U-Turn Review
by Jason Overbeck (root-for-badguys AT juno DOT com)April 25th, 1998
U TURN
*** of **** grade is B-
There are two ways you can go with U Turn. You can state that it has no pont and is contrived, or you can see it as a nice change of pace for a great director. That director is Oliver Stone, I have liked everyone of his film - except Natural Born Killers - and his new found shooting style. This style consists of B&W, underexposed film, cornball lenses and unusual camera angles. Many find this distracting and migraine inducing, I find it a wonderful way to add personality to a film.
The story is about a former tennis player (Sean Penn), who owes a lownshark money, is short two fingers, has car break down in Supierior, Arizona, fights off murder hirings, a jealous kids warnings and the philosophy of a blind indian. During this he meets a Grace (Hot Jennifer Lopez), who seduces him into a compromisng situation, and has her husband (Nick Nolte) come home and suckerpunch Penn.
Poor Penn, as you can tell by my synopsis, he is banged around like a demented pinball. He goes from frustrating situation to equally frustrating, watching Penn is fun as you see a man on the edge given continuous nudges. U Turn also has echos of After Hours - from another master in Martin Scorsese - that was a better film (although it had flaws) and yet quite a compliment for U Turn to be compaired with.
U Turn is technically a black comedy, while After Hours was a regualar comedy. Hours had a happy ending and Turn, well. Both film are interesting chage of pace films for director stuck in a rut of mega productions, but this doesn't gel quite like you'd expect a Stone film to be. I liked the nasty touches in the film, and the acting is first rate. I am giving the film a very mild recomendation to those who feel like a stylish, bloody, and often sick film that ends up being suprisingly fun.
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