10 Underrated Movies With Jaw-Dropping Ensemble Casts

3. True Romance

Tony Scott refuses to waste any of the actors from the unusually large roster pool he acquired for his glamorous shoot-em-up, and Quentin Tarantino writes just enough material to give everyone at least one standout moment. A still-relevant Christian Slater and on-the-rise Patricia Arquette play the Bonnie and Clyde (or Sid and Nancy, depending on your vantage point) of our story, and although Slater's performance is a bit of a letdown, Arquette plays a maniacal damsel like an absolute ace. There are plenty of actors playing against type, most notably Gary Oldman as a jive-talking, Rastafarian-looking pimp and Brad Pitt as a couch-surfing burnout, but it's those who play the types of characters they're most famous for that leave a lasting impact. In their limited screen time together, Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper don't even try to break the mold, but still give performances that completely overtake everything that happens before and after it. Also showing up in slight variations of their signature roles: James Gandolfini as a psychotic mobster, Samuel L. Jackson as a smack-talking don juan, Michael Rapaport as a naive doofus, Tom Sizemore as a bullying authority figure, and Val Kilmer as the enigmatic phantom of Elvis Presley. Also on board is Chris Penn, who didn't have any other plans when shooting started.