It's about a shy, comic-book loving dude who loves his triple billed kung-fu flicks, who meets up with a girl who enjoys pie after her movies and is turned on by Mickey Rourke and fall in love. One thing leads to another, and the loving couple are quickly married, as the newfound husband goes to retrieve his new wife's belongings from her old boss who just happens to be...well, a pimp! (yup, she was a prostitute) That leads to a "minor" amount of trouble as the hubby blows away the bad man and mistakenly runs off with his stash of cocaine. The next thing you know, the newlyweds are on the lam with the mob hot on their trail. And yes...true romance (and mucho coolness) ensues.

I guess it depends on your particular taste in movies, but for my money, you ain't gonna find too many better all-around entertaining motion pictures than TRUE ROMANCE. The film's got everything you want in a modern day classic including an engaging story-line chockfull of colorful characters, charismatic actors up the wazoo, a groovy soundtrack, many memorable sequences, quotable dialogue in every other scene, violence, sex, movies, comics, Elvis Presley, coke, Hollywood, pimps, the mafia and everything and anything in between (did I mention Brad Pitt smoking out of a honeybear bong??). It's the kind of movie that I've always been able to watch on even my most down-and-out days (that's right, I watched it again recently) and it always manages to put a smile on my face (or a hard-on in my pocket).

I actually feel sort of guilty choosing only two particular sequences to discuss here, but there are a couple worth mentioning that any die-hard movie geek knows all about. I'm referring to the "showdown" scenes between Slater and Oldman ("Now I know I'm pretty, but I ain't as pretty as a couple of titties."), and the one featuring Walken and Hopper ("..you tell the angels in heaven you never seen evil so singularly personified as you did in the face of the man who killed you.") Watching those scenes, seeing top actors like Gary Oldman and Christopher Walken deliver their stuff among the dozens of doozies written by uber-screenwriter Quentin Tarantino, you just can't help but fall in love with the film's rhythm, its bizarre romance, its many hilarious situations and its scenic over-the-top violence.

I can actually discuss this movie till the cows come home but the truth is that it's really a personal choice and unless any of these actors don't interest you (Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, James Gandolfini, Brad Pitt, Tom Sizemore, Chris Penn, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Rapaport and more-- I'm not kidding), you've never found any of Quentin Tarantino's films exciting (PULP FICTION, RESERVOIR DOGS) or appreciated director Tony Scott's contribution to cinema (CRIMSON TIDE, TOP GUN), this movie is THE ONE THAT YOU SHOULD BE RENTING (OR BUYING) RIGHT NOW! Trust me, it’s got everything “from a diddled-eyed joe to a damned if I know”. A blast…through and through.

Video: Widescreen and kicking that ass. I loved watching this movie as crappy as it was on video, but it's even clearer, even sharper and just that much cooler in digital and widescreen. Thank you Warner Bros.

Audio: Again, the sound is clear and pungent in this disc set, with Dolby making an appearance, as well as DTS.

DISC 1:

Would you believe that there are no less than 3 commentary tracks on this fully-loaded 2-disc set? We get screenwriter and kick-arse director in his own right, Quentin Tarantino, director Tony Scott, as well as Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, all doing their respective full-length dances with this modern day classic twist on romance. Quentin's is definitely the best one of the three, with his typical 100mph delivery, plenty of "uhhhhhms" and a whole lotta info on how he came to be, this track is a must for anyone who loves the man's work, or anyone interested in becoming a screenwriter. Quentin provides minute details about how he wrote the script (he had it written and tried to sell it for five years before anyone showed any interest), comments on many of the scenes and basically, never stops talking! The man sounds like any one of my good "movie geek" buddies and that's always a plus in my book (put him and director Guillermo Del Toro (of BLADE II fame) in a room together and watch movie geek sparks combust!!). Likely to be one of the best commentaries of the year, especially since Tarantino rarely does any commentaries (he didn't even do any on RESERVOIR DOGS (unless you count that "patch job" as one), PULP FICTION or JACKIE BROWN-- movies he actually directed!). All in all, I was entranced the whole way (then again, the dude is one of my own greater personal influences, so take that for what you will) and recommend it to one and all.

The second commentary track was the one featuring the two stars of the movie, and after hearing Quentin burn rubber through his track, this was somewhat of a disappointment. Slater and Arquette rarely speak up during their viewing of the film, other than to pass off complements to their co-stars or to say stuff like "cool" and "remember that". It's obvious that they're not "veterans" at this commentary thang as they spend many moments just watching the movie along with us, and not uttering a single word! Hey kids...it's a comment-ary track...make some comments! They do however provide some small tidbits of trivia along the way, with things to look out for in certain scenes, etc.. Despite its swiss cheese-esque manner, I was still pretty buzzed to hear this twosome's two bits on one of my favorite movies of all-time.

And last, but definitely not least, director Tony Scott provides a solid track, very informative, always talkative with plenty of details for everyone. Some of the stuff that I learned just listening to the first half hour was that Tony originally wanted to do both RESERVOIR DOGS and TRUE ROMANCE, but Quentin told him that he was going to direct the former, that he and Slater didn't see eye-to-eye on his character until Scott told him to watch TAXI DRIVER, after which they both spoke from the same page, and something about a certain "persuader" on the set, which I won't go into detail here, but let's just say that it involves director Scott literally "slapping" Patricia Arquette before certain scenes. Hmmmmm...kinky! On top of the solid commentary track, you can also choose a Storyboard Track, which you can access through your remote, which basically displays Scott's own hand-drawn storyboards as you watch the movie (you can do this while listening to any of the tracks as well). The man apparently wakes up at 4am and draws his storyboards for the day, which apparently were about 900 for this movie. Yet another cool feature ("You are so cool").

