Romantic-comedy, Tarantino-style

Rating: Null/10 (17 February 2004)

This film was made from one of the first scripts that Quentin Tarantino wrote, while he was still working as a clerk in a video shop. It's hard not to detect at least an element of wish fulfillment in this tale of a lonely, Elvis-obsessed comic-book shop clerk who finds love with a beautiful call-girl.
While not among his best, the script by Tarantino still amuses with plenty of his usual banter about movies, comics and other aspects of popular culture. The direction, by Tony Scott is slick and flashy, and the parts are well-played by a great cast (Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt. Samuel L Jackson and Christopher Walken are among the great actors with cameos in this film).
One of the main problems of the film is that it is very derivative (particularly of the 1973 Terrence Malick film "Badlands" and "Bonnie and Clyde"). Having said that, "True Romance" is still a very entertaining film (although be warned: the violence is pretty strong).