U-Turn (Review)

u_turnAn inopportune breakdown for Bobby (Sean Penn) – already on the run to or from something – leaves him in the middle of nowhere with a busted car, a grumpy countenance and a rotating cast of nut jobs vying for his attention.

This turn lands Bobby smack dab in the middle of an Oliver Stone film in his post ‘I Made Natural Born Killers, Look at Me!’ period.

Bobby has eight fingers and a secret. It is the secret that is driving his urge to move on.

After a strange dealing with the local lunatic mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton), the first person Bobby runs into is Grace (Jennifer Lopez) a shapely woman who gives him both a ride and inappropriate ideas, thanks to her constant flirtations. Flirtations that are met predictably enough with reactions given his maleness.

Reactions that are met with further evasiveness and still more flirtation.

Just as Bobby’s circle of blue balls seems unending, Grace’s older husband Jake (Nick Nolte) appears to give Bobby a black eye to offset his discoloured testes..

But Jake ain’t finished. Not by a long shot. He takes Bobby aside and implores him to kill her for money, due to the afore-mentioned flirtations and all. This transaction would require Bobby to spend more time with curvy Grace and her misleading body language, so he agrees to the job, thinking he could decide whether or not to proceed or flee with Grace at a later time.

This has all been seen before, though this version has all of the Oliver Stone over-caffeinated hallmarks; the skittish edits, the unexpected close ups of nothing (usually body parts), the larger than life characters bathed in their own sweat, again in close up, the God-awful oo-ee oo-ee oo-ee binky piano music throughout. Essentially all the stuff that made Natural Born Killers so original, but not really that great.

Hooks are fine if they enhance, but the twists here are familiar, and the quirky characters inane. We can’t identify with Bobby much less like him and the other characters are either loopy (Thornton’s mechanic), abrasive (Jake) or aggravatingly vacuous (Grace).

Final Rating – 6 / 10. NBK might have earned Stone the plaudits and applause, but this is the sound of no hands clapping…

About OGR

While I try to throw a joke or two into proceedings when I can all of the opinions presented in my reviews are genuine. I don't expect that all will agree with my thoughts at all times nor would it be any fun if you did, so don't be shy in telling me where you think I went wrong... and hopefully if you think I got it right for once. Don't be shy, half the fun is in the conversation after the movie.
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