Love and a .45 (1994)

A terrific performance by Renee Zellweger and a couple of amusing cameos are the brightest spots in this jokey mixture of outlaw romance and the old ultra-violence. Zellweger struts and sasses her way through a part whose brassiness flies in the face of her later, more vulnerable roles, while hippie survivor Peter Fonda and Texan actress Ann Wedgeworth (vivacious Lana from Three's Company) have fun as her trashy, nouveau riche parents. Gil Bellows tries his best to enliven the part of the protagonist, but really, his Watty Watts is just another of those interchangeable '90s antiheroes -- an opportunist with a handsome face and a few stray scruples. Writer/director C.M. Talkington stages an audacious and amusing opening sequence in which Watts schools a hapless teen convenience-store clerk in the ways of the world. But from there, it's mostly wink-nudge shoot-em-ups and stock lovers-on-the-lam horseplay. Rory Cochrane does attack the role of Billy Mack Black with a lot of conviction; it's hard not to love the character's inventive way of shooting up speed with a tattoo needle. But there's too much of Brad Pitt's similar turn in Kalifornia in Cochrane's portrayal, and, despite a more assured tone, too much of that film's also-ran aura in general. Love and a .45 isn't necessarily derivative of Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone, but it certainly taps into the same zeitgeist as those directors. Unfortunately, it does so with less originality and style. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide