U Turn - DVDfever.co.uk

U Turnsees Sean Penn on his way to Vegas to settle a debt and carrying a bagfull of money. While passing through the small town of Superior, Arizona, theradiator hose on his 1964 “and ½” Ford Mustang bursts. There’s not a garagearound in sight, other than the rip-off joint to end all rip-off’s – and we’veall been there – but if that was his only problem, then he would be the luckiestman alive.

While waiting for his car to be fixed he meets a young woman (Jennifer Lopez)who asks him to hang up some drapes and have a drink, but this is no “Confessions ofa Vegas Gambler” (sic) starring Robin Askwith, this is an Oliver Stone filmwith plenty of characters that play off against each other. Just as he looksto be getting somewhere, in walks Nick Nolte and after an exchange of“Who the hell are you?”‘s, this man is revealed to be her husband. Whatresults, in bizarre fashion, is a labyrinthine plot in which both members of themarriage want out – at any cost – and they see Penn as their ticket to freedom.

Perfect performances are on offer from the entire cast: Sean Penn as theput-upon drifter whose day is going from bad to worse…and then some, thesultry Jennifer Lopez, the determined and angry Nolte, Powers Boothe as thelocal sheriff, Claire Danes as a dizzy blonde and Joaquin Phoenix asher obsessive boyfriend, not forgetting a cameo from Danes’ “Rainmaker” co-starJon Voight as a weird, old blind man and the garage-owner-from hell,Billy Bob Thornton.

The picture quality is superb, bringing out the crisp, sharp colours of thedesert and the glorious skin tones. At times there are some grainy effectsin the background, but after the number of DVDs I’ve reviewed, this looksmore like an intended video effect and not something as a result of theusual artifacts. Given Stone’s usual less-than-conventional visual style,you can tell this is down to him – especially in chapter 10 where the picturechanges quickly – and not at the fault of the encoding which makes anexcellent job of his vision.

The film is presented in its original widescreen ratio of 1.85:1, is enhancedfor 16:9 widescreen televisions – thus allowing for higher resolution – andthe average bitrate is a very good 6.49 Mb/s.

In terms of sound, that is also flawless. The soundtrack is littered with classicsongs such as Peggy Lee: It’s a Good Day and Patsy Cline: Your Cheatin’ Heartwhich may sound out of place in any other film but fit in perfectly here. Couplethis with Ennio Morricone’s powerful score and Stone’s use of quick-cut ambientsounds to match the picture and you have a reason to turn the volume all theway up to maximum.

Extras : Chapters/Theatrical Trailers :There are 28 chapters, like most Columbia releases, spread throughout the 119mins of the film, which covers most of the major scenes, the last one bringingtogether the disturbing last part of the finale, “Still Lucky” and the end credits.The original theatrical trailer is included and is well worth a look. Languages/Subtitles :There’s two languages on the disc, English and German, both available inDolby Digital 5.1, with a Dolby surround option also offered for each.As for subtitles? Take your pick from the following THIRTEEN languages :English, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, Hindi, Hebrew, German, Danish,Swedish, Finnish, Greek and Norwegian. Filmographies :Brief filmographies are available for Sean Penn, Jennifer Lopez, Nick Nolte,Claire Danes and director Oliver Stone. Menu :The menu is static which is a shame since a replication of the opening filmtitle animation would have been welcome. I have no problems accessing any of thescreens though. On playing the disc you’ll see the Columbia TriStar logo beforethe main menu appears.

Upon selecting the “Start Movie” option, you’ll first see a “Sony PicturesDVD Center” logo, followed by the Dolby Digital helicopter demo, the copyrightlogo and then the film itself.

Occasionally, Oliver Stone will pull off a masterpiece and this is one of those.The mix of everything onscreen provides the best audio-visual entertainmentsince Natural Born Killers. U-Turn is also reminiscent of anotherof my favourite films from the past decade, Joel Schumacher’s FallingDown starring Michael Douglas as another man trying to make sense of theworld around him but failing at every turn.

If I had any complaints it would be that there aren’t many extras, but sincethe USA Region 1 version only contained a mere trailer, you’re getting morehere. The UK disc also has a higher average bitrate. If it loses anything,it’s a pan-and-scan option – so no, you’re not losing anything.

Overall, if you liked either of the aforementioned two films, you’ll bemissing out if you don’t buy this release. It was one of my favourite films oflast year when I first saw it and it can be watched time and time again.

FILM : *****PICTURE QUALITY: *****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ****½

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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