U Turn 1997

Janet Maslin, New York Times: U-Turn becomes a showcase for the filmmaker's terrific arsenal of visual mannerisms and free-association imagery. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: It's so empty emotionally it's difficult to see what the point is, unless it's the celebration of emptiness, an aim that has become so familiar recently it hardly seems worth the trouble everyone has gone to. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: As the first Oliver Stone movie to gleefully dispense with sociopolitical significance, U-Turn is an overdue event, a chance for Stone to apply his hypnotic acid-trip-of-the-soul wizardry to something sexy and lowdown. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's a disappointing ride. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The film takes so many detours that at least one or two of them are bound to surprise even the most jaded movie-goer. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: This is a repetitive, pointless exercise in genre filmmaking -- the kind of movie where you distract yourself by making a list of the sources. Read more

Michelle Goldberg, Salon.com: Stone the propagandist was insufferable, but as a cynic he's even worse. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: It demonstrates a filmmaker in complete command of his craft and with little control over his impulses. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: Penn turns in a crisp, unfussy comic performance, Lopez vamps like a scorpion in heat, Nolte sustains a pretty good John Huston impression, and Thornton is mighty peculiar as the mechanic from hell. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: The stylistic fun Stone has in dramatizing this crime of passion thoroughly revitalizes the well-worked genre. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Although many of the performances -- particularly from Nolte, Penn and Thornton -- are enjoyable, the movie plunges so deeply into black comedic hell, all is lost. Read more