Amazing, while Comparable to Pulp Fiction

Rating: 8/10 (17 March 2015)

Pulp Fiction is seen as Tarantino's best movie, but True Romance is overlooked. While it wasn't directed by Tarantino and doesn't go into situations as bizarre as Pulp Fiction, True Romance was one of his first screenplays. Fortunately it was picked up by Tony Scott after being sold. You know how people say things are "high-octane" when the stuff has energy, but they don't want to think of a real way to explain it? Octane is the oxygen in gasoline that makes it burn slower in cars to get more mileage. This movie had the right amount of octane to be fast-paced, but not blow past its human moments. There was plenty of nitrous-oxide on the way to help it be batshit crazy.
The first twenty minutes of this movie were insane. We see a ridiculous love story that's believable and very well acted by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette. We see a shootout with a wigger pimp played by Gary Oldman. And most importantly, we see a huge briefcase of cocaine fall into the couple's possession, forcing them to sell it in Hollywood. The story wastes no time moving right along to the conclusion that is a solid example of convergence.
The one thing that threw me off was the score. It wasn't fitting in a lot of scenes. Hanz Zimmer is the man as far as movie scoring goes, but it was awkward in this film. It wasn't crime drama music. It was we're-going-to-the-beach-with-our-xylophones-and-bongos-man kind of music. This got in the way of some deeper character moments that would have been better left without music at all, let alone this music. Halfway through the movie this trend of unfitting music tapers off and doesn't disturb the torture scene, the climax, or a few other key pieces.
I loved the hell out of every scene in this movie. It was a prime example of both crime and drama. Character is so often shoved to the side in an act of domestic violence by its abusive owner: action. In True Romance, the two concepts were married and stayed together until their chaotic, but fitting and synchronous passing in the last scene. Should I meet the cast and crew, I'll blow them all over-exaggerated air kisses. Mwah to you. Mwah to you. Mwah to this movie. Entertainment with sympathetic characters has happened before us, let it not be forgotten.