

This is definitely a MUST BUY for movie buffs and Tarantino fans!


Rating:
Summary: Kinetic script of Quentin Tarantino!
Review: This film is violent but plenty of bits , thrills and surprises . It's a chinese box (Remember Belle de jour?) .
The sequences of the chases are first rate , but the peak of the crown may be well in the dialogue between Chris Walken and Dennis Hopper moments previous to the murder in which both colossal actors make a tour de force that signed the film to status cult movie .
Christian Slater is fine , and Pitt is very credible as a dealer .
Fine script and watchable film , filled with histamina!
Dazzling direction of Tony Scott!