Southland Tales [2006]

See Larger Image	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £3.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 10 to 13 days Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video Starring: Seann William Scott, Wallace Shawn, Holmes Osborne, Christopher Lambert, Miranda Richardson Directed By: Richard Kelly Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5050582487213 Format: PAL Label: Universal Pictures Video Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Universal Pictures Video Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2008-03-31 Running Time: 138 Studio: Universal Pictures Video Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Reviews: Well, filmmakers should aim high, they say. And Richard Kelly shot the moon on his highly-anticipated follow-up to cult sensation Donnie Darko, which expands the apocalyptic mood of that movie and blows it up tenfold. Set during the election season of 2008, Southland Tales proposes a series of apparently linked events: the reappearance of a vanished movie star (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), now an amnesiac; the bizarre doubling of a policeman (Seann William Scott in two roles); the development of an energy source from ocean waves; and the presence of an Iraq War veteran (Justin Timberlake) who seems to be watching everything, and narrating some of it. Not that the narration helps; even with voice-over (reportedly added after the film's disastrous debut at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival), Southland Tales doesn't come close to making sense, let alone at the minimum level of dangling a carrot to lead the audience along (even Mulholland Drive had a semblance of murder mystery to be solved, or not). The cast is loaded with Saturday Night Live cut-ups, but only Jon Lovitz connects, and in other roles people like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christopher Lambert, Bai Ling, and John Larroquette are utterly mystifying, by no fault of their own. In some of the musical sequences Kelly gets in stride, but it's easy to create drama in a three-minute music video, and harder to do over two and a half hours. Some top critics rushed to champion the movie, as though flying in the face of philistinism, so feel free to try out this incoherent pastiche for yourself. --Robert Horton
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: the 4th dimension isnt far away Comment: This review only needs to be short. If you are interested in 2012, zeitgeist, the 4th dimension and so on, you will adore this film, and find its plot understandable, fascinating and thrilling. I find a lot of people who have no clue what this film is about, i advice these to either read 2012 or continue renting die hard or legally blonde, as it will make no sense. enjoy Customer Rating: Summary: A solid follow-up to Donnie Darko Comment: This is an amazing film, even if it does require a fair bit of reading around it to fully understand. There are some very funny moments, though not necessarily from the long line of Saturday Night Live comedians involved. And is Sarah Michelle Gellar the whore of Babylon or is it Bai Ling? Both do some fairly ridiculous slut acting, which is not a criticism as it's exactly what's required of them. Anyone who struggles to understand the basic plot need only look to Richard Kelly's previous film, Donnie Darko, for answers. The broad theme is exactly the same: a rift in space-time creates an alternate, largely negative reality, a reality that needs to be destroyed before "real" reality is destroyed instead. Make sense now? Then it's time to sit back and enjoy the satire. Customer Rating: Summary: Wow, just wow, but not in a good way, well some of it... Comment: Southland tales left me feeling really ambivilant. On one hand you have a very brave sci fi epic with a satirical edge. One the other hand you also have a load of small stories tenously linked by and inchorrent plot. Now don't get me wrong I understood what the plot was supposed to be, it just didn't really make sense. Also I mentioned the satirical element, I think it was supposed to be satirical but the film actually lacked a humourous edga despite being quite funny. I wonder how intentional it was. Most of the acting is solid if unspectacular, the highlight being Sarah Michelle Geller who is the one genuine comedy element. Even Justin Timberlake was pretty good. The end result is a bloated, slow paced, well made and somewhat tedious, self indulgent sci fi yawn. Customer Rating: Summary: Kelly's anti-heroes... Comment: I can see this getting the same plaudits (from those who lambasted it first time round, no doubt) in 20 years time as Gilliam's 'Brazil'. An utterly non-conformist, anti-hollywood, anti-film film. Watching it is like turning up at a crime scene. It doesn't make sense until you begin to sift and investigate the minutae. It makes YOU work very hard for any satisfaction and even then, when you think you have a hold of the thing, it will turn round and slap you between the eyes. Brilliantly flawed, simultaneously profound and completely farcical (there are moments of great comic writing here, brought to cringing life by a cast as diverse as the ideas on show). A flayling, self aware beast that now runs lose on DVD. BEWARE. Observe from a safe distance, make notes and study it's habits. This film will make you look over your shoulder. Ignore the cynics, embrace the cult and get inside the mind of a bad genius. Customer Rating: Summary: Mere Words Cannot Describe The Experience This Film Is Comment: Imagine if someone filmed a word-for-word version of a Philip K Dick novel. Now, I'm not talking a well known and brilliant PKD work, like Eye In The Sky, or Ubik, or A Scanner Darkly ; I'm talking about the kind of drug-addled, 8th-novel-in-12-months that made no sense at all ; something like the long lost and absolutely dreadful Vulcan's Hammer. Now, imagine, not only that, but someone took out every piece of exposition that linked the plot together so plot then became nothing more and nothing less than a bunch of stuff that happens without any core reason. Characters lack motive and actions lack momentum and purpose. People do stuff, without there being any reason why they do anything. There are odd musical interludes that join the work at random intervals, statements that make no sense, vignettes that confuse and add nothing to the narrative (there is no narrative), and a thematic presentation that is at best incoherent. At the time of the release of Donnie Darko, Richard Kelly seemed like a visionary, obtuse film-maker blessed with a unique voice. Now, he seems like a Sci-Fi David Lynch, jettisoning plot for obvious, clunking statements about the totalitarian state, porn, energy crisis', war, and other juvenile pursuits. This is not a film : it is a mistake, a waste of talent and time and electricity. Now, I'm not sure if it is a film so wilfully obscure that only multiple viewings will unlock it like a puzzle, or if it cleverly hides the fact that it has absolutely nothing to say for itself and no idea what it would say if it could say anything in a confused mess of middle class nothingness, where someone arrogantly thinks they have the answers to life, the universe and everything they gleaned from spending time with books, not having nonsensical dribble come from some rich kid who thinks he knows how the world works when he knows nothing. It's the unrestrained widescreen vomit of an ego that never looked in the mirror and was told the facts of this insane venture. Simply put, it doesn't make any sense because the ideas behind it are wilfully intellectually crippled, and unrelated to everything else around it. It's a cinematic conceit of a narrative, equivalent to the worlds greatest stand up comedian being a man who can do nothing but string together one-liners that are ultimately waste everyones time. There are rules to an Apocalypse. Firstly, this film requires a Godzilla of a McGuffin to drive the plot. It has nothing. Narratively, this film is incomplete : like watching a rough cut of Star Wars where the guy says "Bang" when Alderaan blows up instead of the widescreen special effects. Secondly, one apocalypse at a time. This is a film you have to watch ; not because it is good, but because it is bad. Because it has midgets and Justin Timberlake quoting T.S.Eliot and The Bible from behind his sniper spot on the pier. Imagine that terrible, vile idea you had for a science fiction movie when you were 16 when you thought every idea you had was gold and blessed with genius but didn't actually think about long enough to realise it was the most embarrassing thing you have ever done, then wrote 4 pages of, realised it was ill thought nonsense, then buried in a drawer and hoped nobody would ever find? Well, this is what happened if someone made a film of it. And called the film Southland Tales. More Reviews