Southland Tales

** - I am fairly certain that there is a pretty neat idea to be uncovered by a diligent viewer who watches this enough times while taking notes, making flowcharts, and analyzing the minute details of this film. However, I am not willing to put that much time or effort into watching this or any movie. Therefore, what I ended up seeing when sitting through this 2 and ½ hour film was a bunch of randomly strung together scenes with very little connection between parts and an ending that unsuccessfully flails at wrapping the plotlines into a neat little package. That makes this second effort from “Donnie Darko” writer/director Richard Kelly more than a little disappointing. Other drawbacks that this film features are as follows: a prominent role for “The Rock” who delivers all of his lines as if he’s trash-talking another wrestler, Justin Timberlake as not only an actor but also the narrator, dual roles for Sean William Scott, a small part for Kevin Smith in which he wears a Santa Claus-like beard, a scene that shows two automobiles having intercourse, almost no exposition as to what is going on other than the dull narration, and a number of SNL alumni playing parts that feel a lot like their unfunny one-trick characters from that show. While certain aspects of the main premise and a few of the plot strands are pretty neat – in theory - the failure to deliver on any of them makes this hard to watch.