"U-Turn" An Oliver Stone Picture
 

Talk about an underestimated movie! The performances were excellent, and the story wasn't half bad either. Top kudos to Billy Bob Thornton (almost unrecognizable with the pop glasses and all the grease on him) and Joaquin Phoenix as the jealous boy friend, as both performances deserved Oscar-nods. Sean Penn was also very convincing as a man slowly losing his marbles and patience.

The weaker performances were given by Nick Nolte and Jennifer Lopez, but they weren't terrible either.

How did this little movie stay so little in the grand scope of things?

I liked it most because of Robert Richardson's incredible cinematography, but I think it's pretty good. I didn't care for the ending though, and I can't even look at Jennifer Lopez anymore.

I've always wondered what made Oliver Stone, madman extraordinaire, otherwise known as America's cinematic guilty conscience, want to make this film? It doesn't make a point, it isn't political in the least, and is considerably more small-scale than Stone's other flamboyant, often rambling, epics. The film is fine on its own terms, but it's always seemed little more than an exercise for Stone to do something, and damn if I know what it is.

Ebert made the same argument. So all of his films have to be political? He felt like doing a Noirish movie, and he did it in his own unique style. I'm not crazy about the movie, but I say good for him. I don't want to see the same thing over and over.

I felt the same way: that the film was so simple as compared to his larger-than-life films like "Natural Born Killers" and "JFK."

Red Rock West

Exactly...and Detour...and The Grifters. Easily Stone's worst film (even worse than Does Anybody Give a $hit on Sunday). This movie is Stone trying something different and failing miserably. He may have been able to make a good,lean noir at some point (Talk Radio comes close), but I feel that U-Turn sucked because Oliver Stone in fact now sucks. He was done after NBK.

Eloquently put.

However, I don't view Red Rock West or The Grifters as Stone pictures because he did not direct them.

My point was that U-Turn was just a retread of so many other NeoNoir films. It brought nothing new to the picnic

I thought U-Turn was a very forgettable movie that didn't bring anything new to the table. I don't think any actor/tress in the film stood out.

Just another bad movie.

I don't have a clue who directed Red Rock West, or even if Stone had anything to do with it... my point is that U-Turn is hardly original, and my impression when I first saw it was that it was a blatant rehash of Red Rock West.

Not to threadcrap, but U-Turn is easily one of the worst movies I have ever seen in my life. Billy Bob was a great character, but he was not in that much of the movie.

For what it's worth, I think Any Given Sunday is a good film. Problem is, I cannot find a single movie by Oliver Stone that is without some glaring fault due to excessive editing and ludicrous/random shots, though JFK comes close.