True Romance

Aside from Walken's Vincenzo, there's nothing here worth remembering. The dialogue lacks the bite that Tarantino would later apply to Reservoir Dogs or Pulp Fiction. Even Scott doesn't have the form or ideas of his earlier or future films. Slightly above average, it entertains more in individual scenes than as a whole. (01/31/2005)

Elvis, comics, romance, chatty gangsters. And above all, a couple in love who just wants to improve their lives. So be careful, world, because murder in Alabama seems romantic, and Clarence will do anything for it. Now it's just a matter of having a little luck when several killers are after you, who will stop at nothing, let alone the sight of a gun. And in the end, I couldn't stop myself either. I could have had a thousand complaints that Tarantino is actually the same since his beginnings, the screenplay rushes too quickly from one place to another, and the dialogues are too absorbed in their perfectly nonsensical themes and over-the-top absurdity. But Slater, in his naivety and innocence, is truly a lovable hero, Scott's directing hand is perfectly steady, and the last twenty minutes have tension, surprises, fresh action, emotion – and actually everything. In addition, Zimmer's soundtrack is amazing in that it occasionally lifts the mood, sometimes squeezes the emotions, and even occasionally slides into irony. A genre mishmash and at the same time sharply defined darkly humorous bite-size piece. (10/12/2007)

Although this film is based on Quentin Tarantino's screenplay, it's not something that left a deep impression on me. The film simply didn't entertain me, as if Scott couldn't properly convey what Tarantino intended on screen. Perhaps that's why he later preferred to direct everything himself or leave it to Rodriguez, with whom he simply clicked perfectly. I don't like "True Romance". (04/14/2014)

Even though the material could have been handled better by the director, I still can’t give less than a four to Tarantino’s script. I imagine that the scene with Vincenzo Cocotti would probably have been one of the film’s highlights had Tarantino been the director. Otherwise, it must be the dream of many men (and possibly women) to have such a cute, blonde, indestructible bodyguard who is constantly smiling and always happy to snuggle. Anyway, I enjoyed the film and if the director shared the screenwriter's sense of humor, I would have enjoyed it beyond 5*. (07/30/2017)

A brilliant, almost Tarantino-esque film that fills out beautifully and accurately the ninety-third year, hence the year-long directorial hiatus in Q.T.'s output – a break in the very fruitful period between Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction). I think it's time to look back a bit at the nineties work of perhaps my all-time favorite, Quentin. I've seen Reservoir Dogs, I've seen Pulp Fiction, I've seen Jackie Brown, I've seen Natural Born Killers (which, despite being "just" a Tarantino screenplay, I consider a Tarantino movie in a way). The only thing I missed was True Romance, and I put it off for so long really only because Q.T. didn't end up directing it. However, Tony Scott has some balls too, and once again he took on a superbly layered, thoughtful, and funny script with all the panache he could muster and really managed to wring the most out of the action scenes. The early work of Q.T. was already clearly proving that both in terms of screenwriting (just in the actual construction of the plot) and in terms of being able to get a bunch of interesting characters on screen and create atmosphere through their "mere" actions and behavior, Tarantino was just going to be a whiz. And that Zimmer soft soundtrack in the "romantic" passages was not to be missed! (07/26/2011)