U Turn (1997)
Directed by: Oliver Stone
Starring: Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Lopez, Billy Bob Thornton, Powers Boothe, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Joaquin Phoenix, Liv Tyler
Rated: R for Strong Violence, Sexuality and Language
Running Time: 2 h 5 m
TMM Score: 2.5 stars out of 5
STRENGTHS: Story, Some Acting
WEAKNESSES: Some Acting, Directing, Editing
A man heading to Vegas to pay off his gambling debt is waylaid in a strange Arizona town where everything goes wrong.
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The Professor and the Madman (2019)
Directed by: Farhad Safinia
Starring: Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Eddie Marsan, Natalie Dormer, Steve Coogan, Ioan Gruffud
Rated: NR (Suggested PG-13 for Some Violence and Thematic Elements)
Running Time: 2 h 4 m
TMM Score: 2 stars out of 5
STRENGTHS: Story, Acting
WEAKNESSES: Pacing, Melodrama, Length, Undeveloped Themes
A Professor at Oxford University starts to compile a dictionary and finds enormous help from a man who has been imprisoned at a madhouse for murder.
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Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Directed By: Amy Heckerling
Starring: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold, Robert Romanus, Brian Backer, Phoebe Cates, Ray Walston
Rated: R
Run Time: 1h 30m
TMM Score: 3 Stars
Strengths: Characters
Weakness: It Has Aged
The students of Ridgemont High explore their burgeoning adulthood and all the relationships, responsibility, and awkwardness that adolescence brings.
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The Pledge (2001)
Directed by: Sean Penn
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Aaron Eckhart, Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Clarkson, Helen Mirren, Robin Wright, Mickey Rourke, Sam Shepard, Harry Dean Stanton, Lois Smith, Vanessa Redgrave
Rated: R for Strong Violence and Language
Running Time: 2 h 4 m
TMM Score: 4 stars out of 5
STRENGTHS: Unexpected Twist on a Familiar Storyline, Directing
WEAKNESSES: Some Overly Coincidental Moments, Some Dicey Acting
A retiring police detective pledges to catch the killer of a young child.
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The Tree of Life (2011)
Directed by: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Tye Sheridan, Sean Penn
Rated: PG-13 for Some Thematic Material
Running Time: 2 h 19 m
TMM Score: 5 stars out of 5
STRENGTHS: Cinematography, Visual Storytelling, Directing, Acting
WEAKNESSES: -
A young boy comes of age in Texas during the 1950s. His parents have two conflicting ways of looking at life.
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Dead Man Walking (1995)
Directed by: Tim Robbins
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn
Rated: R for Depiction of a Rape and Murder
Running Time: 2 h 2 m
TMM Score: 5 stars out of 5
STRENGTHS: Acting, Directing, Writing, Message
WEAKNESSES: -
A nun becomes a spiritual advisor to a convicted man during his last days on death row.
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