Reaction & Review | The Munsters

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 2022. That movie is "The Munsters".

Yes, guys, I'm gonna be tackling Rob Zombie's take on this classic family that came out last year. And before I talk about what I know about this movie going in, I should mention that this was a movie that I was originally gonna hold off on reviewing until early next year. However, I noticed there was an extra opening in October for my schedule that I didn't notice until about close to a week ago. And seeing as how the next episode was gonna be on Halloween itself, I figured that this movie would be a perfect choice to put on there for the upcoming holiday. So, this movie will count as an unofficial Halloween special, seeing as how I normally don't do Halloween specials to begin with. I mostly reserve specials when it comes to Christmas movies. But that's neither here or there.

So anyway, as for this movie, as I've made mention before in the past, I LOVE "The Munsters". I watched it growing up as a child, and I even enjoyed that Christmas television movie that I reviewed several years ago. And when I heard that there was gonna be a new Munsters movie coming out, which was also gonna be produced by Rob Zombie, I was genuinely excited in checking it out. Because when I think about it, there really hasn't been anything new, content wise, when it comes to "The Munsters" that's been released for a long time. I've seen a couple of attempts in bringing back "The Addams Family" through animated features, including that "Wednesday" series on Netflix that a lot of people gushed over for a time. Now I don't know if Rob Zombie is the right choice in reviving this classic family back in modern times, but I am gonna find out soon enough when I eventually start watching the movie.

Which then leads into one other thing I have to sorta make mention of. You see, when this movie was in theaters, it was almost completely blasted by critics and and even some fans, saying that this movie is a complete insult to "The Munsters" franchise. And normally, when I hear this kind of criticism, I would usually going to into it with some sort of caution. And while I am sorta going into it with a bit of caution, I also have to remember that I've went into a lot of movies beforehand that have gotten horrible reputations of being absolutely terrible, and I wind up enjoying them quite a bit. Hell, I even went into that Garbage Pail Kids movie a couple of months ago, despite the fact that almost everyone who saw that film claimed that it was one of the worst movies ever made. And after watching it...no, it ended up nowhere near as bad as everyone made it out to be. So you'll forgive me if I go into this thing with some higher tolerance, because I've learned that, sometimes, film critics have no idea what they're even talking about when it comes to the "worst" movie ever made.

But I'm getting a little bit off track here. I'm really hoping for this thing to be better than what it was made out to be. Now yes, there IS that possibility that this movie could actually be really bad, and that I'll probably end up hating this just like almost everyone else did when this thing was in theaters. But I'm still gonna go into this one with some high hopes, because I love "The Munsters" TV series, and I'm hoping this movie will actually be at least halfway decent. So the only way I'll really know if this movie is gonna be any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Munsters".

19 minutes later

All right, guys, I'm gonna say this much, so far. The film is starting off a little bit slow, but I will say that I am liking what I'm seeing so far. The only thing that's sorta questionable is the acting, specifically coming Lily Munster. Her acting sounds a little bit off-putting to me. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to get use to it as the movie rolls on. Everyone else, so far, has been doing great. Hoping Lily's actress will do the same soon.

11 minutes later

So, Herman's first words are him basically just telling jokes on a talk show. And some of the jokes here are actually kinda funny, and...OK, that was a little bit of a weird reaction from Lily there. But anyway, the jokes from Herman are also a little bit clever, too. I wasn't really expecting that, honestly.

3 minutes later

Oh, and now Herman's an actual rock star...interesting. Granted, his singing isn't really that good, but I can at least say that the music is OK. I mean, at least it's not something like shitty death metal or anything like that. So, I guess that counts for something.

18 minutes later

I'm gonna reiterate this again, guys, Herman Munster's singing is pretty terrible. Now that may be the intention, because "The Munsters" series had this thing where the Munsters family from the show always perceived things as terrible to be good to them. I know that it doesn't sound like it makes any sense, but it kinda does, if you ever watched the show. At least, to me, it makes sense in that context.

13 minutes later

OK, I have a question and it's something I was just thinking about. How exactly are Lily and Lester suppose to be siblings? I ask this, because Lester is being presented as werewolf while Lily is clearly not. I'm only asking, because if they're suppose to be brother and sister, then that means that the Count must've gotten hitched with a female werewolf at some point. Admittedly, I don't know how the genes are suppose to work between a vampire and a werewolf, but it's just something that I was thinking about, considering we've never heard anything about Lily's mother and all. Granted, I understand this is all trivial and fucking stupid, but it is something that I am a little bit curious about.

7 minutes later

Guys, unless my eyes have gotten worse, I think I just witnessed the origin story for how their pet, Spot, was adopted. For those of you who don't know, in the TV show, Spot was their pet dragon that you never physically saw, with maybe one or two rare exceptions, and it always lived under the stairs. I don't think that was ever established before until this movie. And now that I have gotten to learn the possible origin story for Spot, I will say that it was...pretty cool.

2 minutes later

OK, so now I'm actually getting a chance to see what Spot actually looks like up close. And I will say...he does look sorta cute, for a dragon, anyway. Wow, you REALLY do learn something new everyday, don't ya?

19 minutes later

You know, guys, I am gonna say that the music in this movie has been mostly really good so far...and then there's this bullshit techno music that's currently playing. You guys can't hear it for obvious reasons, but this techno music REALLY fucking sucks. Granted, that kinda applies to most techno music in general, but this music is only proving why it sucks in the first place.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Munsters". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So...what to even begin with? Well, I will say that, going into this movie, part of me was thinking that it was going to be just as horrible as a lot of people made it out to be when it was in theaters. And now that I've finally gotten a chance to see this thing for myself, I am gonna say that I actually wound up almost kinda loving it. Now mind you, the movie isn't great, but as someone who grew up watching "The Munsters", this film felt like a treat to me, and I really appreciate the effort Rob Zombie went through in order to make this movie happen.

So with that said, let's talk about the movie itself, shall we? And I'm gonna start with something that I brought up earlier. Specifically, on how critics perceived this movie as being terrible to them. Now I am not here to judge anyone's opinion on this movie if they didn't like it for whatever reasoning. But to a certain extent, I can *kind of* see why some people would have an issue with this movie. For starters, one of the biggest problems this movie has is that the writing almost borders on being plotless. Now that's not to say that there isn't any story here at all, but most of it really goes nowhere, and it doesn't really get resolved. For instance, we have these two grave robbers who try to steal the brain of some dead brilliant scientist from a morgue, and they use it for their own science experiment, AKA the Frankenstein method. However, one of them ends up stealing the wrong brain, and ends up creating what we know as Herman Munster. I should mention that this movie is a prequel to the TV series, and most of it is basically an origin story for how Herman got created, how he and Lily got together, and they, along with Lily's father the Count, end up moving from Transylvania to Mockingbird Lane in California. And that's pretty much it for this movie's plot. Like I said, there's barely any conflict here, and most of it gets dropped by the time the Munsters move to Mockingbird Lane. And I could see this being an issue for some people. But in real honestly, the Munsters TV series, overall, never really had a serious story. But then again, it WAS a sitcom, so I guess that was to be expected. Some sitcoms might try to pull a serious story, but the Munsters doesn't really fit that bill. So I can honestly overlook the story here being almost plotless, considering the nature of that show never had any continuing storylines.

