From the Director of Donnie Darko comes Southland Tales, a sci-fi / action/ black comedy staring The Rock. We're not sure which part of that sentence frightens us most.
Set in a nuclear ravaged Los Angeles circa 2008, The Rock (credited here under real name Dwayne Johnson) features as amnesiac movie hero Boxer Santaros. He must team up with porn star cum chat show host Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar) to find a sex tape and save the world from Marxist revolutionaries. Bet old Jean Claude Van Damme wishes he was ten years younger.
"Southland Tales is a monumentally bad film," says CHUD.com. "A landmark in 21st century cinematic awfulness." Total chud in fact.
And if that does not put you off, Justin Timberlake narrates the whole thing and even pops up as a drug peddling Iraq war veteran. Jesus H Christ.
Much better, but conversely much tougher to track down is The Killing of John Lennon. This is the dramatised account of assassin Mark Chapman and his journey towards notoriety.
It's a chilling experience, as Empire concurs:
"A transfixing recreation of the events that persuaded a Hawaiian security guard that murdering an ex-Beatle would alert the world to the message of JD Salinger’s cult novel, The Catcher In The Rye."
Andrew Piddington’s indie drama will probably be unjustly overlooked thanks to its minimal distribution. But even if you can’t find a showing, do make a note for buying the DVD. The Killing of John Lennon is an occasionally abstract, yet worthwhile diversion..
I'm Not There is the one that has six different actors playing Bob Dylan throughout the course of his career including, would you believe, Cate Blanchett.
Is it worth the pain of seeing this beautiful maiden decked out in a bird’s nest wig and given the pallor of a slightly nauseous Whitby Goth? Time Out seems to think so: "An extraordinary puzzle of a biography that's ripe to be decoded."
Based on the reflective one’s songs as well as his autobiography, this has been a generally well received biopic. Even with the admittedly absurd idea of having Dylan represented (in part) by an Africa American child, I’m Not There apparently pulls it off.
"Dylan freaks and scholars will have the most fun," agrees Variety. "There will inevitably be innumerable dissertations on the ways Haynes has both reflected and distorted reality."
Maybe only for fans of the fringe or Dylan himself - there are plenty of both out there though.
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Fri 7 Dec 2007 at 10:16am
