Exciting, sexy crime thriller with top-notch Tarantino script.

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2004)

Clarence: I always said, if I had to f*ck a guy... I mean had to, if my life depended on it... I'd f*ck Elvis.
Exciting, sexy, enjoyable crime thriller with great and great-looking stars is one of my favourite Tarantino scripts. Sparkling pop-culture dialogue, great characters, great scenes (check the one between Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman's gem of a scene, Brad Pitt's just lying there on the couch, the classic movie theatre scene where Clarence and Alabama meet, followed by the just as classic diner scene).
Has a great sense of humour - the pervasive joke is every reaction you think Alabama will have to the various stupid things Clarence does, she has the opposite. Violence is true romance - sick? Perhaps. Its the one thing Tony Scott and Tarantino agree on: unnecessary violence is not cheap exploitation, its entertainment. I personally think the shock effects Tarantino uses to structure his screenplays are quite gimmicky and undergraduate. Quality does not always mean sudden shifts of sex and violence. Surprise is not always good. I could have done without the hotel room scene, for example, where Alabama has a near-deadly encounter with a hit-man. One of the most violent things i've ever seen.
Nevertheless, if you skip these scenes, its a compulsively enjoyable ride, and one of Tony Scott's least offensive films (Top Gun is sheer obnoxiousness today).
8/10