Now since I just mentioned that this movie was based off a sitcom from the 60's, I want to touch upon the movie's humor. One thing I was sort of concerned about was the fact that since this movie was made in 2022, I was concerned that this movie was going to rely on stuff like pop culture references or trying to "modernize" it in some stupid way. And the reason why I put the quotations there is because some studios have some sort of bad habit of slipping in trends that are current at the time, and try to shoehorn it into their movies to feel like they're up to date with how they think modern audiences watches movies. Like, for example, how exactly would Herman Munster interact with bullshit like Tik-Tok? Or what if Lily Munster was too busy taking selfies on Instagram or Snapchat? Stuff like that. Or perhaps they would fit in some sort of political message into the film that is completely unnecessary to the overall story. Thankfully, however, this movie does nothing like. With maybe one or two jokes aside, this movie mostly relies on corny jokes or puns, most of that coming from Herman Munster. And I know some people don't like corny jokes and REALLY hate puns. I myself, personally, don't mind any of it, as long it's decently written. And for the most part, the jokes here are kind of funny. Granted, not all of them are gonna make you laugh out loud or anything, but some of the jokes here, at least for me, wound up with either a chuckle or a grin, or even both. And that's more than what I could ask for when you're making a movie about the Munsters. It's campy, but not to the point where you feel like you want to cringe if it was trying too hard to be funny.

One other thing I want to mention about this movie's writing are the references. And this is another thing that I feel is gonna tie into why this movie wasn't loved by critics. You see, this movie feels like it was made for fans of the TV show. And for those people who've seen it are gonna instantly recognize the references that came from the TV show. For example, any time Herman Munster looks at himself through a mirror, it always cracks. Or how anytime he or Lily Munster appears with him in front of somebody, or even a crowd, the footage would always speed itself up to see the people running away in fright faster than usual. One thing that I was really surprised by was the fact that they actually gave Spot, their pet dragon, an origin story on how he was first discovered and was eventually adopted into the Munsters family. It wasn't something that I was expecting, because, like I mentioned earlier, I don't think they ever explored that aspect before in the show. But regardless, I was happy to see that kind of detail being shown in this movie. However, as I mentioned earlier, this movie feels like it was made for fans of the show. And I have a feeling that a lot of critics who saw this movie never actually watched the show. So I could see them not getting the references, because they would feel that the movie was just throwing in some extra jokes for the sake of comedy. So for those who have have seen the show, they would most likely get the references almost instantly. However, for those who have never seen it, you're probably not gonna understand any of the references that this movie was trying to make. And if that's the case, then I would most likely recommend you go watch the show first before watching this movie in order for you to get the references.

One other quick thing I want to bring up is the film's runtime. It clocks in at about an hour and 50 minutes, and it does kinda show a little bit. It starts off pretty slow, roughly for about the first 20-30 minutes or so. And normally, I would have an issue with some movies taking too long to get somewhere because of their slow pacing. But honestly, and this is gonna sound a little bit biased seeing as how I am a fan of this series, it does flow better as the movie rolls along. And if you're able to stick with it, the rest of the movie is a breeze to get through. However, I obviously can't guarantee that for everyone else who just wants to see their movies get to the point.

So overall, the writing here is mostly decent, barring the non-existent story. And our characters here are all fleshed out and have tons of personality. And what helps it the most is the acting. Being that this was the first Munsters movie in a long time, I wasn't totally sure if they were going to get the right cast members for this. Now as for who they did get to play these classic characters and how they turned out, most of it feels pretty accurate to the TV show. The only weak part of our 3 main cast members would have to go to Jeff Daniel Phillips as Herman Munster. I'm not totally sure what it is, but I feel like, at times, he hammed up his performance a little bit too much for my liking. Now that's not to say that he sucked or anything, or that he was ever going to match the same kind of charm that Fred Gwynne gave to the character, but still, he could've toned some of it down a little bit. But regardless, Jeff Daniel Phillips still did a really good job with what he could do as Herman. I mentioned earlier that I was sorta put off by Lily Munster's actress, Sheri Moon Zombie, at first, but she quickly got more comfortable with the role as the film went on, and she definitely got a lot better. But the best of the bunch, by far, would have to go to Daniel Roebuck as the Count, AKA Grandpa Munster. My God, does this man ever nail this performance perfectly. He almost matches what Al Lewis did back in the day when playing the Count. And even at times, almost outshines him. He is just THAT good at what he does. If there ever is another Munsters movie being made, I would love to see him come back to play as the Count, because he was having a blast with this role. In fact, everybody in this cast was having so much fun with their given roles. Nobody here phones it in, aside from the occasional hiccup with Herman and Lily Munster. But you would have to notice it like I did, and it's mostly just a minor nitpick in the end. So overall, the acting here is great from everyone in this movie.

The sets here look really awesome. You can tell that Rob Zombie was trying to capture the look and feel of the Munsters, and it shows. The sets surrounding Transylvania look creepy, yet they also look colorful and bright at the same time. It really gives off that horror-esque feel without looking too scary. The costuming is a little bit of a mixed bag. At times, it looks like the costumes were made for cheap. However, I also have to consider the TV show, in which it also looked kinda cheap as well. And it's very well possible that this was done intentionally so that it could match as close as it could to how the show looked. Which is another thing that I think for people who have never seen the show will think that this movie is cheapening it out on these costumes and it's effects for real because the movie didn't have a high enough budget to get quality costumes and better effects. But that's just me theorizing there, so you have to take it for what it's worth. The makeup effects look really awesome. Especially on our three main characters, who look just like the characters from back during the day. The special effects involving CG, what little there actually is here, is decent for what it is. So overall, I can say that the special effects look mostly really good in this movie.

Camerawork here is pretty good. The lighting here is great. Like I mentioned earlier, everything here is bright and colorful, and it definitely makes the movie stand out in a positive light...god, that pun was terrible. But anyway, the lighting here works fine. The sound-mix here is mixed really well. The music here is mostly really good, minus that one techno track that plays towards near the end of the movie shortly after the Munsters move to Mockingbird Lane. As I said earlier, techno music in general is not really that good, and the piece of techno music they used here isn't any better. But everything else in terms of music is really good, including right at the end, where they play a remix of the theme song to "The Munsters" TV show, and it sounds great. So for the most part, the music here sounds really good.

