U Turn (1997)

U-Turn (1997): Dir: Oliver Stone / Cast: Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Powers Booth, Billy Bob Thornton: A definite mess by director Oliver Stone with stylish shots and editing but no real focus. It seems to address bad decisions that result in fatal consequences. Sean Penn plays a gambler who arrives in a small town. When the money suffers a shotgun blast he frets over the possibility of losing more fingers than the two he already lost. He meets a woman who is being abused by her husband and she makes him a cash offer for his death. Her husband makes him the same offer regarding his daughter. No plot forming but rather just a series of often pointless mishaps. Director Oliver Stone is not focused here despite the fact that the film is well made technically. It isn't focused like his work in Natural Born Killers. Penn displays his desperate anguish as someone caught between the mob, and committing murder and leaving it obvious that there is no positive outcome. Jennifer Lopez as the seductive vixen with a venomous offer provides tension. Nick Nolte plays her sadistic husband who makes an offer of his own. Powers Booth plays the sadistic town Sheriff who also shares a past with the Lopez character. Billy Bob Thornton plays a mechanic who is as strange as everyone else in this film. While the film is somewhat entertaining, it serves as a complete u-turn for Stone. Score: 6 / 10

Bobby (Sean Penn) is on his way to pay off a debt to a gangster who has already taken two fingers. His car breaks down as he pulls into desert outpost Superior, Arizona in the middle of nowhere. He leaves the car with Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton) the mechanic. He hits on Grace McKenna (Jennifer Lopez) but she's actually married to Jake (Nick Nolte) who catches them kissing. After punching him, Jake drives him back to town suggesting a scheme to kill Grace. A robbery at the store ends with his bag of money shot to bits. Darrell has his car ripped apart and wants $150 for the trouble. He calls the gangster who is not happy and sends a thug. At the diner, he talks to Jenny (Claire Danes) which provokes her boyfriend Toby N. Tucker (Joaquin Phoenix). Bobby goes to Jake with a proposal.Director Oliver Stone is throwing everything onto the screen but not enough of it sticks. He fills this with crazy characters. The music and sound is deliberately wacky. He's trying so hard that it almost hurts to watch this. The style is so random that it all gets a bit tiresome. The characters are not compelling and Sean Penn doesn't make me care about his character. The temperature may be hot but there is no heat about any of this.

Jennifer Lopez, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jon Voight, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Danes, Billy Bob Thornton, Powers Boothe and ... is that Laurie Metcalfe and Liv Tyler? And helmed by Academy award wining director Oliver Stone, it's quite stunning exactly how much quality has gone into this film. All of that together has produced a darkly funny, sexy, crude and intelligent action thriller that will not be to everyone's taste, but is a good film overall.Sean Penn stars as Bobby Cooper, who is not the world's nicest man, who has his car break down in a hick town in Arizona, with only one mechanic, the moronic Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton) in town and keen to make as much money off this visitor as possible. Forced to spend the day there, he gets caught up in the town's tawdry inner workings involving incest, love triangles, showdowns in the middle of the street and one of the great femme fatales in 90s cinema, Grace (Jennifer Lopez).The film does indulge in every negative stereotype of the south, but deserves much credit for getting the audience to side with the unlikeable Bobby and the bizarre series of events he finds himself caught in. In the hands of a lesser lead actor, or with a lighter more comedic script, this could have been an instantly forgettable, 3000 miles to Graceland style clunker, but with Penn and Stone involved, it's a dark, but fun, production rendered with considerable care. The film brings all of the different elements together for an effective closing sequence and fitting finale.Lopez and Penn walk away with much of the credit for this but there really isn't a weak link, with the sun scorched Arizona earth (if that's where it was actually filmed) another of the film's true stars.With incest, unlikeable characters and dark humour, this film is not everyone's idea of a fun two hours, but it is mine. Featuring a good performance from Penn and Lopez as we haven't seen her since, it's well worth a look for fans of either, or those who like these 90s style quirky dramadies.

Bobby Cooper is having a bad day. In fact, Bobby Cooper is having a very bad day. Stuck in a small Arizona town in the desert when his car breaks down, he begins to meet the townspeople. And that's when the fun begins. It starts with Darrell, the mechanic who's working on his car. The mechanic from hell. Come to think of it, most of the townspeople were from hell. And like Dante, everything Bobby does sends him to a deeper section of hell. I found myself saying 'You gotta be kidding me!' every five minutes. Nothing is what it seems. Even when you think you've figured it out, it still catches you off-guard in places. It's somewhat similar to Red Rock in that way. The movie spoofs the whole neo-noir genre and it even winks at itself. This is Oliver Stone at his best. I still can't think about this movie without grinning. As weird as they were, the characters were believable. Over-the-top, but believable. This is the quintessential black comedy. And the most hilarious.If you can get past the language, rent this one. It's a winner.