True Romance

True Romance (1993)

  • 91% of critics liked it
    (45 reviews)

  • 90% of users liked it
    (161,589 ratings)

Quentin Tarantino scripted this wild and wooly blend of action and dark comedy, which reached theaters a year before his breakthrough hit Pulp Fiction. Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) is a well-meaning but socially unskilled comic-shop clerk whose idea of a big night out is catching a Sonny Chiba… More

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R, 1 hr. 56 min.
Directed By
Tony Scott
Written By
Quentin Tarantino
Genres
Drama, Action & Adventure, Mystery & Suspense
In Theaters
Sep 10, 1993 Wide
On DVD
Sep 30, 1997
Warner Bros.

Critic Reviews

  • Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine

    If shoot-'em-up, gobble-'em-down movies like The Fugitive and Jurassic Park are rated PG-13 these days, what does an R-rated action adventure look like? Like True Romance: violent to a fault, glam to the max.

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    Provides some amazing encounters, bravura acting turns and gruesome carnage. But it doesn't add up to enough.

  • Janet Maslin, New York Times

    This film's various outrages are committed unapologetically, and are very much in the service of its bizarre story.

  • Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

    It's Tarantino's gutter poetry that detonates True Romance. This movie is dynamite.

  • Desson Thomson, Washington Post

    Sifting through the bloody, pulpy trash of True Romance -- should you care to -- you'll find amusing, smart-alecky nuggets planted by screenwriter Quentin Tarantino.

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Daniel L


    Don't let the title fool you, this isn't some sappy love story, its a thrilling comedy/crime film with jolts of action and violence, coupled with a great script penned by the masterful Quentin Tarantino.

  • Matt G


    One of my favorites. Crisp dialogue, spectacular script, coherent direction, and Christian Slater + Patricia Arquette have True Romance.

  • Tim S


    Most people will argue that True Romance is quite possibly Tony Scott's finest work as a director and you would be hard-pressed to disagree. Tarantino believes, as he mentions in the audio commentary, that Scott's finest work is Revenge. It just goes to prove that Tony Scott… More

  • Mark W


    To fund his directorial debut "Reservoir Dogs", Quentin Tarantino unfortunately had to sell his script for "True Romance" and as good a job as director Tony Scott does here, you can't help but wonder what might have been had Tarantino been given the chance to… More

  • Veronique K


    "true romance" is another hallmark of 90s neo-noir subculture since tarantino rises up with "pulp fiction"...the story of "true romance" is the creation of tarantino's slacker reveries, and the result squeaks outloud as the memoir of a screwy… More

Read all 20 featured audience ratings

Cast

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Trailers & Clips