Ultimately, guys, when all is and done, am I able to recommend "The Munsters"? For fans of the show, yes. As I've already stated before, this movie was made for fans of the TV show. And as someone who grew up watching the show, I can most definitely recommend it there. It is a great love letter to the TV show, and it definitely sticks to it's roots without trying to modernize it in some way. Now with that being said, can I recommend it to non-fans of the show? Honestly...probably not. If you've never watched the show, then you're probably not gonna want to watch this. If you really want to get into "The Munsters", then I would probably say go watch the TV show before you even considering watching this thing. Because if you go into this movie having no experience with the show, then you'd most likely not get any of the references or nods to the show that this movie was trying to aim for. Also, I don't know if I could recommend this to anyone who has seen any of Rob Zombie's films, because I've only seen just this one, so I can't really comment on any of his previous work. As for how this movie holds up on it's own standards, I would say it's OK, but it is sorta flawed. But as for someone who has seen the TV show, I ended up almost loving it. Again, the movie isn't great, and it certainly is flawed, but it's something that I can mostly overlook. And who knows? Probably on my second or third viewing of this thing, I'll end up loving it even more. For now, though, I think I'm gonna go back and rewatch some episodes of "The Munsters" TV show. I have the first season on DVD, so I'm just gonna go marathon some episodes of that right now, and this thing will definitely have a spot on my DVD shelf.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and have a Happy Halloween. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Stage Fright

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering an Italian slasher film from 1987. That movie is "Stage Fright".

Now I'm gonna be honest with you, guys, I didn't know anything about this movie up until about several days ago when I stumbled upon it at one of my local video stores, and decided to buy a copy of it on a whim. See, I read what was written on the back of the DVD case, and it sounded kinda fascinating to me. Basically, it's about a group of actors rehearsing for a musical about a mass murderer. And while all of this is happening, some murderous psychopath escapes from an insane asylum, and somehow ends up locked up with these actors overnight, who I'm going to assume are still rehearsing their musical.

Now admittedly, when I read the first part of this movie's plot summary, about how an insane psychopath has escaped an insane asylum, it reminded me of the time that I watched "Garden Tool Massacre". Because that was also the same place the killer from that movie escaped from. And I should mention for anyone who never read my review for that movie, "Garden Tool Massacre" was ungodly bad for so many reasons. If you honestly want to know what, you can my review for that movie somewhere in my season 2 file on my DA page.

But getting back to this movie, as interesting as the plot sounded, what really drew my interest to it was a blurb I caught right at the top of the back of the DVD case. It's from Tomb of DVD, and it simply says "One of the greatest Italian (or anywhere for that matter) slasher films!". Not totally sure why they needed to include the word Italian in there, but anyway, I read that blurb and I see that as a challenge. Because while I haven't seen a whole lot of slasher films, I can say that most of them ranged from being decent to being absolutely terrible. So this film has some REALLY big shoes to fill if it wants to be claimed as one of the greatest slasher films ever made.

One more thing I want to quickly mention, before I delve into this movie, is the film's director, Michele Saovi. I should that note that his first named is pronounced as "Michael", just in case anyone gets confused about the man's first name. But anyway, I was checking through this director's filmography. And while there are a lot of films of his that I haven't seen, there was one movie that he had an attachment to, and it's a movie that...I wasn't very happy with. That movie was "2020: Texas Gladiators". In case you're not familiar, that was one of the very earliest films I had ever reviewed for this series. It was probably my 4th episode ever, but I'm not totally sure on that. Anyway, to make a long story short, that film was absolute garbage from almost every conceivable level.

Now I'm not gonna necessarily hold that against this Saovi, because he was only credited as either a second unit director or assistant. I really want to see what he can do when he has full creative control over a film like this. I'm hoping for this movie to be pretty good, but I can also see this thing going way off the fucking rails here and be a massive turd. I'm hoping that it isn't, but there's only way to find out. And the only way I am gonna find out whether or not this thing is any good, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Stage Fright".

5 minutes later

So, this director's musical is about his female lead getting revenge against her rapist, who's also wearing an owl mask I should mention, by essentially raping him in return...OK. Not totally sure how that makes any logical sense, but I can at least say that it is sort of creative.

14 minutes later

So our psychopathic killer was hiding in Betty's car after they left the medical institution. I'm wondering how the hell he even managed to escape without anyone noticing that he left his cell after he killed one of the workers there. And somehow, I don't think this movie is gonna give out any sort of explanation for that. Granted, I understand that it's a very trivial thing to be complaining about, but it still does leave me curious here.

20 minutes later

All right, I have a question, and it's kind of a serious one. So earlier in the film, Betty's murder was reported by the police from her best friend, Alicia. And the police said that they looked all over the place for where the murderer could be, even inside the theater. And Alicia just discovered the key to the theater has gone missing. So my question is where the hell was the killer hiding this entire time?! My only guess is the dressing room, though that's just purely conjecture, since we only saw someone's shadow approaching the changing room that one of our female characters was in, so it could've been ANYBODY for all we know. Guys, I understand that I'm probably putting too much thought into this, but it's beginning to bug me a little bit.

12 minutes later

O...K, well, I certainly wasn't expecting our killer to use a power drill through the door to kill the guy that he's currently strangling. That was seriously an awesome-looking kill, guys. I gotta the movie props, there.

7 minutes later

And somehow, half of this chick's body was cut in half after she was almost pulled down by our killer. I'm wondering how the hell this killer was able to even manage that kind of feat, considering that he was hiding in complete darkness while doing this? I'm hoping that we get an explanation for that at some point. Otherwise, I'm gonna be a bit disappointed.

30 seconds later

OK...well, it seems like I just got my answer already. Apparently, our killer had a fucking chainsaw of all things, as he's using it to gut this guy's body with it! You know what? That is a perfectly reasonable explanation, and I'm totally cool with it.

8 minutes later

I'd like to say right now, guys, that I'm beginning to despise these fucking cops. Every single time that this movies cuts to these cops makes me wish these two were also locked in with our killer, because they have served NO purpose to this film whatsoever! That's how much I really despise them.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Stage Fright". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well, I may as well start with this. When I initially went into this movie, I had one of two predictions in mind. It was either gonna be one of the tamest slashers films I had ever seen, or it was going to be one of those over-hyped pieces of shit that was totally going to suck, because I read the blurb on the DVD case, and it was not actually going to live to being one of the best slasher films ever. Well, after finishing this movie for myself, I am gonna say that...I was pleasantly surprised here. I really wasn't expecting much from this thing at all, but it actually wound up being pretty good. Mind you now, the movie does have a couple of issues, but for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised by my experience with this movie.

So with that being said, let's start this review off by talking about the writing. Writing here, for the most part, is pretty solid. That being said, the pacing is a little bit of a disrupter here. To start with, our kills are sort of spaced out. We don't get our first kill until a little bit over 20 minutes into the movie. And then about the same time later, we don't get another kill until after our performers, along with the director and investor, are locked in with our killer, Irving Wallace, inside the theater. But shortly after that second kill happens, the kills start to become more frequent, and the movie mostly flows at an even pace after that. So the first 40 minutes are kinda slow to start with. Some of it is trying to build up our story, while some of it is just padding. Now in most cases, I would say that when you have that kind of slow boil with your movie, it would sometimes lead into your movie having a bit of a serious pacing issue, because you want to see things moving at an even pace. Thankfully, I can say that, even with the first 40 minutes being a little bit slow, most of the rest of the movie flows very well., which leads into the awesome kills. However, I'll get into all that when I cover special effects.

