Population 436

Population 436_360P

Population 436

I saw the title, read the cover and it sounded an interesting and slightly different movie, how wrong could i have been. It started with a poor excuse for a car crash at the beginning and finished with a poor excuse for a car crash at the end. I could see from here it was only going to get worse. After 5 minutes it was obvious the film was going to rival Date movie as the poorest film of the year but 10 minutes in it was almost as bad as the Last Drop which has to be the Turkey of all time. The film creaked along at a painfully slow pace with no real purpose. The film was predictable and all the film needed was a few bad cameo roles from Michael Madsen, Billy Zane and a 2 minute excuse to include Harvey Keitel to complete the poor excuse of a release this truly is. My wife was asleep within 2 minutes of myself starting the DVD and she can stay awake for the whole of a Jim Carey Movie. I would have to say this movie needs some serious work to make it watchable, i would recommend no picture and no sound but hey thats just my opinion but don't say i didn't warn you...............

Jeremy Sisto plays a census bureau guy, sent to Rockwell Falls (named after the guy who sings "Somebody's Watching Me") to see why they've had the same population for 100 years in a row. But the people of the town have other plans for Jeremy. I started watching this movie as one of my "luck of the draw" picks, not expecting much after the never-ending influx of poor crud I get to see all the time. But this film was good, actually good, and most shockingly: it was good because of Fred Durst, the frontman for rap-rock group Limp Bizkit. Durst plays the town police officer, and does such a fine job of being cordial and friendly in one scene and emotional in another. Who knew he had it in him to be anything besides violent or obnoxious? Not to downplay Sisto's part, but Durst really stole the show with this one. "Population 436" offers a blend of paranoia, numerology, isolation, entrapment and a little bit of romance. You won't get any gore, and you're not going to see * vixens running around. But you will get a unique story. Sure, you have to ignore the obvious (like why the town is so isolated in 2006) but that's not as difficult as you might think because this film makes you want to believe. Just watch it. Watch what lengths the town will go to in order to keep its population set firmly at 436. Somewhat bizarre, but completely believable.

I obtained Population 436's DVD from local store awhile ago after watching the trailer on IMDb. I felt attached to the storyline - and was wildly curious about how could possibly any town has constant population, something must went really wrong?. Yes, everything seems to be wrong with this town although everything seems to be perfectly normal. A happy little small neighborhood with many buts. The census bureau agent is on his duty on only counting...but soon discovered there are odd pieces in the survey, then the adventure unfolds. On summary, acting of the main players are Good - although the villager's and suspense seems to be exaggerated and overly done sometimes. There are a lot of mysteries in this village, but unfortunately they're poorly unfold and there is not enough twists in this movie. As a result of the unclarity of the causes and root of the problem - many suspenses (i.e the nightmare) are to be unfounded and quiet irritating. The storyline sometimes unfold in 'bizarre' fashion. People seems to act really strangely in this movie with no apparent reason (i.e One suddenly attacked the other like crazy dog...and some people just tried to follow the others..etc). I think this is really amusing in someway, making me scratching off my head quiet a few times during the movie. If this is an attempt to lengthen the movie, then mission accomplished - but otherwise, I don't think it has reached any goal. The suspense tricks deliberately doesn't work for me and makes this film rather a bizarre mystery drama...and can't be classified as a thriller or horror.

This is just bad, bad, bad. Who on earth green-lighted this garbage? The plot is terrible, the execution formulaic in the extreme. There was literally not a single move any of the characters in this movie made that was anything but blatantly obvious and horrifyingly stupid. You connect with absolutely nobody in this movie. The "hero" is boring in all kinds of ways, and when the obvious ending comes, you breathe a sigh of relief that this is FINALLY over. I enjoy watching an Ed Wood movie because it is so bad it is both funny and tragic. When this movie was over I was just left with a feeling that I wished it was the script writer who met his maker in the end, not the "hero". I didn't like or dislike the "hero" enough to care what happened to him.

I think this movie could have been better but it's hard to say exactly how. The acting was less than stupendous but I can't find too much to criticize. I was never bored and the ending (including alternate) was unpredictable. I didn't find it too scary except for one scene that caught me off guard; a pivotal point in the movie. Two CGI flaws stood out in scenes where it was probably used to cut costs. Keep an eye on the moving Jeep and study the town in aerial views. The latter may require a high resolution TV or projector. A few plot holes were adequately explained by paranoia but it's difficult to be that isolated in the lower 48 now. Under different circumstances Rockwell Falls could indeed be "the most perfect place on Earth," meaning a picturesque town that isn't destined to get overrun. There are safe and sane ways to stop population growth and I think the whole world should encourage that. Whether or not you agree, I can recommend this film as more than light entertainment.

