Blu-Ray Review:

True Romance

By Jason Gillard

*Screenshots are not from the Blu-Ray source.

Movie

Current Rottentomatoes.com Score - 92% Fresh: 35 Rotten:3

When inexperienced call girl Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) is paid to seduce comic-book-nerd and Elvis fanatic Clarence Worley (Christian Slater), she doesn't expect to fall for him. But these two lost souls seem to be made for each other and quickly pledge their love, marrying at Detroit's city hall. Clarence discovers some new found bravado and attempts to retrieve Alabama's possessions from her pimp, Drexl (Gary Oldman), who isn't exactly eager to let Alabama go. Fleeing Drexl's apartment, Clarence not only leaves a trail of bodies, but also inadvertently mistakes a suitcase of uncut cocaine for one with his wife's clothing, and the chase is on.

This is a film that I was just introduced to not that long ago.  It's kind of a Bonnie and Clyde on speed.  It's a gangster film, a chase film, and a romance film all rolled into one.  Written by Quinton Tarantino it has a lot of his great dialogue and wacky style.  There are guns firing, brutal beatings and blood flowing which has Tarantino written all over it.  The movie was directed by Tony Scott.  I found this to be a wild ride that was fun from beginning to end.  Gary Oldman is fantastic as Alabama's pimp.  Even a very green Brad Pitt is in this film.  I should warn you though, the violence is excessive, but you should really know that going in.  If you like Tarantino's movies I am sure you will like this one.

8.5 out of 10

Video

True Romance is definitely not one of those films that is going to make you say, "Now this is what I bought a Blu-ray player for".  It is almost certainly an upgrade from the DVD, bought it still suffers from a bunch of problems.  Black levels are inconsistent.  Some scenes show great shadow detail well others don't at all.  Colours are really dull and don't explode off the screen in anyway. I also found that skin tones often look flush, waxy and sort of smeared.  Detail is ok, but again it seems to be inconsistent.  I think fans of this movie will be happy because its an upgrade from the 2002 release, but if I hadn't seen that release I would be wondering to myself why the transfer was such a mess.

6.5 out of 10

Audio

Thankfully the audio is better than the video.  True Romance arrives with a decent 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless track. Considering sound design I am sure was not top notch when this movie was made, the audio track makes a good first impression.  I found the dialogue to be quite clean, making what each of the characters say easy to make out and understand.  Gunfire, tires squealing and other sound effects benefit from the extra oomph the LFE channel now provides.  The rear speakers are active mostly to create ambiance and fill in the sound to make the locations believable.    Overall I think they did a decent job with the audio, making it rise above the flat mix that was the 2002 edition.  Could a more thorough restoration of the sound elements help...sure, but I think fans of the film will be happy with this mix.

8 out of 10

Extras

Here is what's available for extras:

Actors' Commentary
Director's Commentary
Writer's Commentary
Selective Commentaries
Deletions, Extended Scenes, and Alternate Ending
Branching Featurette
Original 1993 Featurette
Theatrical Trailer

Looking at those extras you better like commentaries because half of what's there is that.  Out of all the commentaries I would have to say director Tony Scott's commentary was the most interesting to listen to.  He goes into detail about the production, his reason for doing the movie etc.  The Selective Commentaries are from various actors that were in the movie. They are usually commentating on certain scenes.  The star of these would have to be Brad Pitt who details his time on set in 6 minutes or less.  Some of the deleted scenes are worthwhile and Tony Scott comments on each of them.  The Alternate Ending has Tarantino discussing why they didn't use it.  The Branching Featurette is a feature that lets you click on an icon and it takes you to more additional content.  Overall I think there is some nice content here, but I wish there was more.  All the commentaries are nice but if you're not a fan of those types of extras than you probably will be disappointed.

8 out of 10

Overall

If you're a fan of True Romance you will be picking this Blu-ray up.  If you're like the rest of us, it may not be worth your time unless you can get it at a good price.

7 out of 10