If I have to compare True romance with other Tarantino scripts, then I would say that this is his weakest. Even Death proof although a weaker movie than this had a semi-solid script. This one just had one sequence after another with the end having no option but to collate everything just for the sake of a climax. In fact, it felt like some of the plot points are introduced so that they can be added for the final sequence. Just feels forced.
The movie's best part is the beginning 20-30 minutes where we are introduced to the 'innocent' protagonists and get acquainted with their crude environment. Kudos to Tarantino for shaping the main characters in ways which make them look like a ray of sunshine in a room full of devil's snare. You want to stay with them and get to know them more. Which is where my main problem with the movie lies. I hated every time that the script decided to plot some elaborate obstacle for the mains. Not that they didn't need any but I would rather have them show more scenes of the protagonists struggling than some detail about where the problem really lies. An exception obviously being the Walken-Hopper scene. That is premium Tarantino. It doesn't get tastier than that. That scene not only works as something that would get better if you're chomping on double-sized caramel popcorn, but also from a technical standpoint. The camerawork, the editing going hand in hand with the dialogues, the acting themselves deserve a write-up on their own.
One more problem with the movie is lack of importance given to Arquette's character Alabama, given that she's the best thing about the movie. In fact, after the first 30 minutes or so, she gets reduced to a side character just as the romance takes a backseat. Her scene with Gandolfini felt like something that they added later just to make her character have something to do in the latter half. Doesn't add anything to the movie. Brilliant scene though. Not giving spoilers, but the setup of the scene itself is a writer's haven. And Arquette and Gandolfini executing the scene surely serves up as an acting school study material.
So yes, I liked the movie for what it is and yes there are tropes in the movie that I have issues with. But, I can't deny the fact that the Tarantino fan inside me is trying to come up for air when I'm writing about the imperfections. There is so much to like about this movie and I haven't even started talking about....oh shoot....Tony Scott is amazing. There are scripts that don't need a good director to make them work (*Steve Jobs*). True romance is not one of them. Scott takes this script and makes it act out like a charm. The Oldman scene with Slater is an example of how good direction can uplift a script.
Conclusion: There are plot points in TR which stick out like a sore thumb (Everything with Chris Penn felt forced). But,TR works when it's about the main characters and not the external intricacies. In a way it needed more romance and less reality(True). But the ace writing saves even the scenes which do not serve much to the actual theme of the movie. And also, one has to agree that everything is awesome when there's more Patricia!!!

**A film where love is unbelievable, the characters are unlikely, and the action scenes are brutal and quite intense.**

This is one of those films that you shouldn't watch with your family: it's full of violent scenes, foul dialogue full of profanity, several sex scenes, among other heavy features. The story isn't exactly nice either: during his birthday, a seemingly ordinary man meets a seductive woman and the two get very involved. We learn that she is a prostitute, and was hired to be with him that night. They decide to escape, but are forced to kill her pimp and take with them a suitcase full of pure cocaine.

For me, the film's biggest problem wasn't the violence (Tarantino uses it regularly and is considered brilliant), but rather the implausibility of the story: I wouldn't believe in love at first sight with a prostitute, I find the idea implausible, and the same can be said about the idea of a frail boy, with a perfectly ordinary life, becoming in a few hours a brutal murderer and potential drug dealer. These are things that don't fit, but that the film takes advantage of to create a kind of “Romeo and Juliet Bang Bang”.

There are several well-known names in the cast. For me, the best performance came from Gary Oldman, who is extraordinarily good in the role of a violent pimp. I wish that his participation was not so brief. Patricia Arquette is sexy when she's almost naked, and that was put to full use. As an actress, she did what she could, but she was given such bad material and such an unbelievable character that she couldn't do much. In turn, Christian Slater is not a good actor. At least, I think that he lost itself a lot after “Name of the Rose”. Here, he keeps the same persona he presented in “Heathers”, but without such an intelligent script to base it on. The actor did the job that was possible with bad material and a very bad character. Chris Walken is good in the role of the big villain: he knows how to be cold and appear threatening. Val Kilmer and Brad Pitt make brief appearances, but I doubt they want to remember this work, where they were very far from the shape we are used to.