DISC 2:

Behind the Scenes (~ 20 minutes): Awesome. I've always wanted to see some behind-the-scenes footage from this film and this loaded featurette is just that. It's actually a 5-minute feature of interviews and footage from the set, but it also allows you to use your remote to go further into certain scenes and watch even more behind-the-scenes stuff from those particular scenes. And would you believe that 2 of the 5 sequences which go even further, are the confrontation scene between Slater and Oldman, and the one between Walken and Hopper? Yup, that's right...two of the best scenes from the movie! It's really cool to see all this stuff, especially when you see how excited the actors are while shooting as well (Slater and Oldman sit around a monitor after their shot and are obviously very proud of what they just accomplished-- or maybe they're just high as kites). All in all, an excellent feature.

More Commentary Tracks (~ 60 minutes): Wow, if anyone out there is wondering if the cast loved this movie as much as we did...check this out (an extra that I haven't seen on too many other dvds). Some of the cast actually went in to record their own smaller commentary tracks for their specific scenes in this movie including the consistently charming Brad Pitt and consistently weird Val Kilmer, both of whom are barely in the film for 5 minutes a piece, as well as Dennis Hopper and Michael Rapaport. Pitt tells an interesting story about how he got the part and how much he still loves the movie, Rapaport talks about how close his character in the movie was to him as an actor in real-life at that time (although he sucks on Brad Pitt's dick way too much in the track-- dude, we get it...he's a good looking, talented man...move past it!), Kilmer is Kilmer and Hopper is actually a little boring and doesn't say much during his awesome scene with Walken. All in all though, it's yet another funky extra to have on a dvd that is begging to be bought!

Deleted & Extended Scenes (~ 30 minutes): I don't think there were too many other movies in the world for which I was impatiently begging to see additional scenes as this movie and RESERVOIR DOGS, two of my favorite flicks of all-time (although if the GOODFELLAS special edition is said to have new scenes...I'll flip!! "Fuck him in the ear...fuck him in the other ear!"). This one didn't let me down as much as RES DOGS (which only had a couple of hum-drum cutouts), with many new scenes making their way onto this disc. Now I have to hand it to director Scott (who you can also listen to during these scenes, or not), the man really made some wise editing decisions here (although ironically, he comments about how he kind of regrets snipping a few of them now that he's watched them over). Many of them are actually extensions of scenes already in the movie, go on for too long and aren't entirely successful. Two specific scenarios which I did like and would have liked to have seen in the pic include Sam Jackson's elongated speech about the wonders of cunnilingus, as well as another scene with Walken delivering some sharp lines, alongside his mobster cronies. Ultimately for me, the entire batch was a joy to finally behold, and once again, I gotta thank Warner Bros and director Tony Scott for slapping them on this dvd for geeky fans like myself. Oh and by the way, if you didn't think there were enough "big names" in the movie, actor Jack Black shows up in one of the deleted sequences.

Alternate Ending (~ 6 minutes): As any fan of this film already knows, the two main differences between Tarantino's written script and the finished product on the big screen were 1) the chronological order of the scenes and 2) the ending. Quentin's finale was a lot darker than the one featured here, and with this dvd set, we get to see how he would have tied things up, along with either his comments or the director's (in a classy gesture, Quentin actually admits that he likes Tony's ending better...."for the movie that Tony made"). I personally liked seeing the alternate ending (most of which was filmed with Arquette, but some of which is shown as storyboards only), but I can't say as I liked it any better than the one featured in the movie (and I don't generally mind dark endings...in fact, I like 'em!). The problem with Tarantino's ending is that it really sort of "betrays" the title of the film and pretty much the whole point of the movie (romance overrides everything, baby!), which in my eyes, was always about the deep love between these two characters. I don't know...it's an interesting addition to the dvd, but I'm actually doubly glad that Scott went with his ending. Good move.

The only real small downside to this disc set is the lame animated menus. I like the fact that they included Hans Zimmer's BADLANDS "inspired" score, but what's with the tacky Clarence and Alabama look-a-likes in the background?? For a movie jam-packed with one memorable scene after the next, you'd think they would have just stuck a few of them in the background instead of some made up jokers dressed like the leads but...I digress. We also get the theatrical trailer (which kicks arse-- I still have no idea why this movie bombed when it was originally released), a photo gallery and a DVD-web feature, which allows you to read the screenplay written by the man himself.

The word "classic" gets brandished about a lot, but if there's one modern day movie that is sure to remain one for generations to come, it's the film which managed to get all of these wonderful people together under one film screen, recite the words telegraphed by one Quentin Tarantino and come up with one of the coolest movies of the past ten years. Top that off with 2 superb commentary tracks (one by QT himself!), some slick behind the scene goodness, plenty of extras like new scenes and lots of commentary by all involved, and this DVD isn't just a basic recommendation on my part, but one of those flicks that every real major movie geek should have front-and-center in their collection. Buy it, own it, hug it, love it...!!