Highly Overrated But Still Good

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Prolific television director Keith Samples doesn't waste moment in his exciting little crime thriller "Love Lies Bleeding" with Christian Slater cast as a corrupt narcotics detective. As just about everybody else has pointed out, this low-budget, Sony Pictures release appropriates the premise of "True Romance" about a young couple on the lam with a vindictive cop on their tail. Brian Geraghty and Jenna Dewan-Tatum couldn't be more sympathetic as two young people who are struggling to eke out a living. She works at a supermarket, while Duke has little luck finding employment An Iraq veteran, Duke ran afoul of the law when he struck a Federal officer. It seems that the authorities were closing a nursing home where Duke's mother was one of the patients. He served a couple of years and got out on parole. Duke and Amber live near a Hispanic hoodlum who likes to steal from them. In fact, Amber walks in on them as they are stealing a television and a VCR. She tries to thwart them and gets beaten up in the process. When Duke sees her battered face, he goes out and gets an automatic pistol and vows to straight the Mexicans out. LAPD Narcotics Detective Pollen (Christian Slater of "Cuffs") pays a visit to Duke's Hispanic neighbors, but it isn't a social call. Instead, Pollen wants a duffel of drug money that he needs to slip back into its property locker at the police department. Pollen and his men walk into the hoodlums and a gunfight erupts. Pollen survives the fracas. While Pollen is strewn in his own blood at the scene of the shoot-out, Duke walks in and spots the duffel stuffed with loot. He grabs the duffel and takes Amber away in a vintage Chevrolet. They are planning to make a new life for themselves with the illicit drug money. The stop at a casino and win even more money. Inevitably, Pollen catches up with them. A shoot-out ensues, but our hero and heroine manage to escape. Nifty little fun.

The lead characters are just plain stupid to the point that the plot is totally unbelievable. Almost every scene reeks of morbid stupidity making suspension of disbelief impossible except to wonder how bad can it be right to the end of this abysmal quagmire. I agree with anyone who hated this movie. Anyone who claims to like this movie must own shares in or be a shill for the production company. If not, please have your head examined, immediately. The character Duke is an absolute puke in this film. The actor who portrays him gives a Rassie worthy performance. I kept waiting for him to show something to no avail. I couldn't bear to watch this stupidity right through to the end. I had to switch to another movie and switched back to see if this disastrous entity had any hope of redeeming itself in the end. It didn't. Dumb and Dumber make this the Dumbest movie I have ever seen and the least worthy of watching, ever.

I don't see how anyone can give this film a good rating and to compare it favourably with True Romance is an insult to that movie and film-making in general. The plot is you're standard 'couple stumble across wads of cash and go on the run'. There's nothing new in this story but that is not what makes it a bad film.What makes this cringe-worthy viewing is the absolutely sloppy writing. The characters (all of them) are made to do such stupid things like leaving bags of cash wide open for all to see, not once, not twice, not thrice...And other things like buying a massively conspicuous getaway car, not locking a car with wads of cash in it. Our heroine in a maid's uniform with a massive and fresh gash on her head allowed to walk past a Police checkpoint who are on the look out for such a person.The list is absolutely endless, and there's even an apparently abandoned but fully functioning, rust and dereliction free power plant.I had given this 3/10 but now that I've written about it I realise that is too generous 2 is all it's worth despite the odd amusing reference to True Romance that has been slipped in.

This film was average because it resembles True Romance too much. A couple looking to make a better life for themselves, stolen cash, bad guys and Christian Slater. The couple are in a rut, he finds some dirty money and the couple set off across the U.S., get married and visit a casino. Bent cops then chase them to get their money. Local law enforcers get involved and a whole load of people all get shot. The likeness to True Romance was evident from the start and the constant 'I love you' between the couple added to this. However, it wasn't as good as True Romance and the fact that it seemed like it was meant to be just like true romance made it worse.But worth a watch if not doing much else. The film was very average and to be honest not worth talking a whole lot about. Having said that, to grade it a 2 out of 10 is unfair and it deserves around a 4. If True Romance had never been made then it may achieve a 6 or 7.