BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Limerculer A waste of 90 minutes of my life

Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

julia-59299 I know people who can't watch this film simply because it's just too off putting to look at. It takes the audience into a very unappealing, seedy world, the cinematography is overexposed and grainy, and the whole film seems like it could easily be a best seller at a local Grindhouse theatre. Call me crazy, but that's what I love about it.First off, it's hard to ignore the superb cast involved here. This remains J. Lo's finest hour, for her performance is truly fantastic as a dangerous but vulnerable femme fatale. Penn is also excellent here and Joaquin Phoenix is hilarious as a volatile loud mouth always up for a fight.Oliver Stone has directed some great films like PLatoon and Wall Street but he hasn't made many that are as fun and enjoyable as this one. You won't regret giving it a shot.

NateWatchesCoolMovies Oliver Stone's brutal, sweaty, trashy, delicious desert set film noir is a treat, and after Natural Born Killers, his finest work. It's an underrated, demented trip into a one horse Arizona town populated by all kinds of freaks, low life's and unstable weirdos. Sean Penn plays a skeezy, self centred deadbeat whose car breaks down in this sun drenched hellhole, and throughout the film gets thrown through a wringer of unpleasantness, violence, deceit and greed. This is not a feel good film. It's a down n' dirty Southern American redneck nightmare fable as only the manic Stone can deliver, and he weaves a gritty yarn that will burn itself into your senses with its raw belligerence and scuzzy characters. Jennifer Lopez is a sexy, sultry wonder as a dangerous femme fatale who ensnares Penn's character. Nick Nolte is her monstrous husband, and relishes the role with a gravelly drawl and a morally bankrupt smirk. Powers Boothe as the deranged town sheriff and Joaquin Phoenix as an even more deranged local boy are excellent. Billy Bob Thornton in an u recognizable getup almost walks off with the film as the worlds weirdest car mechanic, and Jon Voight gives more humanity to his crazy old Indian role than it deserves. The score by Ennio Morricone is a haunting, eerie desert melody, and the jumpy, booze and sun soaked cinematography is a orange hued feast for the eyes. I consider this to be one of the most overlooked films of the 90's. It's not for everyone, but those who enjoy a dark, cynical underside of rural Americana and a good old fashioned, brutally violent neo noir will get a kick out of it. I still do every time I watch it.

george-841 A cast-ful of talent wasted on this tedious bit of desert "pseudo-film-noire." The plot's been covered at length here so just a few thoughts: 1. All the bills in a bag full of money are ENTIRELY DESTROYED by one shotgun blast? Really? This is a critical plot device because the whole movie depends on Sean Penn becoming penniless and "trapped" inside Superior, Arizona. And what happened to all the "money debris" that was floating around this store after the robbery? Oh, note that 3 $100 bills did survive because Penn gives those to the shop-owner so she'll keep mum about his presence during the robbery. C'mon, he could have least picked up the pieces and pasted together enough money to pay for his car repair ($200) and get the heck out of "Dodge." 2. Billy Bob Thorton is a hoot, as usual when he plays ugly, disgusting characters, which appears to be his natural forte. Covered head-to-toe with grey oil stains and smiling through hideously rotten teeth, he's the only major character in this film that we do NOT see enough of. He's got some great funny lines, too, like at one point when Penn calls him every name in the book, he responds with "Are those insults? Are you insulting me?" Penn gets what he deserves with the rude, insulting treatment he renders to the only guy for 50 miles who can fix his broken radiator hose.3. A young Claire Danes is enjoyable to watch as the teen-aged girl friend of an obnoxious and blowhard Joaquin Phoenix, who gets his butt kicked by Penn after accusing Penn of coming onto his girlfriend. These secondary scenes are actually more enjoyable to watch than the main action.4. As for what happens to Penn's character in the end... all I can say is "Stupid Is as Stupid Does."

toll-8 U Turn is a very strange, weird and unusual film. I have recently finished watching it and I am really unsure on what to make of it. Urm, is it good? Not really. Is it bad? Not really. I just don't know what to say about it.The story is about Sean Penn's character, Bobby. He is driving through the desert on route to Vegas to pay off a gambling debt. A debt that has already cost him two fingers. Whilst driving, his radiator hose bursts and the closest place to get it fixed is a little town called Superior. He pulls into a typical looking garage for a deserted town such as this, and is greeted by a fat, hillbilly which is Billy Bob Thornton (who is actually pretty good). Bobby leaves the car in the mechanics hands and heads off to get a drink. Whilst walking through the town he meets Grace (Lopez) and an instant sexual attraction takes place. He ends up helping her put up drapes back at her home but when things heat up her husband (Nolte) arrives home and punches Bobby in the nose. Bobby then leaves the house but is tailed by Jake (J Lo's husband) and is offered money to kill his wife as he can't stand her. Bobby is unsure but when his bag of money is stolen in a grocery shop robbery, he realises he needs the money to pay off his debt or lose more of his fingers. However as he is about to kill her she offers him another proposition, kill her husband and steal his stash of cash he keeps under the floor boards. From here on Bobby must contemplate which route to take. He tries the easy option, to leave the town but the mechanics ridiculous charge for a radiator hose leaves Bobby's beloved Mustang in the mechanic's compound until he pays up. Bobby has no choice, but what will he do to get the money.The story does sound quite intriguing but everything just seems to fall in place far too easily. The characters don't force the plot twists, they just seem to randomly happen and Penn is left turning backwards and forward within this town. We also meet four other characters that seem to have very little to do with the plot other than to show the obscurity of this town. We have a Sheriff (Powers Boothe), a young couple (Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix), him always wanting a fight and her willing to run away with any man possible, and we are also given a blind tramp (Jon Voight) with plenty of wisdom to go around. All of these are just potential obstacles or aids and have very little usage. A debt collector comes into town at one point, on a mission to catch Bobby, but within thirty seconds he is arrested. No tension with him then as he is removed far too quickly.We find ourselves re-treading old ground as this film goes on. Each twenty minute segment just seems to repeat itself up until the strange climax. We are just shown how unlucky one man can be, and how strange this little town seems to be.The stars aren't bad with Penn giving a decent performance, I'm sure this wasn't a tough role for him. Lopez is typically her, not great and Nolte is just gruff. The star is perhaps Thornton in his unrecognizable role, it is definitely against type cast and I was fairly impressed with him. The direction isn't bad but the setting is very typical and something we've seen all too often. I was impressed with the editing and felt that there was a trippy feel to the entire film. Several camera movements and points of view shoots were stitched together well and gave a great feel to the movie. That still doesn't make it a good movie though.I was never really engaged with this film. Not once was I hooked and desperate to know what's going to happen next, in fact I didn't really care. The ending was poor and left you with a poor impression of this film. The theme seems to be about being lost and alone and the theme works as the whole way through that was exactly how I felt.2 / 5Tolli More reviews at: www.tolli-movieworld.blogspot.com Follow @Tolli04