Amnesia tale is forgettable; cinema SOUTHLAND TALES

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Dec 7, 2007

(15, 144 mins) Reviled by many when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Richard Kelly's ambitious science fiction fantasy has been trimmed by some 16 minutes, but still makes little sense. It's 2008 and the Third World War III has begun, forcing the US government to seize control of the internet.

Action movie star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson) vanishes without trace and reappears in the desert suffering from amnesia, having apparently penned a screenplay with a fame-seeking porn star called Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar).

Boxer's wife Madeline (Mandy Moore), daughter of Republican Senator Bobby Frost (Holmes Osborne), struggles to make sense of her husband's behaviour as he races to regain his memory.

Meanwhile, two veterans of the Iran conflict (Seann William Scott, Justin Timberlake) embark on separate journeys of self-discovery that will nudge them to the brink of drug-fuelled insanity.