By TeeJay Small
| Published 53 seconds ago

If you’re a sucker for a good crime thriller, you’re probably already aware of the hit 1993 movie True Romance. This genre-defining film is packed to the gills with foul language, graphic violence, and some supernatural themes that make the whole thing feel like a fever dream lost in time.

Though it was considered a box office failure in its day, True Romance has since garnered a massive cult following. If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, or you’ve streamed it, now is the right time. Netflix just added True Romance.

Long before True Romance was dancing across the silver screen and upsetting the prudes at the MPAA, the film was being penned by a young, up-and-coming Quentin Tarantino. This is the very first feature-length screenplay the Pulp Fiction filmmaker ever wrote. Portions of the first act and some of the pop culture-focused dialogue were lifted right out of Tarantino’s own unreleased short film, My Best Friend’s Birthday, which he made while working at a video rental store in Los Angeles.

Tarantino originally intended to direct True Romance himself, but by the time the script was gaining traction with producers, he had already moved on to a new project that would ultimately become Reservoir Dogs. So he sold the screenplay, used the money to finance his own debut, and let Top Gun director Tony Scott take the wheel.

This has become the subject of tons of debate among film nerds, as some fans believe True Romance is a shadow of what it could have been with Tarantino behind the wheel. Others, including Tarantino himself, have lauded Tony Scott for bringing the intense screenplay to life and offering a more saccharine ending than what was originally on the page.

The plot of True Romance centers on a young couple named Clarence and Alabama. They meet at a movie theater, quickly fall in love, and decide to skip town together after a whirlwind date. The only problem is, Alabama is a woman of the night, and her pimp Drexl Spivey doesn’t take kindly to the loss of revenue.

Prompted by the ghost of Elvis Presley, Clarence murders Spivey and snags a duffle bag of blow from his workplace, hoping he can sell it off to finance his new life. Predictably, the young couple’s troubles don’t end there, as they contend with gang members, police, and a world that seems to want to keep them apart.

The whole adventure feels like a very 90s take on the classic tale of Bonnie and Clyde, complete with some added racy elements. For many fans, True Romance represents the gold standard of crime thrillers.

Christian Slater gives a career-defining performance here, alongside top-tier showings from Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, and Christopher Walken. Several big-name actors appear in minor bit parts as well, including Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, and the late James Gandolfini, of The Sopranos fame.

Whether you’re a die-hard fan or you’re looking to catch it for the very first time, you can watch True Romance on Netflix today. Just prepare to hear some really outlandish stuff, especially if you’ve got any Sicilian ancestry.

TRUE ROMANCE REVIEW SCORE

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 9 seconds ago

To this day, William Shatner remains the face of Star Trek. It was his weirdly compelling performance that helped transform The Original Series into a breakout pop culture hit. Later, it was Shatner’s charisma that gave the TOS movies their charming mainstream appeal. Shatner’s Captain Kirk is such an iconic figure that the franchise has tried to bring him back to life with multiple actors. But for all their talents, performers like Chris Pine and Paul Wesley could never match Shatner’s iconic (and certainly iconoclastic) performance. Because of that, the producers of the most popular current Trek show did their best to put Shatner’s Kirk onscreen again.

We first found out about this when Shatner himself mentioned being approached by some unnamed Star Trek producers. Recently, NuTrek guru Alex Kurtzman and some of his fellow producers gave an interview to Polygon where they admitted that they made an effort to bring Shatner back for Season 4 of Strange New Worlds. It would have been quite fitting: not only is SNW one big love letter to The Original Series, but this year is the 60th anniversary of the franchise. Unfortunately, Kurtzman and company couldn’t make it happen, which makes it official: after decades of producers trying to bring him back, William Shatner will never return to Star Trek, the franchise that made him famous.

Strange New Worlds And A Familiar Actor

Strange New Worlds is a prequel to Star Trek: The Original Series that focuses on the adventures of Captain Pike, who commanded the Enterprise’s first five-year mission. The show features several new actors playing familiar characters, including Ethan Peck as Spock and Anson Mount as Spock. Paul Wesley plays the younger Kirk, which leaves the obvious question: how, exactly, was the show going to bring back the 95-year-old William Shatner to play the same character? Through the magic of the multiverse, of course!

In an interview with Polygon, Strange New Worlds co-showrunner Akiva Goldsman said that his biggest regret was that they never managed to bring William Shatner to homage the Original Series episode “City on the Edge of Forever.” This is the famous episode where Kirk falls in love with a woman whose activism keeps America out of World War II, allowing the Nazis to rule the world. To save the future, Kirk is forced to let her die. Goldsman wanted an SNW episode portraying Shatner as a version of Kirk who had stayed in the past to stay with the woman he loved, the future be damned.

Mirror, Mirror, On The Screen

According to Akiva Goldsman, the Strange New Worlds writers developed several scripts and tried to bring William Shatner each season, but it never happened. Now that Strange New Worlds has wrapped production, and no new Trek series is on the horizon, it’s unlikely we’ll see Shatner play Captain Kirk on the small screen again. Plus, given that Paramount wants to reboot Trek as a film with completely new characters, we’re equally unlikely to see Shatner’s Kirk on the big screen again. This is doubly sad because different Star Trek producers have been trying to bring him back for decades.

