U Turn
Columbia TriStar Home Video | Release Date: October 3, 1997 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
7
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
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 full review
80
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
However simply he approaches this familiar milieu, Mr. Stone winds up treating his story's sin-soaked connivers the way Francis Ford Coppola treated vampires. Neither of them is really capable of anything plain. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
The stylistic fun Stone has in dramatizing this crime of passion thoroughly revitalizes the well-worked genre. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRussell Smith
Yet for all its unmistakable visual trademarks (hypersaturated colors; mad-scientist tinkering with film stocks and editing technique; sudden presentation of enigmatic, troubling images), this is also the most radical departure Stone has ever made in terms of basic sensibilities. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Yet, although Stone has clearly made this motion picture with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, he nevertheless manages to capture all of the tension and mystery necessary to hold the viewer's interest. Read full review
75
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
The standard noir trappings are here: the femme fatale, double-crossing, fatalism, broken dreams, innocence betrayed and the rest of it. But Stone pushes it all so far and so relentlessly that it becomes absurdist comedy. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
The latest in an unending series of bleakly comic, nihilistic neo-noirs to reach the screen, U-Turn's story of a bad day in an Arizona hell invests a lot of skill and style in a trifling tale. So it manages to sporadically amuse even while it's wasting your time. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
A fairly enjoyable piece of junk from Oliver Stone. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The director veers off course and heads straight for mediocrity. It's a disappointing ride. Read full review
60
SalonMichelle Goldberg
There's no overt message in this fatuous montage of crowd-pleasing brutality, just double and triple crosses, gory shoot-outs set to ironically cheerful Peggy Lee songs and tons of horrific, technicolor Americana. Read full review
60
Dallas ObserverPeter Rainer
In U-Turn Stone is reaching for the pulp without the politics. He's trying for noir as ritual dance. But Stone is too frenzied a filmmaker to keep the dance steps simple. Read full review
60
EmpireBob Mcabe
But for the most part, what you have here is a topnotch filmmaker getting back to basics and really delivering the goods. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
It demonstrates a filmmaker in complete command of his craft and with little control over his impulses. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Oliver Stone's imaginative style runs rings around John Ridley's idiotic screenplay. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The trouble, which becomes quickly and oppressively apparent, is that the screenplay has no point except its plot. No theme, no intent of anything like Oliver Stone weight, is ever manifested. Read full review
40
Washington PostDesson Howe
U-Turn is, for a while, darkly amusing. But along comes the second hour, which insults you for even partially succumbing to the first. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
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 full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The film has no discipline, but that's okay because it has no suspense, either. Read full review
20
SlateDavid Edelstein
The only surprise about U-Turn is the good reviews it got from people who should know better. Read full review
20
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The parade of eccentrics never ends, and Stone's near-miraculous achievement is to drain the life right out of material so sordid you'd think it couldn't help but be interesting. A must to avoid. Read full review
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