Released: November 14th, 2007
Starring: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake
Writer/Director: Richard Kelly
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
I was always taught that movies should have some sort of narrative, a story line that one could follow. There's always room to cross genres, and hell even, time periods, but it needs to make sense. It can't look like the writer threw a bunch of ideas at the wall and didn't care how they stringed together.
"Southland Tales" didn't heed this advice. It's a sci-fi/political/conspiratorial/apocalyptic/thriller rolled into one movie. I've watched it twice and have no idea what it is trying to get across. If it's supposed to be a parody, it's not very funny, and I can't figure our what they are parodying. It has this giant ensemble cast, who are all somehow used terribly throughout the movie.
The call sheet includes: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sean William Scott, Mandy Moore, Justin Timberlake, and for some reason, John Larroquette. My imagination makes me believe that they did this movie on a dare, or high, either way it's probably one they'd all like back. Even Kevin Smith makes a cameo.
The writer/director is Richard Kelly, who was responsible for the extremely polarizing "Donnie Darko", which I change my opinion on each time I watch it, so you knew what this could be going in. But this one makes even less sense that "Darko". Also, there no reason this movie needed to be two and half hours long; 90 minutes would've sufficed. The extra hour was just Kelly showing us how clever he can be.
There are more twist in this film than the last five minutes of a M. Night Shyamalan movie. I couldn't keep track of all the double crosses, and who was in what faction. Even when the movie tries to explain everything at the end, I actually come away more confused. The only conclusion I can come up with is this is supposed to be a modern telling of the Book of Revelation, and even that I'm unsure of.
Rating: 4/10 -- Insane movie that you may need to be on mushrooms to understand, or laugh at. Honestly, it felt like four plots in one with the thinnest of ties between them. Oh, there's a Timberlake musical number where he lip-syncs the Killers, "All These Things That I've Done". Yeah, that happened.
The writer/director is Richard Kelly, who was responsible for the extremely polarizing "Donnie Darko", which I change my opinion on each time I watch it, so you knew what this could be going in. But this one makes even less sense that "Darko". Also, there no reason this movie needed to be two and half hours long; 90 minutes would've sufficed. The extra hour was just Kelly showing us how clever he can be.
There are more twist in this film than the last five minutes of a M. Night Shyamalan movie. I couldn't keep track of all the double crosses, and who was in what faction. Even when the movie tries to explain everything at the end, I actually come away more confused. The only conclusion I can come up with is this is supposed to be a modern telling of the Book of Revelation, and even that I'm unsure of.
Rating: 4/10 -- Insane movie that you may need to be on mushrooms to understand, or laugh at. Honestly, it felt like four plots in one with the thinnest of ties between them. Oh, there's a Timberlake musical number where he lip-syncs the Killers, "All These Things That I've Done". Yeah, that happened.
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