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Old 08-11-2016, 07:54 AM   #153
teh b0lly!!1
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True Romance

http://www.impawards.com/1993/poster...mance_ver1.jpg

reading about movies the other day, i was surprised to find out Tarantino had written scripts for two movies (this one, and Natural Born Killers) that he didn't direct. i was previously under the impression that he only wrote stuff he had the eventually directed himself - not that he started out selling scripts to hollywood studios. anyway, it is my understanding that he did want to direct it, but eventually it ended up in the hands of Tony Scott.

well, it is most certainly unmistakable that this is an early 90's Tony Scott film. shiiiieett. it's a pretty bizarre cinematic experience to watch all these characters spout out tarantino's (circa 1991 - still raw and underdeveloped) dialogue, but have it SO drastically stylistically different.

and when i say different, i definitely mean WORRRRSEEEEE. 90's cinematic traits definitely don't stand up very well against the test of time. for better or worse (probably a bit of both at this point), things today are much more meta, more sophisticated, more aware. sometimes that's to a fault, but in this movie (as with countless other 80's-90's movies) everything is horifically simplified, cliched, bloated and synthesized in such a trademark 90's way.

any line of dialogue becomes campy in Scott's hands, with every character constantly validating the shit the other character said just a moment before that in some way ("u so funny bro!". "i love this kid, he so crazy!". "this guy iz a pro guyz". etc). every single shot is pumped with that distinct 90's summer hit adrenaline, nothing feels real or credible in even the most remote way.

the only moments that it picks up, are some of the 'action sequences'. Tony Scott is obviously an early version of Michael Bay (barring Thelma and Louise, which suffers from some of the same ailments, but ends up working), so the action parts he does step up to. some of the standoffs in this film that are genuinely exhilarating (patricia arquette vs. tony soprano, christian slater vs. gary oldman). but they're much too few and far between to make this movie worthwhile.

actually, this is a particularly interesting watch, in a way - not every day you get to see what a movie would look like, if you frankensteind a trademark feature of one prominent director's filmmaking, and put it in the hands of a very different director. makes you realize how much subtlety goes into a good director's work (and tarantino, in his prime, had it in spades).

anyway the whole movie is hindered even further by christian slater's insufferable punchable face. seriously one of the fucking worst 90's faces. he's got that punchable face thing down to perfection. i just wanna fucking pound that face with a grand piano. or at least print out his face, post it on the kind of punching bags that bounce back, and go rampant on it until i pass out. just look at that shit

https://nickshell1983.files.wordpres...transplant.jpg

i only intended to type a few sentences.

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 08-11-2016 at 08:00 AM.

 
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