TRUE ROMANCE ***

"True Romance" is Tony Scott's best film but I suspect that has more to do with Quentin Tarantino's input, (he wrote it), than Scott's for this is a movie that fits very nicely into the Tarantino oeuvre. As the title attests it's a boy and girl romance albeit one whose lineage can be traced all the way back to "Bonnie and Clyde" in contemporary American cinema up through pictures like "Badlands", (check out the score), and  "Wild at Heart". The lovers on the lam are Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, (both terrific), and the superb supporting cast also includes Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. Of course, it's chock full of references to other movies, (Tarantino is nothing if not referential), and boasts a great rock 'n roll score; it's brilliantly photographed in glorious day-glo colours by Jeffrey L Kimball and it's eminently quotable. It's also very funny and extremely violent but then that's only to be expected. It's cult status is guaranteed.