Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		2.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		4.5
Overall		2.5

True Romance Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 21, 2019

Tony Scott's "True Romance" (1993) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film; multiple vintage audio commentaries; alternate ending with optional commentaries by the director and writer; deleted scenes; and more. In English, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

Urgent love

True Romance was first released on Blu-ray by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. in 2009. For an in-depth analysis of the film, please see Ken Brown's review of this release here.

True Romance Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Tony Scott's True Romance arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sony Pictures.

The release uses a different encode of the same remaster that Warner Bros. Home Entertainment used to produce the old, now out of print, release of True Romance in 2009. (You can see our review of the previous release here).

The transition from VC-1 to MPEG-4 AVC has not made a difference, and it could not have because the remaster is atrocious. Basically, there is a blanket filtering from start to finish that instantly collapses depth and eliminates entire ranges of nuances. It is so bad that there are actually nicely-lit close-ups that look awful; the darker/indoor footage is disastrous. What is really sad, however, is that without the filtering the remaster almost certainly would have looked very, very nice. It is actually easy to see that there was plenty of proper depth and zero sharpening that would have made the visuals look artificial. The color balance is also convincing, though this is another area where the filtering has destroyed existing proper nuances. Image stability is excellent. All in all, this film needs a proper remaster to look as it should on Blu-ray. The current presentation is hugely disappointing. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

True Romance Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Optional English and English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The lossless track is excellent, and this makes the awful video presentation even more frustrating. It is immediately clear that the 5.1 track was carefully remixed when the remaster was prepared because clarity, depth, and dynamic intensity are outstanding. In fact, some of the action sequences -- such as the big shootout in the hotel at the very end -- sound quite impressive. The dialog is very clear, clean, and stable.

True Romance Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary One - recorded by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette.

• Commentary Two - recorded by Tony Scott.

• Commentary Three - recorded by Quentin Tarantino.

• Deleted Scenes -
  
  1. At the Movies
  2 Heroes for Sale
  3. He Really Loved Her
  4. Coming Clean
  5. Drexl Does Business
  6. An Amazing Girl
  7. No Cheers
  8. Vincenzo's Vendetta
  9. "We Know What We"re Doing"
  10. Playing "What If?"
  11. Elliot's Motivation

• Alternate Ending - it can be played with two optional commentaries, one by the director, and another by the writer. In English, not subtitled. (7 min, 480/60i).

• Trailer - vintage trailer for True Romance. In English, not subtitled. (2 min, 1080i).

• Promotional Fetaurette - this promotional featurette was prepared in 1993 and features clips from interviews with Tony Scott and cast members, as well as raw footage from the shooting of True Romance. In English, not subtitled. (6 min, 1080i).

• Behind the Scenes Fetaurette - this featurette contains additional interviews with Tony Scott and cast members, as well as raw production footage. In English, not subtitled. (6 min, 1080i).

• Selected Scene Commentaries - mini commentaries recorded by Val Kilmer, Dennis Hopper, Brad Pitt, and Michael Rapaport.

True Romance Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A member of our community reached out and asked if I could do a review of this recent release of Tony Scott's film True Romance from Sony Pictures because the old release that Warner Bros. produced ten years ago is now out of print. So, this release uses a different encode of the old remaster that was used for the first release, which is bad news because its quality is very poor. What is really sad, however, is that the old remaster almost certainly would have produced a very nice release because from what I could tell at one point it must have been very healthy. But, for some unknown reason, it was heavily filtered and it is essentially unusable. To make a long story short, the technical presentation here is different, but the end result is still very disappointing. Hopefully, this very entertaining film will be considered for 4K Blu-ray release in the future, and then it will receive a proper remaster.