True Romance is pure fun

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2004)

There are some films that you gladly forget about common sense and logic and just sit back to enjoy the energy of what your watching. Story is about Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) who works in a comic book store and watches kung-fu films and while sitting in a movie theater one night he meets Alabama (Patricia Arquette). They hit it off and go back to his place where after some lovemaking he finds out that she is a hooker that was hired by his boss but she really likes him and vows to give up prostitution. They get married and Clarence decides to go get her belongings from her pimp Drexl Spivey (Gary Oldman) but after a bloody altercation Drexl and his hired thugs are killed and Clarence grabs a suitcase and runs out. At home they discover millions of dollars in cocaine stashed in the case so they decide to go to California and look up his friend Dick (Michael Rapaport).
*****SPOILER ALERT*****

They arrive and Dick gets them a deal to sell the cocaine to a famous film producer for 200,000 dollars but the cops find out about it and want to make the bust but Italian gangsters are hot on Clarence's and Alabama's trail.
This film was directed by Tony Scott who also directed "Top Gun" and he has shown good skill at directing action films that keep a steady and exciting pace. But the films real flavor isn't necessarily in the action but in Quentin Tarantino's wonderful script and dialogue. Even when the film slows down and there is no action taking place you're still enthralled by the words spoken by the actors and there is a truly memorable scene involving Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. The fact that these two terrific actors are interacting in a film was exciting enough but the scene between them is written so splendidly that it has become a classic. Slater is well cast as the hot headed but reckless Clarence and I've always been a big fan of Arquette. They have good chemistry together and this helps the film as we watch this story unfold. The cast is top notch and along with the main leads you can see Brad Pitt, Bronson Pinchot, Samuel L. Jackson, Saul Rubinek, Conchata Ferrell, James Gandolfini, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore and Ed Lauter. Also, Val Kilmer pops up from time to time as the ghost of Elvis that mentors Clarence in his actions. I personally could have done without the whole Elvis/Ghost part of the story but this is just nit picking because this is a whole lot of fun to watch. This has more than it's share of violence but this film is highly stylized and generates an abundant of energy that never lets up.