Our characters here are, admittedly, not all that interesting. The only three I can mention by name are Alicia, who is our main character, Peter, who is the director of the musical, and our killer, Irving Wallace. Everyone else I can write off as just killing fodder, because a lot of these characters don't have a whole lot of depth. Which makes sense, because as a slasher film, you're here to see most of these characters get killed off in the most gruesome ways. As for the ones I did mention a moment ago, Alicia, is our main character, and the only things I can remember about her is that she sprained her ankle while rehearsing, and so she secretly goes with Betty to a medical institution to try and get it fixed, only to end up getting fired by the director later for sneaking out. Speaking of which, our director, Peter, is a demanding director that is responsible for his musical about a serial killer that rapes his victims. He actually ends up changing it a bit after the first actual kill happens, from changing the killer in his musical from being anonymous to the name Irving Wallace, who doesn't know at the time that the real Irving Wallace is locked with them in the theater. And honestly, it does make Peter one of the more interesting characters up to that point, since he's the only one of our heroes who has any sort of depth worth mentioning.

And as for our killer, Irving Wallace, it's a bit of a mixed bag with him. You see, the only thing we really know about him is that he was a former actor that ended up killing 16 people before finally being taken away by the police, and most likely ended up at a medical institution in the process. I should clarify and state that the 16 people he killed was supposedly a rumor, according to one of the doctors that was treating Alicia. So I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say that actually happened. One other thing I should mention about Irving is that he is a silent killer in this movie, so he basically has no dialogue to work with. And honestly, it totally works. Especially towards the end at one point, where he has all of his victims in place on stage, and you just see him sitting there with the owl mask still over his face, along with the cat that also hangs around this movie at certain moments. It looks really cool, and it makes his character really stand out the most. Granted, he doesn't have any real connection with any of our characters, outside of the fact that he's a former actor. But still, what little we do know about him is FAR more depth than I can give credit to, unlike another movie I reviewed earlier this year called "Hell Fest", where it also had a silent killer that had no name and simply killed because fuck you, that is why.

There is one more set of characters that I would like to make mention of, and those would be our two worthless cops for this movie. Now as I mentioned earlier, after Alicia finds her friend Betty murdered, she and the rest of the people at the theater report the incident to the police. And the police chief says to the director that they'll leave one police car behind, just so they could keep an eye on the killer in case he decides to come back to the theater. Now that part in itself makes perfect sense. It would've been better if one of these cops actually DID something of value, like, say, one of them goes to check up on everyone inside the theater just to see if everything is OK, only to find out that the door is locked and they can't get in, so they would logically have to get off their asses and actually do something from there, right? Well...no. Not even remotely close. If you ever wanted to see pointless characters in your movie, you would find these two in a fucking dictionary of pointlessness. These two cops do nothing in this movie, other than cracking jokes, or just doing nothing of value. I'm going to assume that these two were suppose to serve as some sort of comic relief. And if that IS the case, then these two cops are the death of comedy. Their jokes are shit, and they have nothing to add to the overall story. You could cut these two out of the movie entirely and you would not miss a thing. They're only in the movie for about a combined total of around 2 minutes, but that's honestly 2 minutes too long to dedicate it to these asshats called cops, and it makes me wish there was an editor on hand to cut these scenes out entirely, and the rest of the movie would've flowed a bit better.

Now beyond that, the rest of the writing here is still pretty good. It does have a couple of issues when it comes to the characters and the pacing, but most of that can be easily overlooked, unless if you have some higher standard for pacing in your movies. Like I said, the first 40 minutes are somewhat slow, but if you can overlook that part, then the rest of the movie is a surprisingly good slasher flick. Now as for the acting, most of it is OK. I did notice, though, that some of the acting was dubbed in. Which makes sense, considering that this movie was made in Italy, and it's very well possible that some of the actors in this movie did not speak proper English, so they had to hire actors outside of the country to dub in their lines. And that was a common thing back during the days when Spaghetti Westerns were mostly filmed in Europe. Not sure how common that is for today's standards, but I'm not gonna get into all that. I should just solely focus on the acting for this movie. And like I said, most of the acting here is OK for what it is, and the dubbing is not too bad either. There were several actors who either hammed it up or tried to shout their lines a bit. I could recall Alicia's actor having to do that at certain points, and there were a couple of actresses who also sorta hammed it up as well. But outside of that, the acting here is all right. It's not great, obviously, but none of it is downright horrible either. It's just something that you have to take for what it is.

Now let's get into the special effects, and THIS is where the movie truly shines. The blood effects here are great in it's practical form. The gore effects, what little I did notice, are also really good. Our kills here are also really fucking cool, too. The best kill, by far, would have to go to the power drill that I mentioned earlier. That, to me, was probably one of the more creative kills I have seen in a long time. Second place would have to go to the chainsaw kill because, well...it's a fucking chainsaw. And 9 times out of 10, those sorts of kills are usually really awesome. Which explains why I can't put it above the power drill kill, because those kills are somewhat more common in slasher films. But anyway, guys, it's been a long time since I covered any movie that had really good blood effects. Looking at the budget, it seems to have been made for about a million dollars. And they took that rather low budget and made it work to it's advantage. Our costuming here is pretty good for all of our stage actors, and the owl mask on our killer also looks pretty awesome, too. And our primary set for the musical looks really good, as well. So yeah, I can definitely say the special effects, and everything surrounding it look really good.

Camerawork here is also really good. The lighting here is lit perfectly fine. The sound-mix is mixed very well. And our score is pretty good, too. Granted, most of it is synth music, but compared to a modern horror movie's score, where it sounds unneeded and generic, this score is actually pretty decent. None of it is amazing, mind you, but it's still pretty good for what it is.

Ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Stage Fright"? Yes, I actually can. This is one of the better slasher films I have seen in a long time. While I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to say that it is one of the best slasher films ever made, it certainly does make a strong case for it. If you are a horror fanatic, and you haven't had a chance to see this thing yet, go ahead and check it out. I don't know if this thing is up on YouTube or any other social media site where you can watch it, but if you can find it, give it a watch for yourself. Or if you can find it on DVD or Blu-ray, go ahead and pick it up, as long as it's for a reasonable price. For myself, I bought it around $10. And that, to me, is perfectly fine, as long as it's within that price range. Anything higher than that, then probably not. I don't know if it would be worth anything higher than $10, but if you feel that it's worth picking up at higher price, then you can go right ahead and buy it. This movie definitely surprised me a bit by being pretty good. So, I'm probably gonna end up holding onto this movie for my DVD collection, and to have something I could possibly watch every year around the Halloween season. Now, I think I'm in the mood for another horror film. And I think I'm gonna go and watch..."Chopping Mall". I've grown to love that movie every time I watch it, so I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done putting this review together.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | TRON

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a sci-fi movie from 1982. That movie is "TRON".

