True Romance is ridiculous but it slams you in the gut and it absolutely rocks.
It’s very Pop Thruster coded, in other words.
First of all, if you’ve never seen the Quentin Tarantino-written, Tony Scott-directed 1993 flick, you’re in for a treat. But be warned: it’s super violent, if kind of stylized in a cocaine-fueled fugue state kind of way.
Very early Tarantino as translated by the Top Gun guy trying to outgun himself is what we’re trying to say here.
Part of what takes True Romance to the next level, or the proverbial danger zone, is the wall-to-wall obscenely amazing actors who pack the movie in iconic cameo roles.
This isn’t show up on set for a day, cash a check and bail kind of stuff. This is holy shit I can’t believe Quentin Tarantino wrote the dialog this iconic actor is hurling at us right now.
James Gandolfini as Virgil
Imagine a young Tony Soprano got farmed out as a hitman to the Detroit mob, and then just got way creepier and more sociopathic without Carmela and his New Jersey roots to somewhat grounding him. And then imagine Tarantino writing how this guy would behave and speak.
But that’s only the starting point. It’s pure Gandolfini menace and charisma both at work here in a role that’s barely a scene and a half total (his interaction with Brad Pitt’s Floyd is brief and semi-restrained).
Virgil is a sociopath, sure. But he’s deeply three-dimensional and mesmerizing at the same time. Gandolfini pops off the screen in a movie packed with acting legends.
Bonus: I’ve gone on lengthy riffs with friends purely based on Virgil telling Patricia Arquette’s Alabama that the second time you kill someone, it ain’t no Mardi Gras either.
Gary Oldman as Drexl
While revisiting True Romance recently, deep into the Slow Horses Oldman era, when the dreadlocked, scarred, frightening, and very oddly accented Drexl pops up, I literally said out loud, “This can’t be the same guy, right?”
Note to self: it is the same guy. The same dude embodies Drexl and Jackson Lamb and a panoply of other hyper specific roles like none other.
Bonus: don’t miss the hilarious re-enactment of the True Romance Drexl scene during the pilot episode of Barry, where Bill Hader’s own weirdo hitman character stumbles into the acting class for the firs time.
Also: check out where Barry landed on the best 100 TV shows ever.
Dennis Hopper as Clifford Worley
Playing Clarence’s (Christian Slater) estranged father, it’s one of Hopper’s most restrained and best performance in his storied career. But what most people will rightly remember most is the intentionally super racist story that he tells Christopher Walken’s Vincenzo Coccotti to bait the mob captain into killing him quickly.
Setting aside whether or not the speech itself is problematic by 2025 standards, True Romance frequently puts you in awe of moments like this, where you get to watch legends like Hopper and Walken act together in the same scene.
Brad Pitt as Floyd
It’s Pitt’s single funniest performance in his entire career, bar none, while proving out that he’s often much better and more charismatic in a character role versus as a leading man. There are plenty of examples of this, but I’ll offer up 12 Monkeys and Snatch as other examples.
Bonus: “Get some beer and some cleaning products” is a Gen X anthem.
Chris Penn as Nicky Dimes and Tom Sizemore as Cody Nicholson
These two wired up to gills cops are so hilarious and have so much chemistry together that I deeply regret to this day that we never got a spin-off prequel following them on other deeply misadvised misadventures together.
Saul Rubinek as Lee Donowitz
There’s a reason why The Rewatchables podcast literally named the “award” they hand out to actors who “really dial it up,” over the top intensity-wise, as the “Saul Rubinek Award.”
You need a coked up, arrogant movie producer for your flick? Better call Saul.
Val Kilmer as Elvis Presley
We never actually see Kilmer’s face when he appears a few times as Elvis in Clarence’s imagination, but Val – an incomparable impressionist – crushes it as The King.
Christopher Walken as Vincenzo Coccotti
The really interesting thing about Walken’s performance here is that he sinks into the role – he’s not yet Walken playing a full-blown Walken caricature (which, let’s face it, is fun as hell too).
I’d put that next phase of his career kicking off only a year later, with Pulp Fiction.