After admiring "Pulp Fiction" as the classic, revisionist pulp noir story that it was, I looked back at "Reservoir Dogs," which I had initially panned, and found it to be profane but also blackly comical and superbly tantalizing. Having said that, I still find "True Romance" to be hackneyed at best, a production written by Tarantino and directed with a bulldozer by Tony Scott. This is yet another example of a parable about crooked, one-dimensional drug dealers, pimps and cops but done with nary the style or witty dialogue that later became a trademark of Tarantino's after "Pulp Fiction."
"True Romance" stars Christian Slater as greasy-haired Clarence, a comic-book, kung-fu aficionado who one day meets a sweet-tempered hooker (played by the fabulous Patricia Arquette). When Clarence falls in love with her (after making love in his comic-book store), he decides to take her away from her Rastafarian-wannabe pimp (played by Gary Oldman), and all ends in a killing spree that leaves these two unlikely lovers on the run. The cops and the mob are now after this "Bonnie and Clyde" twosome now that they inadvertently stole a briefcase of cocaine worth a half-million dollars and killed Oldman's pimp.
"True Romance" is well-directed by Tony Scott ("Top Gun"), but the whole affair rings as hollow, meaningless and stupid. I do not object to four-letter words but Tarantino uses them without the punch and jab of truth as he has shown later on - these lowlifes just merely curse their heads off. The violence is overdone and far too cartoonish with the exception of one harrowing scene - the vicious, bloody beating of Arquette - that is as realistic and titillating as they come. This one scene shows the promise that Tarantino had in mind.
There are some fun character bits by Brad Pitt as a dopehead, Michael Rapaport as an actor who claims to have worked on the set of "T.J. Hooker," and the respectable work of reliable pros like Tom Sizemore and James Gandolfini. The best scene in "True Romance" is between Actor's Studio pros Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walken. Hopper plays Clarence's father, an ex-cop, who is about to die at the hands of Walken's mob chieftain. Hopper explains the ancestral lineage of Italian gangsters that goes as far back as the blacks in Africa, and it is such a tense, electrifying scene that it remains a classic of its own in true Tarantino fashion.
"True Romance" has some fine moments, but its overall effect is numbing and cold-blooded to the core. As well-made as it may be, it manages to leave out the humanity that was so central to Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" and "Jackie Brown." Not a boring film overall but never truly enticing either.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at http://buffs.moviething.com/buffs/faust/
E-mail me with any questions, comments or general complaints at jery@movieluver.com or at Faust667@aol.com
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