Technically, the film stands out for the avalanche of good special effects it used in the action and shooting scenes, which are deeply crafted and stylized. Fans of action films will definitely enjoy this, and the climactic scene is worthy of an anthology. The rest ends up not really interesting and not having much relevance.

The King, Chiba, White Boy Day and Love…Bloody Love.

True Romance is directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It stars Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Michael Rapaport, Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini, Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore, Bronson Pinchot and Saul Rubinek. Music is by Hans Zimmer and cinematography by Jeffery L. Kimball.

Comic book store clerk Clarence Worley (Slater) falls in love with call girl Alabama Whitman (Arquette) when she turns up at the movie theatre as one of his birthday presents. Marriage is quick but as the whirlwind romance gathers apace, complications quickly follow in the form of psycho drug dealers and the mob!

It's still speculated on how True Romance would have panned out had Tarantino directed his own screenplay, but really in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter. For True Romance is a wildly exciting fusion of lovers on the lam premise with violence a go go thrills.

Director Scott did a bang up job bringing Tarantino's screenplay to life, even making a couple of narrative changes that suits (QT agrees) the picture no end. People often get hung up on the fact that Scott had previously helmed Top Gun, Beverly hills Cop II and Days of Thunder, citing these as reasons that Scott was wrong for the material, yet the film he did immediately before True Romance was The Last Boy Scout, a thrilling and muscular actioner that pings with sharp savvy dialogue scripted by Shane Black. It was the perfect trial run for True Romance, and Scott proved to be a wise and cohesive choice for the material. He also expertly marshalled a large ensemble cast, garnering career high turns from Slater and Arquette in the process.

Almost everything clicks into place on True Romance, it never lacks for kinetic thrills or edge of the seat drama. In turn it likes to grab you around the throat with some wince inducing violence, cunningly drawing you in to root for a couple of lovers who will do anything for each other, while simultaneously causing carnage for all they come into contact with. There's odd ball characters galore (Oldman and Pitt excelling in this area), exquisite set-pieces and dialogue so sharp you could cut a steak with it. From conversations between Clarence and his imaginary Elvis (Kilmer) mentor, to iconography unbound with one of the 90s great sequences that sees Walken's mob boss verbally joust with Hopper as Clarence's stoic father, it's a film as rich in the art of vocal acting as it is in eye splintering gloss. All that and it's a clinically beautiful love story as well!

A wet dream fantasy of QT for sure, and if you wanna be churlish? Then there should have been more room made for Sizemore and Penn's glorious coppers. Hell we could even complain about the editing being a touch too slam-bang at times…But nah! Small complaints be damned, the meeting of Tarantino the writer and Scott the director delivers neo-noir goodies galore. In fact it's a film that just gets better with age. 9/10

Can't believe I haven't seen this movie until now. My neighbor could not believe I never saw this movie, and suggested I watch it A.S.A.P.! I did and loved it! This is a _**must see**_ Star-Studded movie. One of Quentin Tarantino best works.

This is a sort of pre-Tarantino Tarantino movie. The story I read is that he rewrote a script for a co-worker, and he didn’t end up directing it, so it is both his and not completely his work. But it is a violent quirky films like many of his other ones. I had to smile when i read the brief summary of the plot on this site. Rarely does a movie blurb capture the essence of a movie this well: “Clarence marries hooker Alabama, steals cocaine from her pimp, and tries to sell it in Hollywood, while the owners of the coke try to reclaim it.”

The dialogue rings true and there is a chemistry between the romantic leads. It is star studded also, though the actors play secondary roles to make for quite a talented group of character actors/actresses. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and there is one other aspect of the movie that intrigued me and contributed to how much I like it. I haven’t seen it mentioned in other reviews here or elsewhere, and that is the soundtrack. It was composed by Hans Zimmer, who is widely recognized as one of the best movie composers. If you have seen the movie “Badlands” with Martin Sheen and Cissy Spacek, you will hear a startling resemblance (almost identically so) between the opening themes of the two movie.

The music for Badlands, also a road movie featuring a killer and his girlfriend, was written by Carl Orff, taken from a study piece he apparently wrote for other composers and performers to use as a learning or development piece. I only know this because back then in pre-Google times I searched for weeks tracking down where the music came from, as Badlands did not release a soundtrack album. You can also notice the voiceover ending for both movies, recited by the girlfriends, are also very similar. I assume this is done as a tribute to the earlier film.