Southland Tales

Southland Tales
by Richard Kelly (II)

List Price: ~~$24.96~~
Our Price: $19.99
You Save: $4.97 (20%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $4.48 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases

Compare Prices for Southland Tales

Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Carlos Amezcua, Curtis Armstrong, Joe Campana (II), Robert Benz (II), Todd Berger
Director: Richard Kelly (II)
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 144 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-18
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of Southland Tales

Movie Review: "This Is the Way the World Ends: 'Not with a Whimper, but with a Bang'"
Summary: 3 Stars

Part dystopian tale of near future events and part trail-blazing satire, `Southland Tales' keeps it funny enough without losing its cool. Going into the introduction, you don't think it's possible when Abilene, TX is attacked along with other Texas cities by nuclear bombs on the Fourth of July.

The fallout of this horror is that the draft has been reinstated with America officially at war with Iraq, Iran, Syria, and North Korea. In the process of all this terror is an election campaign. Bobby Frost is the Republican candidate for President who spends a good deal of time winning back California in the election for the first time in two decades. (To give you a flavor of the writing, the Southern senator is often quoting Robert Frost's famous poems "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" and "The Road Not Taken," saying he has traveled the road less traveled by and "that has made all the difference".)

Under his command is Boxer Santeros (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), a man whose memory is erased by terrorist kidnappers during the nuclear nightmare but manages to get to Los Angeles from near the Nevada border.

If you think this country is divided now, it's nothing like in the movie. Homeland Security has expanded into a complete surveillance system ("ID-it"--or nearly IDIOT) that has everyone identified on the Internet. L.A. is the heart and center of the domestic front as Neo-Marxists stationed underground in beachfront town, Venice, try and infiltrate the intelligence agency with Cheri Oteri, their own mole. On the ballot is Proposition 69, which Senator Frost vehemently opposes for allegedly compromising national security. (It doesn't take much extrapolation to know that it would repeal an advanced version of the Patriot Act.)

Forgetting his true identity as well as his wife's (Mandy Moore), Boxer takes refuge with an occult astrologer Krista Now/Kapowski (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who is known for sweeping forecasts of the future as well as her advocacy for sexual freedom on a Malibu cable channel. Completely vulnerable, Boxer also comes under the wing of UPU3 police officer, Roland Tavener (Seann William Scott), an extension of Homeland Security. Both men have been cloned (into Jericho Cane and Ronald Tavener respectively and must come to terms with their alter egos).

The plot, all strings of it, involves finding Boxer Santeros, while fighting surveillance underground, and trying to be reconciled with one's alter ego and survive all the fighting.

You can understand that 'Southland Tales' has a lot to figure out. At the same time, they keep the mood and pace light enough, so you know not watching a 'Children of Men' imitator. Interestingly enough you don't have to keep track of everything; it's casual enough to be enjoyed. (It's not quite a musical, either, although songs played along the way enhance the mood and message.) The portrayal of feminist Marxist, Cindy Pinzucki, and her cohorts is so delightfully loopy that the movie often lost any of the initial tension it provided in the fallout scenes. (No one could outdo Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in `Thelma and Louise,` but these girls are less serious and, if anything, more fun.) This is deliberate, but I was impressed at how much this satire made me laugh. Of course its inane and happy to be that way, but don't think you'll end up being as confused as Boxer Santeros, figuring out what's going on. (And "The Rock" has proven himself a decent Arnold Schwartenegger successor by adding some disciplined screen presence to the scenes.)

My main objection to the film is not its many plot points (which for the first 2/3rd`s they juggle well), but its resolution. Instead of continuing with a funny, satiric ending, they try to get serious again and end with mutations trying to catch up with their alter identities. Trying to build suspense in the ending chase scenes, the film becomes a protracted affair that muddles its message and momentum in the process. In a way the movie loses its own identity. Once the movie figures out what it wants to be, it should stick to its guns, instead of shifting focus unnecessarily.

Write your own review

All Southland Tales Movie Reviews

Summary of Southland Tales

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

Southland Tales is an ensemble piece set in the futuristic landscape of Los Angeles as it stands on the brink of social, economic and environmental disaster. Boxer Santaros is an action star who's stricken with amnesia. His life intertwines with Krysta Now, an adult film star developing her own reality television project, and David Clark, a Hermosa Beach police officer who holds the key to a vast conspiracy.

Action & Adventure DVD Video

Comedy

DVD Video

Movies most talked about in MARCH and APRIL big DVD release

Juno (Single-Disc Edition)
Release date: 2008-04-15; DVD
Best price: $15.99
Price in other shops: ~~$29.98~~

Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Release date: 2008-04-08; DVD
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops: ~~$29.96~~

There Will Be Blood (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Release date: 2008-04-08; DVD
Best price: $18.45
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $17.98
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

The Mist (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
MIST, THE: 2-DISC COLLECTOR'S EDITION (DVD MO; Release date: 2008-03-25; DVD
Best price: $16.96
Price in other shops: ~~$32.95~~

Southland Tales
Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $17.88
Price in other shops: ~~$24.96~~

I Am Legend (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition with Digital Copy)
Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

No Country for Old Men
Release date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $13.47
Price in other shops: ~~$29.99~~

Into the Wild (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Release date: 2008-03-04; DVD
Best price: $18.88
Price in other shops: ~~$35.98~~

Similar DVD Movies

Gone Baby Gone
Release date: 2008-02-12; DVD
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: ~~$29.99~~

Hitman
Release date: 2008-03-11; DVD
Best price: $9.89
Price in other shops: ~~$29.99~~

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Release date: 2008-04-01; DVD
Best price: $17.98
Price in other shops: ~~$34.99~~

Beowulf (Unrated Director's Cut)
Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $11.35
Price in other shops: ~~$29.99~~

30 Days of Night
Release date: 2008-02-26; DVD
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops: ~~$28.95~~

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-02-05; DVD
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops: ~~$27.98~~