Now, I do vaguely remember a little bit about this movie. And when I say that, I mean that I remember seeing a very short clip of this film a long time ago on YouTube. And if I'm not mistaken, it was from a YouTube Poop of all things. And no, I'm not kidding about that either, it really has been that long ago. But anyway, I never got a chance to see this movie for quite some time, until one day, I bought the 20th Anniversary Edition on DVD, which supposedly has over 5 hours of extra features. So if this movie ends up being any good, I at least have something else to check out sometime after I finish watching the movie.

As for what I know about the film itself, I do know that this movie was one of the very first, if not THE very film to ever implement CG. And for better or worse, it has become a standard when it comes to making movies today. And in the case of Disney, this film was the very first movie in their catalog to ever experiment with CG. Now I know some people might bring up the fact that "The Black Cauldron" was the first animated film of theirs to use CG. And while that is true, it's not something that most people would notice, especially if you're someone who isn't interested in how films are being made. But with this movie, it is made very clear that it was taking a big risk to work with technology that was brand new at the time. So I'm curious to see how exactly this first attempt worked out in Disney's favor.

Now like I said earlier, I only saw a short clip of this movie, which was about a few seconds long, I should mention. So I haven't seen any other footage beyond what I saw all those years ago. I do know about the light-cycles, and I know that this movie takes place within a computer world of sorts. Beyond that, I'm really interested to see how this movie is gonna turn out for me. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "TRON".

8 minutes later

I will say this much, guys. The special effects I'm seeing so far look awesome! They seriously do. Granted, I understand this thing came out in 1982, so obviously, they wouldn't hold by today's standards. But still, these effects look awesome for their time, and I'm hoping that they continue to look awesome as this movie goes along.

17 minutes later

OK, I know this is a really trivial point to bring up. In fact, Flynn even brought it up himself. But I have to ask it myself: WHY the hell is that door so fucking big? I understand if it was made for, like, keeping bigger things inside of it or something, or to keep it from being destroyed by outside forces, but it just feels a little bit unnecessary to make a door that fucking big. Not to mention, it was also really slow, too. Just saying, perhaps ENCOM went a little overboard when designing their doors.

17 minutes later

I just saw someone die from playing a slower version of volleyball with Flynn inside the computer world. Mind you, the game itself looked pretty fascinating. But still, I'm kinda curious as to how Flynn is gonna come back from all this, given his current situation and all.

7 minutes later

So even in the computer world, the programs there still need water to survive. Funny, I always thought if you were stuck in a digital world, I don't think water would be something that you should have to worry about. Which makes me curious as to how the Master Control Program is even able to keep any of the programs alive for all of the games that they have to participate in? I understand it's probably all trivial in the long run, but it was just something that I was thinking about.

19 minutes later

Guys, I want to reiterate this point again: These special effects look amazing. I am loving how this movie is handling it's effects, and I am loving almost every moment of it as this film goes by. They really do look awesome, guys.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "TRON". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. So, where to begin with...? I guess I should say that, going into this thing, I was sort of setting my expectations high for this movie. Not because it's from Disney or anything, but more so that it was one of the very first movies to ever utilize CG, and I wasn't totally sure if it was going to win me over or not. Well, guess what? It totally did. This movie was awesome.

So now, I have to actually talk about why this movie was so good. I'm gonna start with the writing, as I usually do with most of these reviews. I will say that the actual story here is really interesting, though it is a little bit rushed at times. I say that, mostly because our set-up here for a plot is kind of a throwaway one. Basically, our main character, Flynn, is a computer hacker, who is trying to gain access to the Master Control Program that was developed by ENCOM's senior executive, Dillinger, because he believes that Dillinger was stealing his work on the video games that Flynn has made. And so Flynn is using his hacking abilities to try and find any kind of evidence that he can use against Dillinger to prove that his work was stolen. Now I say the story is a throwaway plot, because while we do get some kind of build up to where our characters break into ENCOM and try to break into the system to incorporate Allen's program Tron, most of that story gets tossed to the wayside right after the Master Control Program sends Flynn into the computer world. And by the time the film's done, the resolution for how it all ends just feels kind of rushed. Now again, I understand that this was mostly just a set-up, just so we can get to the part where we, the viewer, experience the inside world of a computer. I will talk more about the effects involving it later on, but I will say that, story-wise, it is fascinating to watch, but it could've been fleshed out a little bit more is what I'm trying to get at here.

Our characters here are, admittedly, a little bit shallow. None of them really get tons of depth, but I will say that they are, at the very least, likable. Flynn is seen as a little bit cocky at times, but that's the most annoying he gets with Jeff Bridges's character. The only other characters I can make mention of are Sark and the Master Control Program. Sark is basically a program that is also played by Dillinger's actor, and the Master Control Program is, well, pretty self-explanatory given it's name. It wants to control the entire world and believes that it can run it better than any of the humans thanks to it growing nature as a program. I should mention, again, that Dillinger created the Master Control Program mostly as a chess program, so he's partially responsible for letting his creation get too advanced for it's own good. Now while I will admit that Dillinger himself is pretty under-developed, I can give the Master Control Program a pass, mostly because it acts like one of those superstitions that people have in thinking that AI would completely takeover everything, leaving humans in the dust. While I personally don't really believe in any of that happening for my own reasons, this movie was sorta playing with that idea back then. So again, I'm giving the Master Control Program a pass here, because while the idea for it is kind of seen as a standard trope in a lot of sci-fi films, it still gets the job done. Which gives the viewer more of a reason to care about our heroes trying to overcome this threat and rewrite the Master Control Program off the computer world.

One more minor flaw I wanted to bring up in terms of it's story is something that no one is going to notice, except me, because I'm kind of one of those sad bastards that likes to notice small details. So, when our heroes are on the run on their light-cycles, one of the tanks manages to hit two of our characters out of their light-cycles, Flynn and Ram. While Tron is forced to leave his friends behind, Flynn manages to get Ram out of sight from the programs that are after our heroes. And once Flynn gets himself and Ram to someplace safe, the two decide to rest. The movie then fades to black and fades back to Flynn sleeping, as his fingers suddenly touch something that starts to light up. It's where then we discover that Flynn is a User, which is different from the other programs, because he's able to manipulate parts of the mainframe in the computer world to help him build one of those flying machines that sort of look like a crane you would see at arcades where you could win stuff like candy and other trinkets. But anyway, he's able to use that to help him navigate the computer world for a while in order to get where he wants to go. And the only problem that I noticed about it is that it feels rather *coincidental* that he suddenly has the ability to create what he wants just by simply touching whatever his hand touches first. Because there was really no hint at all about how he suddenly has the power to manipulate whatever he wants, almost at will. But honestly, like I said, this is such a minor nothing that almost no one else is going to notice that kind of detail except me, unless you really are as nit-picky as I am sometimes.

