NICK NOLTE   JENNIFER LOPEZ   CLAIRE DANES   JON VOIGHT  

and   BILLY BOB THORNTON

KEN OLIN   MARISKA HARGITAY   GINA PHILIPS   and   WENDELL PIERCE

star in

U-TURN       and      THE ADVOCATE'S DEVIL

VHS - PAL - LIKE NEW - FEATURES 2 FILMS on the 1-TAPE - Video Dealer Preview - R 18+ and MA-rated - Time Coded on Screen -  124-minutes and 86-minutes - Colour - 1997-release - Small box

U-TURN

A man running from a mysterious past is trapped in a small desert town after his car breaks down.

Everybody in this town seems to have totally lost their mind and Bobby can't wait to leave.

But there is a problem: Bobby doesn't have the money to get his car back.

So when an aging man offers him money to kill his young wife Bobby seriously thinks about it.

However the gorgeous young woman casts some kind of spell on him and she asks him to get rid of her husband. But this time, the stakes are much higher...

Brilliant & hallucinatory cinematography, impeccable use of music, and a handful of dark, edgy character sketches all work together very nicely to make this bleak, dark-humoured desert noir an overlooked highlight of Oliver Stone's career. 

 The highly evocative atmosphere plays out against the Arizona desert in a way that (in addition to foreshadowing some of the work done in Terry Gilliam's own twisted little masterpiece 'Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas') seems to mirror, in a more subtle and tasteful manner, much of Stone's work in 'Natural Born Killers'. 

 However, rather than hitting us over the head with whatever socially charged 'message' he may have been attempting to convey in that film, here he is simply content to let it build up a thick and steamy ambience that moves our hapless comrades on towards their own impending personal apocalypse.

Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, and Jennifer Lopez all turn in great performances and Billy Bob Thornton's eccentric character sketch elevates what may be defined as a bit part to a far more relevant status. 

 Modern noir with a few dark twists and a taste all it's own that's well worth digging into...for those who have a taste for this kind of thing, if you know what I mean.

THE ADVOCATE'S DEVIL

A charismatic basketball star (Holt McCallany) is accused of rape.

A lawyer (Ken Olin) in need of a big win is brought in to get the star off.

The lawyer wins the case, but along the way he discovers that the player may not be as innocent as he leads on to the public.

Then things get worse when he discovers the player has led his teen-age daughter to a hotel room for a "special" birthday party for her.

"Thirty Something" star Ken Olin has certainly had a fascinating career since the series ended.

He has become a very successful producer, for one thing. Acting wise, for as nice a guy as he played on the series, he has often been cast as a wife killer.

In this movie, based on a novel by Alan Dershowitz, he's an attorney with a run of losses who takes what looks to be a slam-dunk case, defending a basketball star accused of rape.

 Along the way, it begins to look like the case isn't the winner he anticipated as inconsistencies in his client's story begin to emerge.

As his investigator girlfriend, beautiful Mariska Hargitay gives a warm and honest performance. I first saw Mariska's work when she was a kid on "Falcon Crest" and my opinion of her has never changed. She was a delight then, and she has evolved into a wonderful actress while still maintaining a charismatic presence.

Holt McCallany, as the defendant, gives nothing away in an enigmatic performance and will keep you guessing.

This is a film that will definitely hold your interest. Only a lawyer could come up with a plot like this, however. I found it overall, very clever in plot and storyline.