I thought the movie was not too bad. Not very creative and very predictable, but I liked some of the ideas and the characters and actors were okay. But then I saw the last few minutes. They were stupid and not very well thought through. But even worse was the message they sent: You have no chance to escape from your destiny! The wrath of god will always find you! ... Until the end I thought the movie was supposed to criticize the narrow-minded, fanatic Christian right but the last minutes even seemed to support the villagers' point of view, that it was all God's wish that people were dying. I can see the people in the village gloating, because they were right again. What a horrible message for a movie that was just supposed to entertain.

Well, I was kind of hoping for a thriller with this movie, but around half way through you'll see the ending coming if you've watched at least half a dozen thrillers. And I have seen MORE than half a dozen so it was pretty predictable. Can't say this was too much of a thriller, Michelle Maxwell MacLaren doesn't come anywhere near M.Night Syamalan and his thrillers and suspenses. The other thing that backed me off was the background score. Its always the same weird music which you'd get sick of 15 minutes into the movie. The theme is well... nice. The story is unique, that I guarantee you, but kinda seemed lame to me. I mean a town with Population at 436 through a 100 years? You can always guess how the climax is going to be! Oh yes, there are a large number of plot holes too. Decent performances though. Jeremy Sisto, through whose eyes we see the movie give a good enough performance. The camera angles throughout the film were average and impressed me only in the 'chase'. ;) OK, now this movie might be rated R, but the "brief sexuality and violence" lasts only a couple of sec. It should be PG-13. Predicability and average plot with huge plot holes cause its downfalls. Decent performances uplifts it a bit. Overall though it doesn't fall into MUST-WATCH-OR-ALL-HELL-WILL-BREAK-LOSE, its worth a rental... maybe.... if you're too much of a movie buff. I give it 5/10. Bite me.

"Hi, my name is Jeremy Sisto, and I'm from the Census Bureau. In other words, I've come to count you hillbillies. I hear that you have 435 inhabitants and one lame white metal rapper." "That's correct. We keep Fred here because metal fans from all over the world had donated 15 million dollars to us to keep him here against his will. Besides, he is so inexpensive and low maintenance: Fred is the only one who won't be needing a lobotomy." "The Stepford Wives". "The Reaping"……… You don't have a clue yet? Need more hints? "Dead & Buried". "The Wicker Man"……… Still confused? Well, then this is the ideal movie for you! If you still haven't guessed the type of horror sub-genre from these four hints, then you've either never seen a horror film before, or you're 9 years old AND have never seen a horror film before. However, to figure out not only the genre but even the entire "mystery" behind this unoriginal premise, all you need to do is to watch the first 436 seconds of P436: contained in it is all the most basic information you need to spoil for yourself any kind of major plot-twist "surprise" that the incompetent writer and clumsy female director had planned for you. The movie begins like this: 1. A man gets killed trying to run away from Fred Durst. (Anyone anyone would run away from Fred Durst and his music, cop or no cop.) 2. A baby is born at the same moment of the man's death. 3. The town's plaque says "population 436". 4. Even the movie title tells you this. That is what is known as "information overkill". Hence, a simple mathematical equation should help even Slipknot fans to read the humongous plot-twist miles ahead: 1 + 2 + 3x4 = the town must be some kind of a religious cult that maintains its precise population number by force. So why watch the rest of the movie? In the hope that Fred Durst's character gets killed? Not only does Freddy not get killed (horror-movie Freddies are immortal, remember?), but he even ends up getting engaged to Sisto's rather sexy (and recently lobotomized) girlfriend. You might wonder why she's been lobotomized... in order to agree to marry Durst. Duh! So obvious. The movie's painful predictability makes it even harder to watch because the cliché story moves very slowly. Watching P436 is like watching a snail trying to "run" away from a Limp Bizkit concert. Nevertheless, because I'm the type of person who sees the glass as half-full, I'd decided not to get annoyed by the obvious flaws. Instead of being peeved that Fred Durst now even infests the world of film (which is pitiful enough without him), I chose to rejoice the fact that he doesn't sing at all! There isn't even a single Limp Bizkit track in the end-credits. Well... almost. In the barn scene (at the end), when he threatens to kill himself but sadly doesn't, he whines almost like he sings in LB. It's quite funny, actually... The definitive highlight of the film, as ironic as that may sound. And what modern-day horror film would be complete without the obligatory "hey, my mobile phone doesn't work here!" cliché... IQ 43.6