Back in the early 90's there was a whole slew of these criminal/murderer
lovebirds road trip movies: WILD AT HEART, THELMA & LOUISE, TRUE ROMANCE,
NATURAL BORN KILLERS, KALIFORNIA,
THE DOOM GENERATION and so on. LOVE AND A .45 is another
one and it tells the story of Watty and Starlene. Watty pays the bills on
their crappy little trailer by doing small time hold up jobs. Starlene
sometimes acts as a diversion. After one job goes horribly wrong (thanks
to their high as a kite buddy, Billy, going nuts and killing a woman), they head
out on the road to Mexico. Of course, if things went according to plan
there wouldn't be much of a movie, so to add to the drama we got some macho
policemen, strung out criminal tough guys and a left for dead but not quite so
dead Billy hot on their trail. That doesn't stop them though from seeing
the sights, getting married, visiting Starlene's folks and even stopping off to
buy camera film.
I remember seeing this film when it came out and enjoying it, but watching it
now it doesn't hold up very well. There's very little action and I never
once got a feeling that Watty or Starlene were ever in much trouble. The
whole movie Starlene's just giggling away. You would think they were on a
road trip to a petting zoo not on the run for their lives.
Average pace, dated everything, Peter Fonda in a small role, Rene Zellweger
actually looking attractive, a nod to
PINK FLAMINGOS, nice looking old cars, $279 VCR's, nice Texas scenery, a skull tattoo,
Jeffery Combs as a mobster bill collector, fork to neck stabbing, a young Gil
Bellows and a soundtrack featuring stuff like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Mazzy
Star, The Reverend Horton Heat and Johnny Cash.
For a low-budget movie you could definitely do worse, but I wouldn't go
out of my way to watch it.