Anyway, setting that minor nothing aside, the rest of the writing here is fine. Granted, it's nothing amazing, but it does help in order to get into the meat of where this movie wanted to go to. Now as for the acting, most of it here is pretty good. The best actors, by far, would have to go to Jeff Bridges as Flynn and Bernard Hughes. Both of these actors were great in their given roles that they end up being the best parts of the movie. Now that isn't to say that no one else here tried. Like I said, the acting in this movie is fairly decent for what the rest of the actors had to work with, but Jeff Bridges and Bernard Hughes definitely steal the show here. The only bit of acting that seemed a bit hammy was the character of Sark, who is played by David Warner, who also plays Dillinger. Now when Warner is playing as Dillinger, he does a great job with his role there. But whenever he's playing Sark throughout most of the entire movie, he definitely feels like he's hamming it up a bit by shouting most of his lines. Granted, it didn't bother me, personally, because I like hammy acting, as it's long as it's not overdone. But I could see that as somewhat of an issue for anyone else, though, if they were watching this movie for themselves. But beyond that, the acting here is pretty good for the most part.

Now let's get into the reason why this movies exists: the special effects. Now before I actually talk about the effects in detail, I want to get this out of the way first. One thing you have to keep in mind is whenever you're reviewing a movie that deals heavily in special effects and also came out in a time where they were not as common as they are seen today, you should always view something that came out by the standards of whatever given year that it originally came out in. And since this movie came out in 1982, I'm gonna be judging the film's effects by 1982 standards. So if you're expecting me to be dumb enough to try and compare the special effects of an over 40 year movie to the standards of today, then you are not going to see that here. Because if I did, I would summarize it by saying that the effects look dated and kinda look like shit. However, as I just said, you would have to be a complete retard to try and compare the effects from 1982 to the standards of today. I just wanted to get that out of the way first, because I notice some people have a bad of habit of reviewing movies that came out from decades ago and try to compare it with modern standards, and it just kinda irritates the shit out of me.

So now that I got that out of the way, let's finally dig into the special effects. And if it hasn't been made clear already, the special effects in this movie look amazing by 1982 standards. The CG here looks great. You really feel like you got transported to a digital world where everything looks bright and colorful, and definitely feels pretty atmospheric too. The CG involving vehicles such as the tanks look awesome, and the Master Control Program also looks great, too, especially towards the final act of the movie, which I will try not to spoil here. That being said, even though most of the effects look amazing, there are a couple of hiccups here and there. The most noticeable one has to do with any of the actors who are being composited into the backgrounds of this computer world. Because whenever you see a character move it's body, you'll notice a lot of shots where the black lines surrounding their bodies seem to be moving around them a lot. And it can be very distracting at times. However...I can't really be too mad about this, because, like I mentioned, this was one of the very films to ever implement CG, so I wasn't expecting anyone to get it exactly right on their first go. I know it may sound like I'm cheating here a bit, but again, I'm viewing this movie by the standards of 1982, so it's not really something that I'm going to harp on too much here, because even with some of the problems involving the composite shots of actors not exactly lining up right, it still looks really good here for it's time. So it's something that you have to take for what it's worth here.

I want touch upon costuming for a second. I will say that the costuming here looks fine for the most part, but there is one minor gripe that I had with it. You see, most of the costuming here is to help create the illusion that the actors look like programs in this computer world. And you'll mostly see two different colors when it comes to the suits, blue and orange. I know some people may contest that it's actually red, but I mostly got an orange feel out of most of the suits. But anyway, getting back to the costuming here. The one issue I kind of had with it was that some of the male actors looked mostly the same. And that mostly had to do with Flynn, Tron, and Ram. Since they were wearing the exact same colored suit, I honesty couldn't tell them apart at times, because I didn't notice any distinctive characteristics about them to see that they looked different from each other. The only way you could've maybe noticed this is if you somehow could tell the difference from them through their height. Which was something that I didn't do, obviously, but still, there were moments here and there where I couldn't tell what actor looked like who. I think Ram might've been the shortest of the group, but I wasn't paying attention enough to really notice it. But aside from that, the costuming here is perfectly fine, and it blends itself well enough to make it look like they could be programs.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit really well, especially since most of it was used for the CG in this movie, and it obviously looks great. The sound-mix here is mixed fine. The score isn't really all that memorable. Most of it is kind of aiming for that techno sort of feel for this movie. Which makes sense, given that it's a sci-film and all, but still, it's not really something you're going to remember this movie by.

So, guys, when everything else is said and done, am I able to recommend "TRON"? Oh, absolutely, yes, guys! This film is great. I loved just about everything regarding this movie. Granted, the story here is the only real downside, mostly because it just felt like a throwaway plot that was put together in order for this movie to get made. But I can totally overlook that, because the special effects of this movie are great enough to stand on it's own. And I can most definitely recommend this movie to anyone who has an interest in computers, because this movie is basically an origin story for how CG got it's place in the world of film-making. And for anyone that is a Disney fan, since this was obviously made by them, if you can find this movie on DVD, Blu-ray, or even on Disney+, go and find it anywhere and check it out if you're also interested to see how this movie got it's start with CG. I really enjoyed this movie, so I'm definitely going to be holding onto this thing for my DVD collection. And I'm kinda in the mood to watch another sci-fi film that has to do with video games. I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Arcade", because it has been a little while since I last watched it, and I'm kinda in the mood to re-watch it again anyways. So I'm gonna go and do that next after I get done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Population 436

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a horror movie from 2006. That movie is "Population 436".

Now, I don't really know a whole lot about this movie. I skimmed over the details on the back of the DVD case, regarding the film's plot. And according to what I picked up, what the plot is about is that some town has remained the same for the past 100 years. And our main character is trying to figure out why that is, which, apparently, leads into some horrible discovery that he makes, and thus he has to try and set things right before it's too late. I don't really know much else beyond what I read.

But that's not what interested me in checking out this movie. What peaked my interest about it is the casting, specifically two members of the cast. One of them is Jeremy Sisto. I've talked about him before in a couple of my past reviews, where he had a part in movies such as "Dead & Breakfast" and "Justice League: The New Frontier". Both movies, I should mention, were both part of the same Top 5 list of films that I thought were absolutely amazing. So obviously, he was great in both of those movies. Now that's not to say that just because he's one of the leads in this movie, automatically means that "Population 436" is gonna be any good. But it does give me hope that he'll at least pull off something decent here.

