Rating: 
Summary: "Your lies are old, but you tell them well."
Review: Oliver Stone crawls through Quentin Tarentino's home turf here in this adaptation of John Ridley's Stray Dogs--it's as black and violent as a film can be, sort of Pulp Fiction meets Reservoir Dogs in the heat. Brilliant casting makes U Turn sizzle like roadkill on an Arizona blacktop. Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez. Billy Bob Thornton, and Nick Nolte dig right to the heart of human darkness, and an absolutely unrecognizable Jon Voight appears as the blind Indian wise man who is likely none of those things. Surely many viewers will find the level of violence and the completely depraved characters unappealing at best--my wife walked away less than halfway through. But I was riveted by the story, the characters, the action, and the stylistic approach Stone takes, with heavy use of filters and quick cuts to ravens, bleached skulls, setting suns, old photographs, and the like. That approach and the eerie score by Ennio Morricone also reminded me of David Lynch's Twin Peaks. It's surely not a movie for the mainstream, but I'm glad I saw it.
Rating:
Summary: A CULT CLASSIC IN A FEW YEARS
Review: This is the fourth time in four years that I've been watching Oliver Stone's U TURN. I admit it sincerely, I didn't like it so much the first times but I kept watching it because there was something in the movie that attracted me. And I know by now that any quality movie deserves more than a single showing if you want to express an objective opinion about it.There is much to discuss about U TURN's content, arty effects or characters. The movie can also be the beginning of hour long discussions on the homages and the references, evident or more subtle, distillated by Oliver Stone along the road. Take the final scene, for instance. Watch it again with the final scene of King Vidor's DUEL IN THE SUN in mind. The Sean Penn-Jennifer Lopez bloody show takes a totally different dimension, doesn't it ? So one of the reasons of the cult status gained by a peculiar movie is the pleasure the movie creates with each new vision. Like a classical music opus, the film must never make you feel as if you had digested its entire substance. You must feel unsatisfied, ready for a next showing right after the end credits. With U TURN, you'll be sure to possess a DVD that will outlive the most sophisticated DVD players. A DVD zone "they don't like it but I do".
Rating:
Summary: This film dominates
Review: U-turn is classic. Toward the end of his career Stone is only getting better. It easyly holds its own with Pulp Fiction and alike. Use of the old western composer Moriconne was genuis. Why more people dont like this film is a mystery, i guess some people can't handle it.
True pimps know that it dominates
Rating: 
Summary: Guilty, gritty pleasure
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Twisted
Review: 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
Rating: 
Summary: A Light Classic of the Late "Scuz Film" Era
Review: Oliver Stone, the director of "U-Turn", was a natural to try his hand at the 90's genre that has come to be known as "Scuzz" films (of which Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" is the sine qua non). This film has much to recommend it, most notably Stone's evocative editing style that has become his signature. Because the film makes a muted attempt at allegory, however (carefully observe the names and occupations of the 4 main characters), it often lacks the Absurdist sensibility that the best scuzz films do, and, at certain points the plot seems to take rather jarring and arbitrary turns. But the film, like a failed work of art coming late in the career of an accomplished artist, does carry a certain cache as a "film by Oliver Stone" and can and should be enjoyed in that context - appropriately as a video rental!
Rating:
Summary: Pure Pulpy Goodness
Review: Oliver Stone tribute to the sleazy paperbacks of the 50's is manic trashy fun. The other reviewer "Kayla A Green" was wrong. Stone wasn't trying to ape Tarantino. It's an homage to Jim Thompson and the "true" crime pulps. Sean Penn plays the lead sleaze headed into a currupt nowhere town. The local trash include Nick Nolte playing a raspy redneck version of "Blue Velvet"'s Frank Booth, Bob Thorton, looking like the illegitimate son of Neville Brand from "Eaten Alive", playing the filthiest automechanic alive, and Jennifer Lopez in a not so stretched role as the triple crossing femme.
Rating:
Summary: I didn't find this movie great, but worth watching
Review: This movie is filled with people you will recognize. Sean Penns' character is the basis of the movie. It is basically just the story of a day that will have you asking "what could go wrong next" and "how bad can this guys day get". I definitely found the movie worth watching. Some wierd camera camera angles and shots let you know the director is "Oliver Stone". Joaquin Phoenix plays a hilarious character and every scene with him is great. Billy Bob Thorton plays a good role as a the crazy mechanic, who you definitely would not want working on your car. If you like Oliver Stone or movies like "Very Bad Things" you should enjoy this one.
Rating:
Summary: Jennifer Lopez in "U Turn"
Review: Sean Penn as "Bobby Cooper" is on his way to pay off a debt in Las Vegas, a gambler finds himself stranded in Superior, AZ with a busted radiator hose. Suddenly the seemingly normal meets the bizarre and treacherous when a beautiful local (Jennifer Lopez as Grace McKenna) and her husband (Nick Nolte as Jake McKenna) suck the gambler into a deadly game of lust, madness and money with only one way out.
Rating: 
Summary: Stone tries to be Tarantino; fails miserably.
Review: I enjoyed approximately two minutes of this movie...the two minutes in which a talented and under-rated actor was on screen. The rest of the time, I was just waiting for Sean Penn to die.
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