True Romance: Director's Cut [Blu-ray] [1993] [Region Free]

If you haven't seen this movie do yourself a favour and pick it up.It was a bloody steal at £8.Starring Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in a movie written by Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) and directed by Tony Scott (Top Gun)It tells the story of an unlikley romance in the backdrop of crime, cocaine and drug busts.I Would rather you would go in blind if you have never saw this movie before because its great not really knowing what will happen.Amazing performances by Christopher Walker, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman and Tom Siezmore.Get it watched people.Also check out the alternative ending on the Blu Ray.

This is one my favourite films, one of those which can be watched as many times as we want, without ever getting old... Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.Clarence (Christian Slater) is a rather pathetic guy, with a rather pathetic job and a rather pathetic life. But he is special in one particular way - the Devil likes him and comes sometimes to visit and chat with him and because Clarence is a fanatical Elvis fan, well, to humour him the Devil takes the shape of Elvis Presley. There is no rational explanation for the Devil liking Clarence - and very exceptionally there is no strings attached in their strange relationship. The Devil simply likes Clarence ("I like you Clarence. Always did - always will"). Period.Then one day Clarence meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette). They immediately fall in love, marry the next day and decide to go on honeymoon. But before that Clarence must just go recover Alabama's suitcase containing all her earthly belongings - and that will start a sequence of events which will then continue until the extremely dramatic, bloody and brilliant great finale...The scenario of this 1993 film was written by Quentin Tarantino when he was at the beginning of his career and therefore at the top of his creativity, just after "Reservoir Dogs" and just before "Pulp Fiction" - and Tony Scott used every ounce of genius this scenario contains and as result made what is without question his most brilliant movie (yes, I prefer this one to "Top Gun" - even if they really do not belong to the same categories)!This film is extremely violent and also full of very strong language but all this notwithstanding this is basically a comedy, albeit a very dark one. The brilliance of dialogs and gags is stressed even more by the incredible casting. Other than the two actors already cited, in this film we can also see: Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore, Michael Rapaport and Saul Rubinek. They all give great show but it is Brad Pitt who tops them all, even if his appearance is very short - his character, Floyd, is such a stoner, that he probably has pot smoke in his veins rather than blood...))) I never saw a better "weed moment" on the screen EVER!Saul Rubinek plays here a drug trafficker, not exactly the kind of role he is associated with - but he is INCREDIBLE! In fact his character, Lee Donowitz, is a really scary guy... The "Sicilian scene", in fact a conversation between Dennis Hooper and Christopher Walken, became since then a myth in its own. The Patricia Arquette vs. James Gandolfini confrontation also acquired since then a mythical status, as probably one of the most infamous overkills in the history of the cinema... And finally there is Drexl the Pimp, the character played by Gary Oldman - well, this actor enjoys playing weirdoes and sleazes, but rarely he has the occasion to play SUCH a sleazy weirdo...Bottom line, this is an ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE, made of dark humour, violence and strong language, with special appearance by Elvis "Devil" Presley... To buy, watch and keep! ENJOY!

An early example of the Tarantino formula - stylised violence, random monologues, film references - True Romance is a strange yet surprisingly sweet story about two oddballs who fall in love then go on a violent odyssey across America. It's possible to see the genesis of Natural Born Killers in True Romance; the boy "romantically" murders the girl's male aggressor, and they become drunk on their love even while surrounded by appalling violence. The difference is that whereas NBK's anti-heroes were evil psychopaths, TR's, I think, are meant to be more sympathetic lovebirds.Clarence (Christian Slater) is a lonely Elvis fan who works in a comic book store and watches old martial arts movies. One night he meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette), a naive call girl with the same interests, and after making love once they decide to be soul mates. The problem is that Clarence can't just forget about Alabama's sadistic pimp, Drexl (Gary Oldman). Egged on by a vision of Elvis (Val Kilmer), Clarence murders Drexl, accidentally steals a suitcase full of his cocaine and, intending to sell it, goes on the run with Alabama.The film sometimes sits uneasily between realism and fantasy. The cocaine plot, with its cast of cops, gangsters and Hollywood players, is believable enough, but the central love story feels like it bled through from a parallel universe. Slater and Arquette have barely three or four scenes together before declaring their deathless love. Alabama has no past and is really just an extension of Clarence, who's an extension of Quentin Tarantino. Their characterisations are also a bit muddled; at times they act like psychopaths, but elsewhere they seem like innocents caught in a tangled web.None of this matters, however, as you're watching the film, which succeeds on the strength of its script. Tarantino's gift, I think, is for infusing dull stories with poetry and style. If you consider his basic plots - jewellery-heist goes wrong (Reservoir Dogs), boxer rips off gangster (Pulp Fiction), samurai seeks revenge (Kill Bill) - they're standard stuff which in other hands would make forgettable genre flicks, but through his unique narrative structures and dialogue Tarantino gives them life. True Romance is dotted with cameos from great actors like Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman and James Gandolfini, a lot of whom get beautifully written monologues about anything from Sicilian heritage to murder. Meanwhile, the central love story, as preposterous as it is, is often genuinely moving.