Quentin Tarantino wrote this silly, but compulsively watchable, story about a couple--Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette--on the lam from evil druggies. Directed by Tony Scott, True Romance seems at first like a knockoff of Terrence Malick's moody, nostalgic Badlands. But the film soon moves to the top of the hoot meter with Gary Oldman's bizarre portrayal of a dreadlocked drug dealer. Arquette, who endures a tour de force fight to the death with Tom Sizemore, delivers a brave performance. Also watch for the electric scene between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper. With Val Kilmer as "Elvis," and Brad Pitt as a stoned-out roommate. --Rick Schultz

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Like any other Quentin Tarantino-scripted film, True Romance is a wild amalgamation of a number of different B-movie genres. In this story, romance films, road movies and gangster flicks come together in the story of a lonely, comic-book geek Clarence (Christian Slater) who falls in love and marries a prostitute named Alabama (Patricia Arquette). Clarence tries to make peace with her pimp (Gary Oldman), but winds up killing him and accidently picks up a suitcase full of cocaine, mistaking it for Alabama's clothes. With the mob on their trail, the couple hits the road with the intent of selling the cocaine in Los Angeles and  retiring to South America with their profits. Tony Scott directs with style, smoothing out some of the edges--he changed the original ending of the film--but leaving the quirky humor and intense violence intact. The result is a wildly entertaining ride, filled with bizarre humor and intense action, as well as great cameos from Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Bronson Pinchot, Christopher Penn, Brad Pitt and Samuel L. Jackson. -- Stephen Thomas Erlerwine, All-Movie Guide

 
CAST (in credits order):

Christian Slater	Clarence Worley
Patricia Arquette	Alabama Whitman
Dennis Hopper	Clifford Worley
Val Kilmer	Mentor (Elvis)
Gary Oldman	Drexl Spivey
Brad Pitt	Floyd
Christopher Walken	Vincenzo Coccotti
Bronson Pinchot	Elliot Blitzer
Samuel L. Jackson	Big Don
Michael Rapaport	Dick Ritchie
Saul Rubinek	Lee Donowitz
Conchata Ferrell	Mary Louise Ravencroft
James Gandolfini	Virgil
Anna Levine	Lucy
Victor Argo	Lenny