‘Tank 432’ isn’t Scary so Much as Sleep Inducing
Written by: Gerald Townsend
Directed by: Nick Gillespie
Cast: Rupert Evans, Steve Garry, Deirdre Mullins
I caught this at the Fantasia International Film Festival with an open mind but abnormally high expectations. Didn’t know anything about the movie outside of the fact that the story takes place in a war setting and a group of soldiers find themselves trapped in a tank, and I thought that sounded like it had big potential. Well, I knew Rupert Evans was involved as well, and that too had me motivated, envisioning something far more intriguing than what I actually got.
The story feels completely murky, and the idea that this group of soldiers is taking shelter against some form of nemesis outside seems cool, except for the fact that there really isn’t much of anything that resembles a threat outside. So… we sit in a tank for an hour with a few bland personalities and a colorful character or two to keep us from completely hating the film… or falling asleep.
The true conflict ultimately proves to be humanity and human nature, which is a great idea to explore on film, but this wasn’t the right vehicle, so to speak, to make that kind of narrative successful. As it is, one minute just bleeds into the next until you’re counting the minutes.
The movie is fairly well-shot, and the editing is nice. Rupert Evans and Gordon Kennedy pull the best from what they’ve got. Unfortunately they don’t have a whole lot to give them a chance to turn in memorable work.
Tank 432 feels like a drawn out scene from an awesome movie we never got to see. Someone got too hung up on getting these tank shots right, forgetting to tell an interesting story. It’s a shame really, there’s a lot of promise and talent involved. Sadly, talent and promise aren’t spending too much time on one another’s good side.
Rating: 1.5/5
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