Rating the Films: Oliver Stone
Submitted by ash_campbell on Sat, 01/03/2004 - 05:24
Tags:
- ****
- Nixon (1995)
- Platoon (1986)
- ***1/2
- JFK (1991)
- Wall Street (1987)
- **1/2
- Alexander (2004)
- *
- U Turn (1997)
- Zero
- Natural Born Killers (1994)
Author Comments:
Stone is an unflinching director who has made some great films and some stunningly bad ones. His strong political bent makes for a very black-and-white universe, but he’s often spot-on with his commentary (he tends to write his own material). Here’s how his films rate.
I've rated the films from a zero (horrible!) to four (wonderful!) star scale, with the links going to my reviews. As usual, I've only included films I've seen.
Alright, heck, everybody can laugh. I really, really liked U-Turn. I think it was a great neo-noir, much better than some of the more praised entries in that genre. I might be the only person in America who dug it (the film was actually quite well received in Europe, it seems, at least from the reviews I saw in their press).
It was one of the first DVDs I bought, back when there was around 200 titles and I was still explaining to my friends what DVDs were.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Everyone's entitled to their opinion, of course. I found the movie to be more quizzical than anything. It was trying to hard and was unfocused all at the same time.
By the way, not everyone dislikes it; it's got an aggregate 6.4 score at IMDb, with 627 people giving it a perfect 10. Your movie soul mates are out there somewhere...
Funny how two people can have such opposite reactions. You thought the film was trying too hard. Me, I thought it was one of the least ambitious films of Stone's career. He was making a genre flick instead of trying to push an agenda, he was loose and relaxed, and I liked it.
I noticed many US critics (not you, but some print folks) complained of the lack of sympathetic characters, which just didn't bother my cold black heart. :)
It certainly hasn't bothered many of those same critics when watching older, classic noir.
BTW, I love your 'Rating' series. You've done some great work!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I saw that one back in 2001 because I noted somewhere you liked it. A rare miss for me, but you can't win 'em all. I have a review floating around here somewhere...