Southland Tales on DVD (2006)

williamsgwynfa [Highly rated reviewer] , 03/05/2007

this dvd is superb. it is a futuristic film that calls upon the city of Los Angeles to act, after the Texas cities of El Paso and Abilene have fallen victim to twin nuclear attacks on July 4th, 2008, during a heatwave, where a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions precipitates America into war.

The Patriot Act has been upgraded to a new agency known as US Ident , which keeps constant tabs on citizens, even to the extent of censoring the internet, and using fingerprints, in order to access computers and bank accounts.

In order to be able to respond to the fuel scarcity, the German company Treer designs a generator of inexhaustible energy which operates thanks to ocean currents.

in the city of Los Angeles, on the brink of chaos, and social, economic and environmental disaster, we follow the criss-crossed destinies of Boxer Santaros played by Dwayne Johnson also known as The Rock, who is an action film actor stricken with amnesia, Krysta Now played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, an ex-porn star in the midst of reconverting, and developing her own reality television project, and twin brothers - Roland and Ronald Taverner (both played by Seann William Scott), whose destinies becomes confused with that of all mankind.

The name of the film refers to the Southland, a name used by locals to refer to Southern California, and more specifically, Greater Los Angeles.

well worth watching.

  126 out of 134 people found this review helpful

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dustybertram from Luton [Highly rated reviewer] , 21/12/2007

I've been a big Rock fan for years and have been looking forward to this film for months. Unfortunately this film started with little promise them descended to utter tripe.

I think the story had promise but was badly executed and after the first 2 hours when youn thought it was reaching a crescendo it fell with a bit flat plop.

I can't imagine what the rock was thinking when he read this script. It had a alot of beginnings for storylines but didn't finish any, even the main storyline of his memory loss was somehow lost in the script untill the last 15 minutes when the writes had finally come down off their drugs and realised they must write some kind of ending no matter how unexplained and pointless.

This film doesn't even have the saviour of being short - being 2 1/2 hours not only is it dire, it is about 45 mins too long.

  48 out of 49 people found this review helpful

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Varkanoid from WAKEFIELD [Highly rated reviewer] , 09/11/2007

From this trailer this film looks very intersting. What puzzles me though about the reviewer giving it 5 stars and having watched it on DVD...... Its Nov 2007 and the film is not in cinemas till 7th Dec 2007 so how did they see it on DVD ?

Its not available on Amazon.com and DVDBoxoffice dont have it either ? Shady!

  33 out of 35 people found this review helpful

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Meako [Highly rated reviewer] , 26/12/2007

Has to be classed as one of the biggest 'love or loathe' films of 2007, the director of Donnie Darko delivers a complete mind-trip of a film, which asks....nay begs...the audience to just sit back and ride with it rather than try to make sense of it all. Once the film is over, then start pondering what was happening and with any luck it will start to become clear. Having read the 3 part preview graphic novels (rapidly summed up in the films opening moments) I knew what to expect, and kind of understood the turns the film made. Good performances assist Kelly's tale-spinning, and the end result is a film that is for those who thought Donnie Darko was much more than just a film about a troubled teenager. If you truely 'got' that film, then Kelly has built on some elements from Darko and added more abstract concepts. The result is a film which is the polar opposite plot wide of Darko and requires repeat watching to fathom more of the mysteries - much in the same vein as films by David Lynch do. This is not for those people who see the poster and think, 'Oh cool! The Rock is in another movie! And that bloke from American Pie is in it too!' I am firmly in the 'Love It' camp here.

  25 out of 25 people found this review helpful

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JemimaMH from Edinburgh , 30/06/2008

Southland Tales is a complete mess. Obviously chopped to bits and rewritten to hell this movie totally lacks any kind of coherency in character or plot - yet it is still a fun watch. A plethora of small parts by some truly random actors (Christopher Lambert, Jon Lovitz, John Larroquette etc.) keep things moving along as the movie lurches from one random scene to another.

By the end I must admit I was a bit tired of it all and it all seemed way to much like old Donnie Darko for my liking but I was still impressed by the balls of Richard Kelly in unleashing this on the world.

Not as important or as deep as the making of claimed it was trying to be - but well worth it for the curious..

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