Which then leads into the other leading cast member for this movie. That cast member goes by the name of Fred Durst. And in case you're not familiar with his work, he was the lead singer of a rock band known as Limp Bizkit. A band that was only known for one memorable song, and nothing else. That one song I'm referring to is "Rollin'", which was the Undertaker's theme song in the late 90's to early 2000's, back when he was still riding a motorcycle in the WWE. I have no idea if Fred Durst can even act, that's kind of sort of the catch here. I'll find out when I eventually watch this movie for myself.

And beyond that, I have no idea what to expect from this movie. I haven't bothered to watch a single clip, or even watch a trailer to this movie. So, I'm gonna go into this thing completely blind. And I'm hoping for it to at least be halfway decent. So the only way I'm gonna find out if the movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Population 436".

15 minutes later

Guys, I understand it's still early for me to be asking this, but is anything interesting gonna happen in this movie? So far, the only thing's that have happened is that some guy gets his car exploded after a chase from Officer Durst, which causes him to die. And then we have our main character, who's from the Census Bureau, getting into town, because of Government reasons, and...that's it. Our story hasn't really gone anywhere yet, and I'm kinda hoping it does go somewhere soon. But as of right now, we're off to a pretty slow start here.

20 minutes later

Seriously, guys, is ANYTHING interesting gonna happen in this movie? I understand that it's trying to go for a slow boil here, but there's a difference between building up your story and your film having a bit of a pacing issue. And this movie is falling straight into the latter category. This movie's pacing is going at a snail's pace, and I'm not sure if it's going to get any better within the next hour or so.

17 minutes later

OK, I have a question, and I know it's probably a stupid one, too, but I'm gonna ask it anyway. So Dr. Greaver here explains that anyone that tries to leave Rockwell Falls has the sickness, thus leading into people who will think that they are crazy, and that he and his team will try to do anything to cure them of their 'sickness'. And according to Steve, our main character, he's numbered the population to about 436 people living in the town. My question is that if someone actually dies, and that number suddenly goes down, does that mean, then, that all of the people living here would be suddenly wiped out as well? Better yet, since Steve works for the Census Bureau, don't you think someone at that agency would've contacted some higher ups to find out why exactly Steve hasn't gotten back to them at all? I understand that I'm probably putting way too much thought into this, but it's those kinds of lapses in logic that make this movie a little bit stupider than it already is.

9 minutes later

OK, so they just had a public hanging at this festival, because Steve is apparently the 437th person to, I guess, be a permanent resident of the town. OK, well, then that raises more questions. Why exactly does this town have to have 436 people living here? Is it because of the town sign that they have to abide that number to? Or is it because of some stupid curse that ties them to that particular number, thus is the reason why they can't have more or less than 436 people living here? I'm hoping that this movie explains some of this shit soon, otherwise, I'm gonna be a little bit pissed here, because that's something that shouldn't be left unexplained!

13 minutes later

Well, guys, I can confirm this much, so far. I asked earlier if Fred Durst could actually act, and...he can't. I can see that he's trying, but he's not really trying hard enough. Thankfully, there's about less than 20 minutes to go before the movie ends. So the less time that I have to put up with his shitty acting, the better. You know what I mean?

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Population 436". Let's shut the movie off here...OK. Well, um...what to even say? I guess I was expecting something decent here, but unfortunately, that may have been me asking for too much, because this movie was just shit.

Let's just dive right into this thing by talking about the writing. I asked earlier as to why this town was fixated on keeping their population at exactly 436? Was it because of some curse that they have to abide to? Or was it because of something else entirely? Well, the answer to all that is kinda stupid, really. It's explained after Steve goes nuts during the festival when he saw someone getting killed at a hanging. The person who was hung, I should mention, is gleefully happy about being sacrificed so that she could contribute to the town's festival. But anyway, Steve is being taken captive by some of the locals in the town, which includes a couple of officers, doctors, and a couple of other residents. And one of them explains to Steve that the reason why this town is 436 is because everyone living here liked each other and the whole town was happy. And then some guy came into town about 8 years prior, and ruined it...somehow. I don't remember what it was exactly. So because of this, this town is always hellbent on trying to keep the population number at 436 people. And anyone who tries to leave the town has to be 'cured' by these doctors, because anyone who opposes this way of life are somehow the bad people, and that nobody actually leaves Rockwell Falls. So yeah, if you wanted to know why the population number was like that, well...ta-da, there's your poorly explained answer. In fact, you know what? To prove how stupid this movie actually is, I'm gonna have to spoil the ending here. Because once you hear the ending to this movie, the explanation is even stupider than how I tried to explain it. So if you have any interest in watching this movie, then you may want to skip the next couple of paragraphs, because I can't get around this without talking about how terrible this ending actually is.

So, towards the end of the movie, one of the other residents who came into town like Steve did, has been forced to live here for about 8 years. It might be the same guy from my earlier explanation, but the movie doesn't exactly confirm that. So anyway, this guy helps Steve find a way out of town, to which there is only one way. Anyone who comes in through out of town are truck deliverers, and they always follow an exact route out of town, which helps them bypass the whole 436 rule for this town. So Steve comes up with a plan to distract the townsfolk by setting a fire to a nearby barn (I'll talk about that fire later), and he decides go to the doctor's residence, in which he tries to save a child by the name of Amanda. Who's one of the only other people there who the doctor's are trying to cure, because she's 'sick' and actually has some common sense. So he takes her out of there, and tries to save a woman that he's had a forced relationship with. But it's too late for her, because she was 'cured' by the wacko doctors. So Steve and Amanda are outrunning the two officers that are going after them, and they are soon stopped by Officer Durst and some other cop. And the other cop yells at Durst to shoot and kill Steve. Durst is hesitant, and instead shoots the other officer in the head, thus killing him. This leads to Steve and the little girl escaping the horrible town, and are just driving down the open freeway. But then there's suddenly a thunderstorm brewing, and that distracts them both JUST enough for a semi-truck to run them down and kill them both.

Which then leads into the final scene, where his friend, Frank, who ALSO works at the Census Bureau, gets a flat tire at the entrance to Rockwell Falls. Which was also the exact same way Steve got into town at the beginning of the movie, thus making part of this ending forced and contrived. But that's not the real issue here. Here's the dumbest part to ALL of this. The tow-truck that Steve was driving gets pulled back into town, and the cop explains to Frank that the reason why is because, and get ready for this answer...God willed it. Yes, according to the cop, God was the one who created the thunderstorm that killed Steve and Amanda. And apparently, twins were also just born in Rockwell Falls, thus keeping the number at 436 residents. Doesn't really explain about how they replaced the dead cop that Durst shot in the head, but I'm sure it might've been explained in the same way because 'God willed it', or some such shit. Which is basically this movie giving the viewer the tried and true answer of "Fuck you, that is why". In fact, that's basically how I can summarize most of the questions I had in this movie. Why exactly does the number need to be 436 residents? Well, fuck you, that is why. How is it exactly that the time has remained the same all these years, despite the fact almost no one ages a day in this town? Well, fuck you, that is why. The only question that I had which got properly answered was about someone from the Census Bureau finding out about why Steve hasn't gotten back to them yet. Somehow, the people at Rockwell Fells had sent a note to Frank at the Census Bureau, in which it's suppose to be Steve's writing, telling Frank that he's decided to stay in town and live life there. Which gets his attention, in which he tries to call Frank's cell phone number, in which he gets nothing but an answering machine message from Steve. Granted it's not much of an explanation, but it's still something resembling an explanation.

