Best movie of this year hands down!

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Sean Penn knocks it out of the park. An over looked flick in Oliver Stone's filmography, which can be very hit or miss. Great cast playing weird characters, an intrinsic plot that keeps you guessing and Stone's unique visuals all add up to one hell of a ride through Superior, Arizona. Definitely a trip worth taking.

A young punk drifter (Sean Penn) heading to Vegas to pay off his gambling debt before the Russian mafia kills him, is forced to stop in a Arizona town where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong for him.What the heck is this? We have a decent cast, from Sean Penn to Joaquin Phoenix to Claire Danes (to name a few). A director (Oliver Stone) who is not perfect, but has made generally good films. And yet, this is sort of a mess.Stone lets his artistic creativity go wild, with disastrous results. The camera angles and shots are goofy, and the plot is a bit too weird. While it seems like a metaphor for purgatory (or something like that), it comes out just being something of a poorly-mixed goulash.

"U Turn" is often over the top, surreal and comical and Oliver Stone's style of direction plays along with these qualities perfectly. In everything he does, he favours excess over subtlety and utilises a variety of quick and often disconcerting visual techniques to create the hallucinogenic backdrop against which this twisted drama is played out. A collection of highly eccentric characters and some extraordinary performances from a star-studded cast also adds greatly to the enjoyment of watching this interesting treatment of a standard film noir plot (which bears a strong resemblance to "Red Rock West").Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn)is a drifter who's driving to Las Vegas to pay off some gambling debts when his car's radiator hose blows and he has to make a detour to the town of Superior, Arizona to get a replacement fitted. Whilst his car is being repaired, Bobby goes into the town centre and almost straightaway, meets Grace McKenna (Jennifer Lopez). She's an attractive woman who needs assistance to carry some newly purchased drapes back to her home and Bobby is pleased to help. They start to get friendly and just as Bobby has his arms around her, Grace's husband Jake (Nick Nolte), arrives and punches Bobby to the ground.A little while later, after Bobby's left Grace's house, Jake offers him a significant amount of money to kill his wife because he's tired of her games. Bobby doesn't show any interest in the offer at that time but does later, after he loses all his money in strange circumstances after unintentionally getting caught up in a convenience store robbery. Before Bobby can go ahead with the planned murder, Grace persuades him to kill Jake so that they can steal her husband's money and go away together. They go ahead with their plan but a series of complications follow and eventually lead to a very tense and unpredictable end to the story.Bobby Cooper is a typical noir protagonist who suffers a misfortune that leads to a whole series of other problems, which all inevitably become more serious and dangerous than the last. This ex-tennis player with a gambling problem had already had two fingers cut off by the gangsters to whom he owed money before he arrived in Superior and the bad luck he suffered when his car broke down was exploited by the unscrupulous mechanic at the local garage who kept raising the cost of the job and threatening Bobby in various ways. Bobby's attraction to Grace got him caught up in a web of lust, murder and treachery and random misfortunes led to him losing his money and becoming trapped in this desert town with no means of escape. His awful predicament is then made even worse by his certain knowledge that the gangsters who want their money back know where he is and are coming to get him.Sean Penn is wonderfully intense and conveys his character's sheer desperation with immense power and conviction. There are also, however, very memorable performances by the rest of the cast who all look as if they're having a lot of fun in their roles as some of the most weird and devious people imaginable.Billy Bob Thornton stands out as the malevolent mechanic with a disgusting appearance and Nick Nolte is suitably gruff and repulsive as a man with an appalling past and no morals. Jon Voight makes a big impression as an allegedly blind Vietnam veteran who's a beggar with a penchant for making philosophical pronouncements and Jennifer Lopez is very good as the femme fatale.This neo-noir account of one man's nightmare contains so many elements that are recognisable from other film noirs that it ultimately becomes a glorious pastiche in which its many moments of dark humour act as a marvellous counterpoint to all the evil and violence that are prevalent throughout the whole story.

To say anything, and I mean anything about the plot other than "guys car breaks down in Superior, Arizona", would be difficult to do, and not necessarily helpful to you either. Let me say if you enjoy Coen brother's fare (e.g Blood Simple), then you'll love this.The acting is superb, the dialogue sharp, the screenplay top class, cinematography top notch, great sound track and the whole so easily missed because it is just "another crime thriller". It isn't just another anything. This story takes you down a cul-de-sac, back out again, back in again, and throws you around so many times you'll think you have been on the best ride at the fair.Just do not miss this because it is one of the best films I have seen in a long while.