lordvolde Reviews

Population 436 (2006 Video)

Another aggressively bland "suspense" movie.

[2/10 · 1 August 2006]

Population 436 is yet another piece of evidence for the theory that suspense film writers think that everyone who goes to a movie theatre is stupid.

It starts off with a strange idea; there's a town that always has the exact same population (436, obviously), year after year and year. Most people in the audience would have figured out why this is within the first few minutes of the movie. I mean, there are only two or three possible explanations and the movie makes it painfully obvious which one is correct.

That would be fine, except that the writers apparently thought that we wouldn't realize what was happening until they told us outright. You can see how they struggled to keep everything suspenseful and mysterious, and it's almost sad to know that they went to so much trouble when the movie revealed its greatest secret in the first five minutes. Don't think that the clumsily deployed mystery is the only thing bad about Population 436. It features many of the other staples (well, clichés) of the horror/suspense genre: freaky religious cults, ominous gas stations (of DOOM!) and enough weird inconsistencies to be almost terrifying if the movie wasn't so risible.

Personally, I wouldn't spend any money going to see this movie. Encyclopedia Brown is more clever and suspenseful, and you get him at the library for free.

The Proud Family Movie (2005 TV Movie)

Okay movie bogged down by continuity errors

[5/10 · 30 October 2005]

I need to get this off my chest. The Proud 'clones' didn't make any sense. First of all, when you clone something, it is generally an embryo. The Proud Clones should have taken at least 40 something YEARS to be intelligent and grown-up enough to go on that mission. Not only that, it doesn't really make any sense to mix peanuts and stuff in there when he already had their DNA. Duplicates or robots would have been a better term to use but I'll let it go.

GOOD POINTS -Oscar was hilarious as always. -Penny and the rest of the Proud Family were in character. -I liked the ending where Oscar and Penny were on Dr. Carver's blimp. -The evil Dr. Carver was hilarious, especially his villain songs.

BAD POINTS -The movie just sort of...let itself go with the Oscar robot (I refuse to call it a clone). It seemed to vanish after a blurry scene where it knocked itself out -There were a number of continuity errors (where did the other robots get the clothes that Oscar and company put on) and (how the heck did the peanut robot of Carver get a sunburn anyway?). -"Battledance!?" -Not enough use of the Gross Sisters

All around, I'd give this movie a round 5 out of 10. Oscar and Dr. Carver saved it from a 3.