Anyone familiar with Deadlock (Member Management)?

I looked and looked for simple, free script/program that would allow me to have a registration/login system on my website. I finally found Deadlock the other day, which seemed like it would be a cheap, quick solution. I should've known it wouldn't be that easy. The only way to login with Deadlock is through a pop-up window. I couldn't even explore it further after that.

Anyhow, I'm in the process of porting my entire site over to modx right now, but I'd really like some sort of login/ user management system in the meantime, because it seems like it's gonna take me a couple of months to figure out how to use and transfer everything to modx. Does anyone know of a login/management script that I could setup and integrate quickly with my existing site while I get used to modx? Ya know, something that can keep track of how many posts or submissions a user has had? Maybe integrate wordpress or something? I don't know.

Speaking of modx. I'm getting pretty frustrated with it. I'm totally new at CMS style design, but I've been messing with it for a couple of weeks now and I just feel like it's more complicated than it needs to be. Is Joomla worth checking out? My site doesn't have a typical page layout at all, and maybe that's why it's taking me so long, but that's why I chose modx, because it's supposed to be good for design, as well as function.

Maybe take a look at my website if you want, and see if you would recommend Joomla for the kind of site that I have. My sites kind of in the middle of a re-design right now, so everything is kind of wacky, but if you scroll down on the home page to the Timeline part. That part is what is giving me so much trouble designing a template with modx. My html is garbage and so everybody recommended not trying to make a template out of it and just start from scratch.
Here it is: http://www.themovietimeline.net

 

Well screw it! I guess there is no simple fix. It's alright, I feel like I made a breakthrough with modx last night. I'm actually starting to understand it! Actually, I think it was my lack of css skills that was trippin me up more than anything, but I read a great tutorial last night and I finally get it. Here's a link to it, if anyones interested.
http://www.cssbasics.com/