When Star Trek: Enterprise was first airing, William Shatner himself approached Trek guru Rick Berman with an idea. Over lunch, the actor pitched the idea of a two-part episode that returned to the Mirror Universe and showed the evil version of Captain Kirk as an older man. It was a great idea, but there was just one problem: Shatner was asking for too much money. While he didn’t name an exact amount, Berman told The Shuttlepod Show that “the number was probably 8x more than the studio had any interest in.” However, Manny Coto liked Shatner’s idea, which is why we did eventually get a two-part Mirror Universe episode, albeit without Captain Kirk.

He’s Not Dead, Jim!

After Enterprise prematurely ended, fans worried that the franchise might be dead. Fortunately, Star Trek (2009) brought everyone’s favorite Original Series characters back with new actors, new stories, and an entirely new universe (the Kelvinverse) to play in. Leonard Nimoy appears to help pass the baton to yet another new generation of Trek performers, and writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman originally wrote a scene where Spock had a pre-recorded “happy birthday” message from Shatner’s Kirk. But Shatner wanted a prominent role where Kirk was somehow still alive, suggesting the writers canonize his novels where Kirk is resurrected. Feeling that more Shatner would overshadow the younger performers, Orci and Kurtzman wrote him out of the film altogether.

Without William Shatner, Star Trek would likely have never become such an outsized pop culture phenomenon. Previously, his returns (first, in The Animated Series, and again in the TOS movies) helped reinvigorate the franchise, and he played a major part in helping the Next Generation cast transition their characters from TV to film. Clearly, Shatner never lost his love for Kirk: not only did he make multiple attempts to return via TV and film, but he wrote (along with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens) an entire series of books about Kirk coming back to life and having more crazy interstellar adventures.

Outside of books, though, it seems like Kirk’s Star Trek adventures have come to an end. He won’t pop up in Strange New Worlds, and he’s deeply unlikely to make any kind of appearance in Paramount’s upcoming reboot film. That’s unfortunate for all of us who would love to see this iconic performer play his most famous character, one last time. Whether or not Shatner ever makes a triumphant return, though, we’ll always remember him for two things. First, boldly going where no actor has gone before. And second, letting generations of fans tag along for the ride!

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 16 seconds ago

Star Trek has always been known for its very progressive politics. Because of this, it wasn’t that surprising to see the January 6th attack on America’s Capitol portrayed in Strange New Worlds as part of the events that ultimately led to World War III. The message is so clear that even Geordi LaForge can see it: that this attack by supporters of Donald Trump is part of a regressive, backwards way of thinking that we’ll need to leave in the past in order to achieve our own Utopian future.

Interestingly, however, an earlier series almost had its own January 6th-style controversy. In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “The Hunted,” we meet Roga Danar, a super-soldier who has been enhanced by the same government that tries to forcibly exile him. Eventually, he liberates some of his fellow soldiers and storms the Capitol of the planet that betrayed him. This attack was going to involve violence and bloodshed, but a dramatic final confrontation was cut for budgetary reasons. Nonetheless, the episode ends with Picard beaming away, basically encouraging the armed insurrectionists to either force their demands to be met or topple the corrupt government altogether.

You Say You Want A Revolution

“The Hunted” is an unconventional TNG episode that begins with the Enterprise visiting a planet petitioning for Federation membership. The planetary PM asks Picard to apprehend a runaway fugitive. The Enterprise crew manages to do so, but not before the mystery man nearly holds off the forces of the Federation flagship on his own. Counselor Troi discovers that this man, Roga Danar, is a super-soldier who was enhanced by his government, but they forcibly relocated him and his fellow soldiers after the war ended. He eventually escapes, frees some fellow soldiers, and confronts the prime minister, demanding to be allowed home. Picard beams away due to the Prime Directive, leaving the PM to fight for himself.

Obviously, this Next Generation episode premiered decades before the January 6th attack on the American Capitol. In retrospect, though, it’s fascinating to note some of the surface-level similarities. Both the fictional story and the real-life incident involved those who felt wronged by their elected leaders invading and occupying government spaces. In each instance, those doing the occupying were armed and dangerous. Unlike the January 6th attack, nobody died during the climax of “The Hunted,” but only because of budget cuts. Both episode director Cliff Bole and showrunner Michael Piller later confirmed that the episode was originally going to end with a big, Rambo-style confrontation where the invaders opened fire on government forces.

The Beginning Of The End (Of The World)

More interesting, however, is Picard’s decision to beam away, leaving the corrupt Prime Minister and his staff to their fates. This is very much in line with Star Trek’s Prime Directive, but it’s wild that we don’t know what happens after the end of the episode. For all we know, Roga Danar and his men are just systemically executing government forces by the time Picard gets back to the bridge. This Next Generation episode seemingly endorses the idea of letting such civil conflicts work themselves out. Decades later, however, Strange New Worlds would take the opposite stance on January 6th, implying it’s important for government authorities to quell these conflicts in the name of peace and unity.

That’s not necessarily as crazy as it seems, of course. Star Trek’s perspective on various issues often changes owing to different creators taking the reins and different ideas becoming more mainstream and acceptable. “The Hunted” was a loose allegory for Vietnam, but the writers and producers didn’t let that keep them from crafting a standalone story that made no definitive, sweeping statements about geopolitics. By contrast, Strange New Worlds devoted its first episode to making the January 6th attacks and, by extension, Donald Trump, a canonical part of the events that nearly destroyed the world. 

Making Trump the cause of World War III? Hey, nobody ever accused the NuTrek writers of subtlety!