STONE TURNS UP HEAT IN BRACING `U-TURN'.Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic Are you ready for Oliver Stone, entertainer? Admittedly, it takes some getting used to. And there will be droves who likely will never acquire the taste. But for those who like their movie fun rough and raunchy and 150 proof, ``U-Turn'' is a bracingly stiff jolt. The new Oliver Stone is relaxed and funny, at least compared to the overbearing polemicist po·lem·i·cist also po·lem·ist n. A person skilled or involved in polemics. polemicist, polemist a skilled debater in speech or writing. — polemical, adj. of all those '60s movies. He's also refined the loony visual experimentation bent that made ``JFK,'' ``Natural Born Killers'' and ``Nixon'' such jumbled, jarring experiences. In ``U-Turn,'' refreshingly, most of the shots match. Which is not to say that the film lacks burning style. Daring angles, witty lens choices and jaw-dropping camera moves - the stuff of real cinema - make the movie compulsively watchable watch·a·ble adj. 1. Capable of being watched; viewable: watchable wildlife. 2. Good enough to watch: "The fastest modem ... . As do a squad of terrific actors who all, quite impressively, find a heightened performance zone just this side of over the top. Well, all of them except for Billy Bob Thornton, who plays the most grotesque auto mechanic ever committed to celluloid. And you really wouldn't want this Gomer Gomer (gō`mər), in the Bible. 1 Wife of the prophet Hosea. 2 Son of Japheth and eponym of a people, probably the Cimmerians. Gomer Hosea’s wanton wife. [O.T. toned down in the least. He's the first denizen An inhabitant of a particular place. A "denizen of the Internet" is a person who frequently uses the Web or other Internet facilities. of Superior, Ariz., to victimize Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn). A luckless gambler who's already lost two fingers to impatient Russian mobsters Mobsters is a 1991 crime drama detailing the creation of the National Crime Syndicate/The Commission. Set in New York City during the Prohibition era, it's a somewhat fictionalized account of rise of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Benjamin "Bugsy" , Cooper is on his way to pay them off in Las Vegas when his vintage Mustang blows a radiator hose outside of the hopeless desert town. While the grease-toothed mechanic works on - more accurately, works over - the convertible, Cooper moseys into the flyspeck fly·speck n. 1. A small dark speck or stain made by the excrement of a fly. 2. A minute or insignificant spot. tr.v. fly·specked, fly·speck·ing, fly·specks 1. burg, little suspecting how hard it is for anyone to get out of there alive. Fateful portents immediately abound. Cooper is annoyed by a blind American Indian veteran (Jon Voight, unrecognizable) who keeps spouting not-so-cryptic warnings. He's chatted up by an idiot teen-age flirt (Claire Danes) whose even stupider boyfriend (Joaquin Phoenix) spoils to avenge imaginary challenges to his nonexistent non·ex·is·tence n. 1. The condition of not existing. 2. Something that does not exist. non honor. He's caught in the middle of a botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. grocery holdup complete with a shotgun-slingin' grandma. Amazingly, Cooper maintains a snide sense of humor Noun 1. sense of humor - the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor" sense of humour, humor, humour through all of this; loser though he may be, he still feels superior to Superior. But trouble he's not equipped to handle comes in the slinky form of Grace (Jennifer Lopez), a young Apache temptress, and her much older husband, Jake (Nick Nolte, channeling Gary Busey). Each spouse hires Cooper to kill the other one, some hidden money is involved, and before you can say ``Duel in the Sun,'' everyone's in the car-pool lane down Route 666. Part overheated modern western, part travesty of old James M. Cain James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892 – October 27, 1977) was an American journalist and novelist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labelling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the conventions, John Ridley's script, adapted from his novel ``Stray Dogs,'' is at its core an existential comedy. Superior is a psychic prison and everyone in it is depending on the wrong person to help them escape. Stone gets this joke on a very deep level and manages to morph it into a genre satire that's both brutally hilarious and emotionally gripping. A few unwelcome whiffs of the director's earlier excesses are in the mix - the movie does go on past its optimum length, and the violence gets off-puttingly nasty - but they're minor flaws in what, overall, is a remarkably accomplished and fresh piece of work. As mentioned earlier, Stone exhibits remarkable artistic growth in ``U-Turn'' without shaving off too much of his identifying wild hair. Ace cinematographer Robert Richardson shot most of the movie on an unusual reversal stock for practical reasons (they had to film quickly under ever-changing, wintry desert skies), and the resulting blotchy blotch n. 1. A spot or blot; a splotch. 2. A discoloration on the skin; a blemish. 3. Any of several plant diseases caused by fungi and resulting in brown or black dead areas on leaves or fruit. tr. , overexposed o·ver·ex·pose tr.v. o·ver·ex·posed, o·ver·ex·pos·ing, o·ver·ex·pos·es 1. To expose too long or too much: Don't overexpose the children to television. 2. look sets the perfect tone for the feverish proceedings. Capped by a clever soundtrack and one of the most interesting scores Ennio Morricone has composed since his '60s spaghetti westerns, ``U-Turn'' offers us more to like than any Oliver Stone movie has since, arguably, ``Platoon.'' Providing, of course, that you can take it. THE FACTS The film: ``U-Turn'' (R; violence, sex, language, nudity, drug use). The stars: Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton, Powers Boothe, Claire Danes, Joaquin Phoenix and Jon Voight. Behind the scenes: Directed by Oliver Stone. Written by John Ridley, based on his novel ``Stray Dogs.'' Produced by Dan Halsted and Clayton Townsend. Released by TriStar Pictures. Running time: Two hours, five minutes. Playing: Citywide. Our rating: Three and One Half Stars. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Stranded in Superior, Ariz., with a busted radiator hose, Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn), left, finds himself at the mechanical mercy of gas station owner Darrell (Billy Bob Thornton) in ``U-Turn.'' |
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