Waste of time

How sad is this?

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

During a three day heat wave just before a huge 4th of July celebration, an action star stricken with amnesia meets up with a porn star who is developing her own reality TV project, and a policeman who holds the key to a vast conspiracy. The only reason why i'll give this movie just a 3 it's only because of The Rock which he did his part right but everyone else was just not that good (especially Timberlake) plus the story was way too over the place and just pretty dumb without fully explaining some things in general. (3.0/10)

I really need look into the backstory about how and why this humongous piece of cr&p came to be. It has a handful of major stars for the time as well as a budget of ....17 million dollars? Something isn't adding up. The actors must have refused a paycheck after seeing the completed product.

For those of you that don't know, 'Southland Tales' is the second film from (Donnie Darko-acclaimed) writer/director Richard Kelly. After the success of Darko, he was given a much bigger budget to play with for his next feature and the stars queued up to be in it. How could it possibly fail? It did.And I was quite saddened by the reaction from viewers and critics alike (because I really loved it!). Yes, if you're thinking of watching Southland Tales, know that most people absolutely loathed it. They described it as unwatchable, too complicated and not making any sense.And they're probably right. But I still love it anyway. For a start, it's set in the same 'Darko' universe and, like its predecessor, is a mixture of genres. Ultimately, it's an 'end-of-the-world' film, but it encompasses comedy, romance, action, musical, thriller, science fiction and even political satire on the constant 'war' on terrorism.It has numerous characters, all of which are playing their part in the overall story. However, this is where the 'haters' start to build their argument. There are so many characters that none of them (bar Dwayne Johnson possibly) are really afforded the screen time they deserve. Hence we never really know an awful lot about them and then suddenly they're killed off and we're left none the wiser to what they were really about.Then you have the narration. There's an old saying in the writing world: 'Show, don't tell.' Here, Southland Tales simply tells half of the important plot points through a narrator and various fictional shots from the internet. Again, this does give off the feeling of being a bit rushed.But, if you can get over the many minus points, you'll find that Southland Tales is actually quite a novel story, told in a very slick and stylish way. Some of the scenes are almost visually hypnotic and the soundtrack (courtesy of Moby) certainly adds to the mood.If you've seen Donnie Darko, you may know what to expect. Don't think you're going to get any quick answers to what's going on. You may find you're looking up answers on the internet as to what Southland Tales is all about. That prospect may not appeal to everyone, so, if you're one of them, don't bother watching this. However, I'll just sit back and enjoy the experience. I don't claim to understand everything and I'll never say it's a perfect film. However, I found it perfect for me.

Version I saw: UK bluray releaseActors: 5/10Plot/script: 3/10Photography/visual style: 6/10Music/score: 6/10Overall: 5/10'Southland Tales' is director Richard Kelly's follow-up to 'Donnie Darko', which has gone down as the hippest film in the mindfuck genre. Unfortunately, unlike DD, it was an utter mess.Although the cast seemed exciting at the time, with hindsight they were nothing more than fashionable: Sarah Michelle Gellar, who has disappointed me after great work on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, who was still riding his large wrestling fan-base, Seann William Scott of 'American Pie' fame, and Justin Timberlake. The Rock has made a reasonable go of it, and Timberlake still dabbles in acting, but the others have faded without trace.There are, to be fair, some really interesting-seeming visual and intellectual ideas in the film, but none of them is followed up in anything like the rigorous way that would establish whether they are truly illuminating or just dead ends. At times, the ridiculousness of it all actually made me laugh out loud, and while that could be deliberate, I am really not so sure. Meanwhile, those parts of the plot that are coherent, are actually childishly straightforward, presenting little to even hold the interest.It seems as if Richard Kelly started the project with enthusiasm and excitement, sketching out a raft of ideas to be hammered together with the application of serious work later on. Then the Hollywood system ground him down, sapped his creativity and motivation, and he ended up going through the motions on the rest of the film, agreeing to casting of the latest names without really assessing their suitability, and allowing half-finished ideas to dominate the screenplay.More recently, Kelly made The Box, which slipped out barely noticed, despite having some big names associated with it. I hope it is good, as it would be so sad for the creative talent behind Donnie Darko to fall by the wayside.