3 Good Things, 1 Bad Thing about... True Romance

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2008)

ONE GOOD THING: Quentin Tarantino's script is so vastly rich in its menagerie of characters and settings, that it becomes virtually epic in its scope. Gary Oldman's pimp, Brad Pitt's stoner, Samuel L. Jackson's drug dealer, Michael Rapaport's actor, and James Gandolfini's mob henchman are just a few of the "minor characters" who show up to steal the movie from its stars.
ANOTHER GOOD THING: Although many feel this film would have been better if directed by Tarantino, I would disagree. This film falls ideally on the Tony Scott directorial time line, somewhere between his glossy, almost over-polished earlier works (Top Gun and Days Of Thunder) and his rapid/frenetically edited later films (Domino and Man On Fire). Scott did, unfortunately, change the movie's original time structure, which was closer to Tarantino's Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs; but that appears to be a reflection of "Hollywood Money's" readiness to accept change, more than Scott's eagerness to meddle.
EVEN ANOTHER GOOD THING: Howard Hawks once theorized that a good movie featured three good scenes and no bad ones. This film features, possibly, the greatest scene in modern movie history without a hero narrowly out running a fire ball, nuclear explosion, or ELECTRICITY!!! By placing Cristopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in a smokey house-trailer with Tarantino's dialogue, Tony Scott crafted the most watchable conversation in recent movie memory.
ONE BAD THING: Time has not been kind to the film's two lead stars (Slater and Arquette), who have now been reduced to primarily television actors. This, unfortunately, gives perspective viewers/renters/buyers the wrong impression of the movie and it's superior quality level.
OVERALL GRADE: A+