Dick Tracy (1990): Warren Beatty, Al Pacino and Madonna

     Any shortcomings Dick Tracy (1990) might have in terms of story line are more than made up for with style. With it's use of bright primary colors, the film is, if nothing else, visually stunning and at some points, beautiful. Snagging an Oscar for the startling transformations brought about through the creative use of make-up, the film truly brings the original cartoon characters to life on the screen. The all-star cast helps as well (Al Pacino, Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Mandy Patinkin, Paul Sorvino, Dick Van Dyke, Madonna...)

     Dick Tracy is up to his usual routine. Battling bad guys and always perpetually hesitating on popping the question to Tess, he is in a constant dilemma. 

Dick Tracy. 1990: Warren Beatty

     Faint glimpses of a normal life appear and seem plausible when he and Tess half-adopt a guttersnipe kid.

Dick Tracy. 1990: Warren Beatty

      Tess and the kid take a back seat however, when Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) eliminates his competition and decides to take the helm of organized crime in the City. Dick Tracy, the consummate Cop, needs to stop him. 

Dick Tracy. 1990: Al Pacino and Madonna

     Tracy must not only take on Big Boy's henchmen... 

Dick Tracy. 1990

     But added tension comes from the advances of Breathless Mahoney (Madonna, in a surprisingly good performance) 

Dick Tracy. 1990: Madonna

     She is night club performer who seems smitten with him, and has knowledge that Dick Tracy believes will put Big Boy behind bars... 

Dick Tracy. 1990: Madonna

     The usual shoot-outs and frame-ups occur as Dick Tracy builds his case and does his damnedest to bring the bad guys down...

Dick Tracy. 1990: Madonna

The Hoodlum (1951): Lawrence Tierney

 

     Most modern audiences remember Lawrence Tierney as Joe in Reservoir Dogs, or as Elaine's father on Seinfeld. Tierney had a successful run in the 1940's and 50's as well, playing mostly criminals. The Hoodlum (1951) is a good example from this earlier period in his career.

     Tierney plays a career criminal who has recently been released from prison.

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

      He would not have gotten out had it not been for the pleas of his elderly mother.

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

      He gets a job working at his brothers gas station. Bored and jealous of his brother, he steals his brother's girlfriend, impregnates her and refuses to get married. This causes the girl to commit suicide.

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

     The bank across the street proves too tempting for the ex-con, and he plans a heist with some of his criminal buddies. 

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

     He flirts with a secretary who works at the bank, knowing that she will provide useful information. 

Their plan seems perfect, but a minor slip-up creates a landslide of havoc.

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

      With the money in hand, the conspirators start to turn on Tierney. His family will no longer help him. He is on his own.

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

      The man hunt is on... will he escape, return to prison, or fight until the end?

The Hoodlum. 1951: Lawrence Tierney

U Turn (1997): Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez

     Receiving mixed reviews since it's release, U Turn (1997) is definitely a "love it or hate it" film. Negativity aside,  director Oliver Stone did truly create something unique with the film. Genre-blending, U Turn is part thriller, part Film Noir, part Western but always filtered distinctively through Stone's signature style. The aesthetic look of the film is original as well. Stone used Kodak's 5239 color reversal stock, a film commonly used in surveillance cameras at the time, which has a tendency to exaggerate and intensify colors and give a grainy quality to the picture. This method was chosen as a means to deal with the overexposed, sun-drenched Arizona town in which they were filming. The A-List cast is amazing, all signing on for the opportunity to work with Stone... Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Billy Bob Thornton, Joaquin Phoenix, Claire Daines, Powers Boothe, Jon Voight... but the real stunning show-stopper is Jennifer Lopez in an early Femme Fatale role.

     Bobby (Sean Penn) is a petty gambler with a sizable debt to Russian gangsters. He's already lost two fingers for it. He is on his way to California with a backpack full of money, prepared to pay it off, when his car breaks down in the desert. He manages to drive it to the nearest town: Superior, Arizona... a dilapidated small desert community. There, Bobby is immediately at odds with the town's sole, crooked auto mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton)...

U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn

     Leaving his car to be fixed, Bobby wanders around the tiny town and meets Grace (Jennifer Lopez), a stunning beauty, who does not seem too put off by Bobby's advances...

U Turn. 1997: Jennifer Lopez

     After some flirtation, Grace invites him back to her house...

U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez

     Where Bobby's advances grow more daring...

U Turn. 1997: Jennifer Lopez

     Suddenly Grace's husband, Jake (Nick Nolte) bursts in and ruins Bobby's fun. Bobby flees back to town, but Jake stops him along the way. Seeing Booby as a scoundrel, he takes the opportunity to propose that he will pay Bobby to murder Grace for him, as he has grown tired of her cheating and games. Bobby refuses and heads back to town, where he fraternizes amongst the colorful characters there to varying degrees of hostility....

U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn

     Bobby loses his bag of money when the store he goes into gets robbed. He is now desperate. He needs cash to get his car out of the shop and pay his debt, or he will be killed by the gangsters...

U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez

     Now Bobby must seriously consider Jake's proposal to kill Grace as a means to get the much-needed cash...

U Turn. 1997: Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez

     With complications around each turn, however, Bobby's troubles are just beginning...

Jennifer Lopez