Southland Tales (2006)

Writer/director Richard Kelly followed up his cult smash hit debut film Donnie Darko (2001) with the overly ambitious and bitterly divisive Southland Tales (2006)! Set in a then-not-too-distant future wherein the full effects of the controversial Patriot Act had driven America into a police state where the survivors of a Third World War have now commodified militarism. The film is told through the unlikely alliance of action movie star Boxer Santaros (Dwayne Johnson), psychic porn star Krysta Now (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and twin brothers Roland—a cop—and Ronald—a crook—Taverner (Seann William Scott). With musical numbers, music videos, commercials, and all manner of science fiction intrigue thrown in for good measure, Southland Tales is a descent into a dystopian world that could have been had the circumstances allowed. The film debuted at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in a nearly three-hour version that was roundly booed and rejected by the French audience. Before hitting theaters later that year, Kelly got to work and made a new cut of the film that ran just over 140 minutes, though it only amplified the film's problems. Thankfully we now live in a world where both cuts of the film are available, it's just a damn shame that there's no cut of the film with a nude scene from Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson! The wrestler turned actor is in peak physical condition in the flick, having only recently left the world of wrestling behind, and he Rocks the no-shirt look better than just about anyone in the biz! Dwayne will make your Johnson hard as a Rock!