So, if you somehow managed to bypass all of what I explained about the ending, well, to give you a short answer, the ending sucks balls. But here's the funny thing about all this. There's apparently an alternate ending you could watch on the DVD menu screen, but I didn't watch it because, as per the rules of this series, once I see ending credits, I shut the movie off and I review the movie afterwards. With maybe one exception, I've usually stuck by that rule. So I tried to look up this alternate ending on YouTube, which I couldn't find. So I went to IMDB, and according to what it says, it's basically the same ending that I just described to you, except both Steve and Amanda survive from almost getting hit by the semi-truck. Which just leads into even MORE questions that I could have about this movie, but frankly, I've spent enough time talking about the ending as is. And no matter what, the ending to this movie sucks, regardless of which way this movie could've taken.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, let's talk about the rest of the writing. Now you would think that a mystery about how a town has remained the same for the past 100 years would sound very interesting, right? Well, you'd be wrong. Because not only is this story boring as shit, but the pacing is also terrible as well. Because for the first half hour or so, nothing of interest happens. And I am not kidding about that, NOTHING literally happens for the first third of the film. It's basically Steve coming into town, because he's trying to get information about this town's population number, as per his job at the Census Bureau, and he's just getting settled into town while his car is being 'fixed'. Which really doesn't happen, because he's suppose to be the next permanent resident of this town, as per this town's stupid code of abiding to the number 436. And that's...kinda it, really. He moves in with Officer Durst, along with his mother and girlfriend that he plans to marry. Now you would think that this movie was trying to take this time to maybe develop it's characters, or maybe give some more background as to how this town came to be the way it is and how it eerily looks the same after all these years. But no, this movie does nothing like that. Outside of Steve trying to base everything on numbers, which is suppose to be a big theme for this movie, nothing itself about the town is interesting. And on an off note, for a town that claims to have 436 residents, it has about, oh, around 50 or 60 people that I could see. So yeah, that large number is also kind of a lie, but I'm not gonna bitch about that too much here.

What about our characters? Well, like I just stated, this movie does nothing to make you care about these characters. Steve, like I mentioned a few times before, is some guy that works at the Census Bureau. And apparently, he had a wife and daughter that ended up dying. How? I don't know. The movie doesn't do anything with Sisto's character beyond that, and thus he ends up being flat and boring. Fred Durst's character is an officer, who's name I THINK is suppose to be Bobby, but it was so unmemorable that I ended up just calling him Officer Durst throughout the entire film. He's suppose to have a girlfriend that he wants to marry, but that gets shot down, because, for no real reason, Steve and her end up having sex at a barn. I'm not kidding about that either, this relationship between the two comes right the fuck out of nowhere! These two have no chemistry with each other, so to have them having sex with each other is just another reason to say fuck you, that is why. I suppose it might've been there to create conflict between Sisto and Durst's characters, but there is nothing to be had there. It's just thrown in here for the sake of fan service, I guess. But again, I can just chalk that up by saying fuck you, that is why. And as for our other characters, well, what's to even say? Everyone else in this movie is just there to be a good-upstanding citizen for Rockwell Falls, so there's nothing noteworthy to mention about the rest of these characters.

Guys, the writing in this movie is fucking terrible. The concept here could've maybe worked as a half an hour episode of "The Twilight Zone". But to drag this thing out to an hour and a half is what ultimately makes this movie boring as shit. What makes it even worse is the acting. Now again, as I stated earlier, I wasn't expecting miracles when it comes to Fred Durst in this movie. Now yes, he tried, BLESS him, he was trying. But like I said, he just didn't try hard enough. And yet, somehow, he's not the actor in this entire movie. No, that honor, unfortunately, goes to Jeremy Sisto. I really thought, going into this movie, that Sisto was actually going to pull out something decent here. But he doesn't. He sounds bored as fuck, and he really just phoned it in for the sake of a paycheck. Which I guess makes sense, considering that you can only do so much when you're given a script that is this fucking boring. Nothing about his performance here was any good, and it just proves, to me, that Sisto is capable of giving out duds every now and then. Everyone else here isn't all that better. The child actress that played Amanda really sucked. But then again, most child actors are terrible by default, so I'm gonna give her a little bit of a pass here. Everyone else ranges from kinda hamming it up to just sounding wooden as hell. So overall, the acting here mostly sucks, but Sisto was the real disappointment here.

Special effects in this movie are mostly shit. And I want to touch upon something that I said I was going to talk about later on, which was the fire that Steve started to serve as a distraction. Now why exactly am I bringing this fire up? Well, it's simple, really. The fire that Steve started by pouring kerosene in the barn is done in CG. And this has got to be some of the WORST CG fire effects I've seen in a long time. This may actually top the god-awful CG fire that I watched in "Rollerball". At least there, it was sort of brief, and it's possible that you may not have actually noticed it. This movie's fire effects, however, are way too god damn noticeable to not overlook. Now I totally understand that this movie was probably filmed on a low budget, but are you telling me that they couldn't afford practical fire for something as simple as that? It really boggles the mind on why exactly they had to use CG for the fire in that scene, because it looks so fucking fake that even a simpleton would notice something like that without even trying. So yeah, the special effects here are terrible, mostly thanks to the horrendous CG fire.

Camerawork here is OK. The lighting here is fine. The sound-mix is also mixed fine. Score and soundtrack really don't offer much of anything, outside of a couple of country songs. Which I guess makes sense, since this movie is suppose to take place in North Dakota. But honestly, these songs are nothing to write home about.

Ultimately, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend "Population 436"? No. There's no way I can recommend this sort of movie, unless if you somehow find the idea of Fred Durst being in a film as the most hilarious shit to ever be conceived. But I can assure you, there's nothing good about his presence here. The movie is boring as fuck, and there's really nothing else redeemable about it. I can't even recommend this to anyone who likes to riff on bad movies with their friends, because there is almost nothing here to riff on. It's boring, dull, and it's so filled with plot-holes that I would be here for another half hour trying to explain all the bullshit that goes on in this movie. I'm kind of ashamed of myself for even having interest in watching this movie, mostly because of our two particular cast members. I expected nothing from Durst and got exactly that. But Sisto was the most disappointing. And because of that, I am never going to watch this movie ever again. So now, I gotta go and watch something better that'll rinse the awful taste out of my mouth from having to watch this thing. And since I mentioned "Dead & Breakfast" earlier when describing good performances from Jeremy Sisto, I'm gonna go and watch that next after I get done writing this review. And this movie can just go fuck itself for all I care.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.