Population 436
Picture:
C+ Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C
Michelle
MacLaren’s Population 436 (2006)
could have been an interesting twist on the same old story about a dark small
town that is happy and bright on the outside, but a deadly cult on the inside
who will kill to survive. After Frank Oz
so badly botched the Stepford Wives
remake (it and the original are reviewed elsewhere on this site), you figured
someone might do it right and having a female director was a chance to do it
different. Unfortunately, Michael
Kingston’s screenplay is so bad, dull and lame, she never had a chance.
The tale
centers on a town called Rockwell Falls, which has had the same population for
100 years. It takes all that time for
the U.S. Government to become suspicious and send someone (Jeremy Sisto) to
investigate. When he gets there, he
discovers leaving is not as easy as arriving.
It turns out a cult that is hiding behind born-again Christianity and
using “unorthodox” methods (like electrode brain treatments) to take care of
anyone who gets in their way.
Unfortunately,
the characters are so cardboard that you’ll be bored watching them and this
would actually seem anti-Christian if it was actually effective. Instead of expressing some anxiety or fear of
the extreme Religious Right, it backfires and reminds us that movie clichés can
be as mind-numbing as any politically extreme ideology. Rocker Fred Durst also stars as a police
officer, but he would have been better off hanging at the Playboy Mansion or
cutting a new album!
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and intentionally downplays
colors, with the lack of detail only outdone by some bad digital effects and
montage segments that are just plain lame.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is fair, but nothing too impressive. The only extra is an alternate ending that
also does not work, but does not look as dumb as the one they settled on. No wonder the population stayed the same!
- Nicholas Sheffo
