My Review: True Romance (9/10)

"If you gave me a million years to ponder, I would never have guessed that true romance and Detroit would ever go together."

I would never have guessed that Tony Scott and Quentin Tarantino would ever go together, but what a pleasant surprise this romantic crime thriller turned out to be. Thanks to a sharp and witty script and entertaining characters True Romance was extremely cool. The best way I can describe this film is to take Patricia Arquette's character's words and sound like a broken record: all I could think of while watching this film was Quentin Tarantino you are so cool; Tony Scott you are so cool; every single actor in this film you are so cool, True Romance you are so cool. I can't believe I had to wait 21 years to get around to watching this considering how big of a Quentin Tarantino fan I am (and I'm also a huge fan of Tony Scott's work in Man on Fire). Tarantino's energetic script and Scott's stylized direction blended perfectly in this near masterpiece. The cast is absolutely brilliant here and there are so many memorable characters and scenes in this film. I think I enjoyed this film more watching it for the first time now than if I would have seen it in 1993 considering there are so many familiar faces that I probably wouldn't have recognized back then. Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Samuel L. Jackson, James Gandolfini, and Chris Penn all have small but memorable roles. Oldman is barely recognizable playing a pimp with dreadlocks and a glass eye, but it is a unique performance. Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette give the performance of their careers here; it's a shame Slater has been in so many terrible films in the past decade because his performance here was promising. Arquette is adorable as Alabama and I can't think of another sweeter performance than hers. There is so much energy and charm in this film that it's hard to resist. Like good wine, True Romance will probably age better over time considering I couldn't believe how much fun I was having watching an early 90's film for the first time. True Romance you are so cool!

Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) is a comic book store clerk who also happens to be a martial arts film buff. He plans to spend his birthday as he always does, at the movies, watching a triple feature of Sonny Chiba. What he doesn't expect is that he will find the love of his life there. While he is watching the film, a pretty woman walks into the theater spilling her popcorn all over him. She apologizes and introduces herself as Alabama (Patricia Arquette). The two fall in love with each other after she opens up to him about her true identity. This leads them through a series of dangerous adventures involving pimps (Gary Oldman), the Sicilian mafia (Christopher Walken, James Gandolfini), drug dealers (Samuel L. Jackson), police officials (Chris Penn, Tom Sizemore), and Hollywood producers (Saul Rubinek, Bronson Pinchot). The film is full of energy and thrills as the two lovers face several obstacles along the way. Thankfully, Clarence seems to have a mentor on his side to guide him: an apparition of his idol Elvis Presley (Val Kilmer) who is sort of his conscious.

Even if you aren't a huge fan of Tarantino you could still enjoy True Romance for all the beloved actors in this film that weren't probably big Hollywood names back then. The film moves so quickly and the script is so energetic that It makes for a very entertaining watch. There are so many memorable scenes in this film, like the face off between Gary Oldman and Christian Slater, the group mexican standoff, and the violent hotel scene involving Gandolfini and Arquette, but the real scene stealer would have to be the one in which Dennis Hopper, who plays Clarence's father, is ambushed by Christopher Walken and his gang and they have a not so friendly chat about Sicilians. It was a pure Tarantino moment and there are a lot of these great dialogues that allow for the film to have such a great pace and move along so nicely. The style and characters in this film make it such a unique experience and film lovers will enjoy the Hollywood satire as well. I am so glad I finally got to see this wild and romantic film. This is another reason why Tony Scott will be missed.

My Review: Apocalypse Now Redux (7/10)

¨I love the smell of napalm in the morning.¨

There is no doubt that Apocalypse Now will be considered by many as one of the best films of all time because it is a very memorable and unique film. It feels surreal at times and has some great performances. It`s also hard to define what genre the film belongs to because it doesn’t seem to have a structure or a pattern we find in other films. Apocalypse Now is a classic and powerful film, but I really wasn’t blown away by it and didn’t enjoy it very much. The problem I had with it was that I watched the Redux version which is almost one hour longer than the original, so there were several moments that seemed to drag forever. What I did enjoy about this movie was the first hour which I felt was an absolute masterpiece. Those first sixty minutes were a lot of fun and had the best moments in the movie. Then the next two hours dragged way too much with all the surrealism. I got the point, the soldiers were getting crazy over the minute and the film succeeds tremendously in pointing that out as we see how nonsensical this war really was. The minds of these men seemed to be lost completely and there was chaos reigning all over the place. For me nothing will replace those brilliant first sixty minutes with a performance from Robert Duvall for the ages. He was perfect in those few scenes he was in and I wish the film would`ve dealt with him instead. The entrance in the helicopters with the classical music and then the surfing in the middle of the war zone was so hilarious; one of the best scenes in film history. I was really feeling good about this movie, until the film went completely in another direction and lost my interest.

The movie takes place during the Vietnam War and it begins with a voice over narration of the main character, Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen), who has recently returned from the United States to continue fighting. He is beginning to lose his mind while he awaits his mission. He says all he wanted to do when he was in the jungle was return home, and once he was home all he wanted was to return to the jungle. War has taken its toll on him. Finally he receives a new mission from Colonel Lucas (Harrison Ford) that is highly classified. He has to go down the Nung River all the way to Cambodia and find a former Colonel who has seemed to have lost his mind and gone haywire. He has built an army of his own and is killing off several Viet Cong officials without taking orders from anyone. Colonel Lucas wants Captain Willard to locate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) and kill him. Willard is sent on his mission along with a Navy patrol boat to escort him. Chief Phillips (Albert Hall), Chef Hicks (Frederic Forrest), Lance Johnson (Sam Bottoms) a known surfer, and Clean Miller (Laurence Fishburne) are Captain Willard`s only companions on this classified mission. In order to begin their course down the river they first have to infiltrate a Viet Cong outpost so Lt. Kilgore (Robert Duvall) and his cavalry help them do so. As Captain Willard and his men begin their descent through the river they come across several bases (friendly and enemy) and the further down we go the more chaotic and wild things begin to get.

The descent through the Nung River was probably my least favorite part of the film. I enjoyed much more the scenes with Lt. Kilgore and his men that helped them begin their mission. Duvall as Lt. Kilgore steals the movie and he is brilliant in every scene. He is more concerned with surfing than he is with the actual War. It`s as if he is living in an alternate reality. This is just a small glimpse of what we are going to see further on in the movie as we encounter different outposts that seem to get weirder every time. Everything is escalating up to the very end and seems to get more and more chaotic thus making the title, Apocalypse Now, very appropriate. This isn’t your typical war movie, people are losing their minds and the film becomes more and more surreal and harder to fit into one specific genre. Francis Ford Coppola was at the top of his game during the 70`s with The Godfather films and you can see how brilliantly directed the scenes were. The cinematography and lighting was excellent. The reason I don’t give this film a higher grade despite admitting it is a memorable and unique movie is because I really wasn’t entertained that much with it. It would be hard to watch it again, unless I could just see that first hour with Robert Duvall. The all star cast makes it a little easier to watch: Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Harrison Ford, Dennis Hopper, and Laurence Fishburne.

  

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