Jenny: You like Patsy Cline? I just love her. I wonder how come she don't put out no more new records. Bobby: Because she's dead. Jenny: Oh... that's sad. Don't that make you sad? Bobby: I've had time to get over it.

Probably my favorite film by Oliver Stone and one of my favorite opening scenes. Seems to me this film is about the state of the nation when the Indians had the land and the state its in now. None of the reviews I've read of this film have mentioned the images of Indian tribes people that pop onto the screen at various times during the movie. All of the characters in the movie betray each other at some stage. Sort of harks back to the times of broken treaties. Great shots of of the landscape go unnoticed by the the characters as they go about their selfish enterprises. Respect for the land and for one another gone. Amidst some of the humour a sad undertone.

Oliver Stone's film is full of quirky characters and does a U-turn from being a complicated little thriller into the realm of black comedy.Stone turned up the irony knob just a little too high in "U Turn"; no one wins and everyone meets an end that has its own ironic twist.Sean Penn plays Bobby Cooper, an unlikely tennis coach who is driving across Nevada with a bag of money. He needs to repay a debt to criminals who have cut off two of his fingers to expedite the repayment. He takes a U-turn off the main road when his prized, 1964 and a half Mustang Convertible bursts a radiator hose. He ends up in Superior, a dilapidated town 200 miles from Phoenix.Bobby leaves his car to be fixed at a repair shop on the edge of town run by the disgustingly dirty and dentally challenged Darrell played by Billy Bob Thornton.He meets Grace McKenna, Jennifer Lopez's character, who invites him home to help her hang curtains. When Grace's husband Jake, played by Nick Nolte, finds them together, he punches Bobby. Not your typical hero, Bobby falls to the floor whining. He can't take a trick. Robbed, beaten up, conned and used, he has little control over his life. Even his mother hangs up the phone when he rings her for help.Although Jake initially dismisses Bobby as a wimpy, pipsqueak, he offers him money to kill Grace, noting of Bobby's character, "You're a man without scruples," also telling him not to be offended because, "A man who's got no ethics is a free man." At first, Bobby refuses the offer, but after his fortunes plunge even further, he has second thoughts and agrees to kill Grace, leading to more double and triple crosses than it would be thought possible to cram into one movie.As Bobby becomes more involved with Grace, he discovers that she is also Jake's daughter – a U-turn into Roman Polanski territory. However, the surprise twist in Polanski's Chinatown is just more plot overkill in "U Turn". Eventually Bobby and Grace plan to get rid of Jake and take his money.Grace McKenna is very much sought after by men in this movie; an interest that proves fatal to all of them. However, Bobby Cooper is not quite besotted enough to want to share Jake's money with her, and they try to outmanoeuvre each other at every turn. The most ironic twist of all is reserved for Bobby when he is virtually the last man standing.No tricky camera angle is avoided in "U Turn", and like so much else in the film, this is overdone to the point that you almost expect every scene to be reflected in someone's sunglasses or viewed between the cameraman's legs.Despite its pretentiousness, the spectacular cast and the outrageous plot keep you going until the end – even if that ending is a bit of a letdown.

The drifter Bobby just wants to get to Las Vegas and pay off his gambling debt. On the road in the Southwest, however, his car breaks down. He gets to the nearby small town of Superior, AZ, and he tries desperately to get back out. He runs into every kind of trouble conceivable there. Half the people he meets cause problems for him. The married couple of femme fatale Grace(an extremely hot Lopez at her most seductive, who does OK when asked to do anything more than be sultry and desirable, which she, of course, nails, pun intended) and Jake(Nolte, undeniably the creepiest presence in this, and he has serious competition for that award) both want him to kill their spouse. Darrell(Thornton in what may be his least appealing role... no, really; he's dumb, cheap, nasty and the oil on his face really gets to you) is the only chance nearby for getting the ride fixed back up, and he isn't exactly... well, all there. Blind Man Jon Voight is eccentric. And teenage Jenny(Danes, convincing as a proper little Lolita-wanna-be) falls in love with every new male face she sees with the same eagerness as her ill-tempered boyfriend Toby(Phoenix) is to beat up everyone she as much as talks to. The characters are memorable, quirky and distinct(even though there are so many of them, they all get a good amount of screen time, and we don't forget any of them). The majority of the acting is spot-on, and this makes solid use of the considerable talent featured. This is shot rather well. The editing will get on some people's nerves(it's very clearly a Stone film, and it's one of his greatest ones, as far as entertainment value goes), and it does arguably try a little hard, if it does succeed in building an atmosphere of unbearable heat, constant new obstacles, mistrust, violence and dirt(literal and figurative). Every time you think the central issue has been resolved, something new pops up to delay it. This manages to not frustrate the viewer, at least not to the point where we are unhappy with the movie... instead, we sympathize with the people(in spite of none of them being likable, without them being obnoxious to the point where you turn this off... they're interesting jerks, and that makes up for it) and their situation. The music by Ennio Morricone is excellent, and really fits the mood and tone. There is a lot of disturbing content and strong language, a little blood, nudity and sexuality in this. The DVD comes with a trailer(for this). I recommend this to any fan of those responsible for making it, and/or of filthy crime-drama-thrillers set in the middle of nowhere. 7/10