Birdemic: Shock and Terror-review

The deadliest weapon against the eagles...coat hangers.

I should hate this movie for all it is.  The acting is awful. The music choices are like something out of an infomercial.  The editing is some of the worst I have ever seen.  The script is preachy pulp. However, unlike other awful movies like “Kazaam” this movie was made with the limited budget of $10,000.  As much as I hate it I admire that it got made at all. Like Orson Welles says in the movie “Ed Wood” “visions are worth fighting for.” There is a lot of wisdom in that.

Quit laughing and say your line dummy.

That being said I still think this is an awful movie. A young man named Rod meets a young lady named Natalie and for the first 47 minutes of the movie we see the development of their romance.  After more than half the movie is over the birds attack with all the suddenness of a car wreck.  Eagles start attacking people. Apparently, because they have bird flu, which apparently allows the birds to hover, explode like kamikaze planes, and spit acid.  Complete with effects that look like they were made in Adobe Flash.

The script is all about how global warming caused these birds to go all crazy.  It’s like “The Happening” only far less believable.  Take that however you want considering that one had people outrunning the wind.  There is a lot of padding and there are some really stupid back and forth dialogue.  The music they choose is insane.  They pick elevator type music and Casio beats on repeat.  Also the very great hit song “Hanging out with my Family.”  

The acting is like watching wooden dolls being moved on camera.  Plus, there are children whose acting is so weak they make me think they are probably the reason people W.C Fields said never work with animals or children.  The editing doesn’t help this.  The sound effects are completely botched and scene cuts are such a mishmash of bizarre choices from dissolve cuts to sudden jarring jump cuts.  The sound sometimes cuts out for no reason and when you can hear it’s hard to comprehend what is being said by the actor.  I think that this is the sort of movie that they should show in film class to show people how to avoid crappy edits.

Where is Tippi Hedrin when you need her?

Should you see it?  If you are a glutton for punishment who is curious then it probably won’t be the worst thing you ever see.  Like I said earlier I think it’s bold that it got made at all given its budget.  I have seen a lot better schlock.  It wants to have heart and it wants to have a moral but the message gets lost in how incredibly bad it is.  I doubt it’s worth much of a rental to the general public but there will always be a select number of my friends that will find this movie to be one of those “so bad it’s good” type of movies.