TxMike I found this one on Netflix streaming movies, when I was searching for Renee Zellweger movies. I like her as an actress, ever since "The Whole Wide World", plus she grew up and went to school right close to us, in Katy, Texas just off the western edge of metropolitan Houston. I found this in a 1997 Texas Monthly feature: " All reliable evidence suggests that she (Zellweger) did not dream of being on the silver screen from day one. Growing up in Katy, she was more jock than drama queen, running track and cross-country and playing basketball. When she left Katy to attend the University of Texas at Austin, she wanted to be a writer. As an English major, she says, "I went all over the place, from Puritanism to British lit to the Victorians, to Hawthorne to Faulkner to name it." When she began to act at age twenty, it was to pay the bills; doing commercials for beer companies and fast-food restaurants may have been an unglamorous grind, especially with all the trips to Dallas to audition for parts she didn't get, but it was preferable to work-study or the lucrative but equally unglamorous time she spent as a waitress in the Austin topless bar Sugar's. "She certainly has had an interesting path to stardom. Here she is the half-wit girlfriend of an ex-con, Gil Bellows as Watty Watts. Zellweger's character is Starlene Cheatham . One of Watty's ex-con friends is Rory Cochrane as Billy Mack Black , just about as weird a character as you will find. They are petty thieves in east Texas (areas between Dallas and Tyler, they mention) and when one robbery goes especially bad, and the clerk is shot and killed, everyone goes on the run. Eventually heading for Mexico, leaving a trail of dead bodies. Peter Fonda has a small but interesting role as Starlene's dad, Vergil Cheatham, who early in his life had his vocal chords ripped out, and now uses a type of vibrator held to his throat to speak, of sorts. This is not a good movie by any usual stretch of the imagination. Almost every scene has one crook or the other pointing a gun at someone's head, and everyone spouting foul language. It seems it is supposed to be a dark comedy of sorts, I enjoyed seeing Zellweger in her early 20s and just getting started in her career, but I could not recommend this to anyone for any other reason.

Red-Barracuda Back in the early 90's there seemed to be a plethora of films about young outlaw couples on the run from the law. They were a combination between the road movie and the crime-thriller. Wild At Heart, True Romance, Natural Born Killers and even Thelma and Louise are examples of this phenomenon. Who really knows why they were so popular, but whatever the reason, Love and a .45 is yet another one from this cycle. I think it would be only fair to say that it's a minor entry, and it doesn't compare too favourably with those other movies mentioned above.Also in common with these other flicks, this one has a pretty strong emphasis on humour too. And perhaps this is one of the main flaws because, generally speaking, most of the supposed laughs aren't that funny. Its dependent on its characters who are supposed to be quirky and left-field enough to raise a smile. But the two gangsters and the psychotic 'friend' are mainly pretty annoying; while Peter Fonda's hippy dad may talk through a voice box but that accounts for one initial smile and gets old fast - he's essentially a one joke character.The story is a fairly generic bit of crime fiction. Its certainly serviceable although not especially memorable on its own terms. In the movie's favour is the fact that it does have a fast pace and it never truly outstays it welcome. That said, it isn't really too much of a shock that director C. M. Talkington didn't go on to forge a film career, as his direction of everything isn't too good. There is some potential here for a much more entertaining story but the writing, the performances and the direction aren't strong enough to make it so. Overall, this isn't a bad film particularly but its no more than a fairly mediocre entry in a well-worn sub-genre.

cblizard Ack! Ack!! I think I coughed up a hairball at the moment I realized the scriptwriter really was trying to pen a love story and not simply another violent comedy piece. there was a heavy whiff of "Natural Born Killers" of course, but it really almost copied "Pulp Fiction" exactly. both "Love..." and "Pulp Fiction" were done in 1994, according to a quick Google. "Love..." seems to be a caricature of Pulp Fiction, especially regarding the soundtrack, which was good but could not even hope to salvage a particularly horrific script. I'm hoping someone can tell us what movie(s) might have spawned this particular genre of comedy-thriller that seems to require a battery of guns, violence, sex, cool-drug music and surf music, drugs and way-too-cool lines. Please drop in a Comment. Thx.

thunderway The only reason to watch this is to complete a study of Renee Zellewegger's work.It's a B movie. Don't read the reviews and then think you will see anything near the value of Tarantino or Stone even at their worst. I cannot understand how this movie could even be compared to True Romance, for instance. TR is amazing--brilliantly written and packed with excellent performances by too many good actors to list. This one has Renee in a forgettable part. That's it. Gil Bellow is mis-cast entirely. The acting is mostly sub-par, caricature. Cinematography 101. Even Renee delivers a so-so performance, but she's never unwatchable, which again is my reason for seeing it. There just isn't much entertainment value at all. Unless you know someone on the production, or maybe for study purposes, you should definitely pass on this one.