U Turn
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.94 You Save: $5.05 (51%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $1.56 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of U Turn
Movie Review: Not Stone's best, but thoroughly entertaining
Summary: 4 Stars
Anyone who doubts Jennifer Lopez's acting abilities, as I once had, needs to see this movie. In this movie, she shifts from seductive and manipulating to vulnerable and desperate and back again with surprising ease. Jennifer Lopez can be a good actress when she isn't stuck in a bad movie.
And now to the rest of the film. U Turn treads on familiar territory of the mysterious drifter Bobby (Sean Penn) who, on his way to pay his debt to some kind of mob boss, finds himself stranded in a creepy desert town. He quickly becomes enraptured with the town sex object Grace (Lopez) whose husband (Nolte) catches them together. But instead of getting mad, Grace's husband asks Bobby to kill her so that he can cash in on her life insurance. When Bobby is robbed at a convenience store, he is left without the money he owes to the mob, so he takes up the offer to kill Grace. Thus begins a very complicated and violent series of events.
My only complaints are the underused characters of the wild-child town Lolita (Claire Danes) and her very short-tempered boyfriend (Joaquin Phoenix). It is kind of funny, though, to see Joaquin Phoenix basically dressed like Johnny Cash in a scene where "Ring of Fire" is played in the background.
U Turn also treads on a lot of the same metaphorical territory as Stone's Natural Born Killers--the desert, dead animals, prophetic Native Americans, etc. In this way it sometimes feels like a rehash of Natural Born Killers; and if I hadn't seen that movie, I'd probably like U Turn even more. But the story is gripping enough and the performances are intense enough that the movie is definitely worth watching.
Movie Review: Guilty, gritty pleasure
Summary: 4 Stars
Sunday, April 18, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Guilty, gritty pleasure. Admittedly, U-Turn is a guilty, gritty pleasure. It's one of those movies that has a compelling but amoral anti-hero protagonist, much like another in this genre, `Romeo is Bleeding'. Like that film, we witness the disintegration, physical and mental of the main character whose vices have finally caught up with him with a vengeance. Oliver Stone's splice and hack techniques work wonderfully and the amazingly strong cast seems to be having a ball with the seedy story. Sean Penn is Bobby on his way to pay off gambling debts after having his two fingers cut off by Russian gangsters. His 64 Mustang blows a radiator hose in the podunk town of Superior, AZ. While there he gets rolled, loses his cash, endures further physical abuse and is tempted to kill numerous people, from J-Lo, to Billy Bob Thornton, to Nick Nolte, to Joaquin Phoenix. The interactions are comical in their depravity, this film really straddles genres, flowing from noir to black comedy and back. No one trusts anyone and incredibly you feel sorry for Bobby as the film reaches its crescendo. The more I think of it, the more it conceptually mirrors Romeo is Bleeding with Penn and Oldman's weak, amoral central characters at the mercy of the strong females in J-Lo and Lena Olin. I think it's good for a viewing ever so often, more would be too exhausting and make one feel a bit too dirty. Recommended.Movie Review: My two-cents worth...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a great, dark, funny, scary, roller-coaster ride of a modern noir B-movie that felt like it was discovered in Jim Thompson's waste paper bin. It might be pastiche, but it's entertaining pastiche. I don't know! Give you people a good film and, firstly, you don't go and see it and, secondly, if you do catch it on DVD, all you do is moan, moan, moan, not even like would-be critics but distributors or accountants. Everyone knows by now that the B pictures are usually much better than the A pictures. Now, of course, they make B pictures with A budgets. True pulp should be made for chump change, not $20 million, with big stars. For me, Stone is interesting but deeply flawed. He just loves the big subject. Here he has virtually no subject at all, and it's great fun seeing him take a breather and let his hair down. I understand this did no, or little, business but now has cult status, which is justice of a sort and probably the best you can hope for these days. Hay, lighten up. Have a few beers and slip it on the DVD. If you're disappointed then you have no taste and deserve what the studios throw at you. By the way, I'm an English noir fan. What do I know?Movie Review: Twisted
Summary: 4 Stars
Sean Penn plays a small time crook, trying to make it to heaven with somebody else's cash in his backpack. Heaven I guess would be someplace where you can live in saftey and spend that money you stole. But he is on the road to hell and there's no u turn. He's had to fingers plugged off by hedge clippers and the rest of the hand waiting for its turn if he gets caught by some Vegas thugs. His car breaks down somewhere in Hell and things go from bad to worse. The film is somewhat plot driven. The characters have to go with the plot which is sad, because these are marvolous characters and actors. Stone's film tech is great and he makes a graphic visual display, but the plot is somewhat small and weak. Lopez plays the vixen who is beyond twisted after surviving what seems to be a horrific life. Borderline behavior to the max, no trust is branded on her forehead. Penn just keeps bouncing up after being delivered through worse and worse scenarios of bad luck, as I said plot driven characters. Oh well, the acting and the direction push this up to a 4 star, overall its worth viewing because it is so wigged out. Lisa Nary
Movie Review: An overlooked Oliver Stone film with a twisted plot and first-rate cast
Summary: 4 Stars
Oliver Stone's U Turn is a small town Arizona story with love crosses and plot twists galore. A drifter (Sean Penn) breaks down in the Arizona back-woods and gets entangled with a spitfire (Jennifer Lopez) who wants to leave her twisted, abusive husband (Nick Nolte). The husband, on the other hand, wants his wife murdered. The town mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton) is a greasy local who dislikes city slicker outsiders and doesn't aim to make Penn's character's life any easier. Our hero also gets mixed up with a cute local waitress (Claire Danes) seeking refuge from her abusive boyfriend (Joaquin Phoenix).
The movie is a day-in-the-life-of look at a strange little desert town with hidden undercurrents and long-standing family secrets. With an all-star cast and plot upheavals galore, the viewing is a full-on thrill-ride. Highly recommended. Also check out Clay Pigeons.