Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Plot synopsis:
Rod (Alan Bagh) is a young software salesman living a successful life in Silicon Valley. He meets up with old classmate and aspiring fashion model Nathalie (Whitney Moore) and begins dating her. Things go well for the couple, with Rod receiving a large bonus that he uses to start his own business, while Nathalie is chosen as a Victoria's Secret model. As they grow closer, the couple remains oblivious to signs of something going wrong around them, such as unexplained wildfires and the carcasses of diseased birds turning up on beaches.
After consummating their relationship in a motel, Rod and Nathalie wake up to find that their town is under attack from eagles and vultures. The birds spit acid and explode into flames upon striking the ground. On the DVD commentary, the director explained that was because they became mutated and toxic due to global warming. Rod and Nathalie escape from the motel by joining up with an ex-Marine named Ramsey (Adam Sessa) and his girlfriend Becky (Catherine Batcha). As they leave town, they rescue two young children, Susan (Janae Caster) and Tony (Colton Osborne), whose parents have been killed by the birds.
The group proceeds to drive from one town to the next, fending off more bird attacks along the way and briefly meeting a scientist named Dr. Jones (Rick Camp) studying the phenomenon. Becky is killed by the birds. Ramsey tries to save a busload of tourists. As they leave the bus, Ramsey and the tourists are killed by acid that is dropped by the birds. Nathalie stops Rod from attempting to rescue Ramsey because she feared the birds will kill him, too.
Rod, Nathalie and the kids continue to flee from the birds, driving into a forest where they briefly meet a "Tree Hugger" named Tom Hill (Stephen Gustavson), who talks to them about the dangers of global warming. On the DVD commentary, the director explained that the birds were attacking people in retaliation for global warming, and that they were targeting gas stations and cars, since they burn carbon dioxide [sic]. After escaping a forest fire, the quartet ultimately settles on a small beach, where Rod fishes for dinner. As they prepare to eat, they are attacked by the birds, but then doves appear and all the birds leave in peace. The film ends as Rod, Nathalie and the kids watch the birds fly off into the horizon.

Tags: cult

Review:
The movie tricks a viewer like yours truly; at first, having not seen anything made by its director, the inimitable James Nguyen - he has two other films to his credit, Replica and Julie and Jack, neither seen by me (just as well, one of whom gives its highest praise as "Ed Wood quality" on IMDb) - I wasn't sure what I was really seeing, if it was either the highest or lowest of artistic expression.The film takes place in some sunny seaside community on the California coast - as we're made PAINFULLY CLEAR in the opening from-the-car driving shots (immediately calling to mind the opening credits of Manos: The Hands of Fate) - and is about how Rod (Alan Bough) and Nathalie (Whitney Moore), who meet one day by chance, he a successful solar-panel salesman and she a Victoria's Secret model (she just made the cover!) Oh, and there's an almost inexplicable warning of a crazy-killer bird epidemic on the news, from, um, I guess it's global warming.
I kept thinking during the film, 'either Nguyen is a total genius, crafting the most intentionally bad movie in recent memory, or he's quite possible the most sickening hack you've never wanted to meet.' It's one thing that the film was shot on a shitty camcorder.
It's another that the actors appear to be non-professionals or at best from community theater (Alan Bagh is so stiff he just might make your eyes bleed; Moore is too hot to have that happen, though her talent is just as nill).But it's something else how absolutely, and surprisingly consistently, awful the film-making is.
oh, boy, the birds (if you need further proof, watch the trailer, do yourself a favor and get it out of the way).Now, again, experiencing this film, especially in the case I had in a theater with people perhaps anticipating its awfulness based on the trailer or the website or the claim by Nguyen to be a "Master of the Romantic Thriller" (Trademarked.
Certainly the "message" part of the movie- and it's wielded with such a sledgehammer it would make Stanley Kramer look like Jim Jarmusch - is done to such a ludicrous extent, with characters appearing for walk-on scenes like a Old-man Biologist who appears to explain that the birds were caused by man's harm to the planet, or the "Tree-Man" in the woods who has a tree-house home and finds the birds don't attack him because he's in the woods and not out on the road like the rest of stupid man-animal civilization.
But Birdemic, friends and neighbors, is the worst movie in the history of film-making, on this planet or in any other dimension for that matter.
The worst audio issue was when they film on the beach because the sounds of the beach are 5 times louder than the actors voices.The movie itself is very slow paced, the first half of the movie is just the main guy meeting his dream girl and building their relationship.
This feels like an eternity where it goes from his boring job that he is way too enthusiastic about, his obsession with a greener world, and his dates.The second half of the movie is when the birds finally go on a rampage.
If it featured better sound, editing, writing, acting, direction and special effects, it might just be a forgettable homage to "The Birds"; its very flaws elevate (or should I say depress?) it to a special level otherwise occupied by a few special films like "The Room" and "Manos: the Hands of Fate" ~ the legendary realm of films that are so bad they're good.
However, even this joke wears thin pretty quickly, and you're left feeling quite empty, as if you've been cheated out of 95 minutes of your life.Nonetheless, I am firmly convinced that it is the director James Nguyen who is having the last laugh, as he has created a film so notoriously bad that everyone wants to see it.
I watched birdemic thinking it was a 'deliberately bad so it's funny' kinda movie.
When an actor can't even walk straight without showing signs of having something rectangular shoved up his rectum, there's something wrong.After about 45 minutes of clapping (yes, see it for yourself), a love story that makes the Twilight-saga seem like "The Notebook" and "Titanic" combined, dialouges that are from another planet and all-in- all all I'm thinking: Is this movie the "Shock and Terror" the sub-title proclamates?
This film sucks a giant donkey's wiener; nothing makes sense with meaningless characters, god awful special effects, and don't get me started on the acting - BUT - I love this film simply because I couldn't stop laughing, and laughing, and laughing, and laughing.If laughter is the best medicine, this'll heal cancer.The plot is something to do with birds or something, I don't really care what the plot is because when I first saw those birds dive bombing into buildings I fell off the sofa and on to the, harder than I thought, wooden floor.You may start watching this film and almost immediately give up from the long driving scene and windows movie maker opening credits, but you got to stay strong because before you know it a girl gets killed by a bird while peeing on the side of the road.In conclusion - A masterpiece of cinema..
I work at a branch library and one day as I was checking Birdemic out to one of our older patrons, she said to me, "Whenever I feel down or depressed, I check out this movie and watch it and it always makes me feel better." At the time, I thought that was very strange.
Non-stop action combines with stunning special effects to portray the inherent struggle that humans face against killer eagles and vultures around the world on a daily basis; this film might just be the inspiration needed for governments to tackle this global problem.Birdemic and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus are the best movies I have ever seen.
The lack of acting skill reminds me of a 3rd grade Christmas play.By FAR the worst movie EVER.Even the Rifftrax version was hard to watch....The only believable actor was the little girl.
Birdemic is one of those movies which are so extremely bad that it ends up being funny, the production quality, cinematography, audio, acting, and pretty much all about it is so bad that it makes up for a great movie to watch with drunk friends, even more if you enjoy subjecting them to excruciating pain and despair, I mean the film is basically and established joke nowadays so there's no point on me talking much about it.
This is one of the rare "Hey, I just got a camera, let's film something" abominations that I enjoyed..but I use term enjoyment loosely as this thing is, what I call, an endurance testing vehicle.It doesn't quite have the charm of The Room (another home made keeper), but it excels in all of the other trashy movie checklist dogma(s)..absolutely no plot, absolutely no acting, absolutely no special effects, absolutely no directing/editing/sound, absolutely NOTHING.
The movie's biggest enemy is not the birds but the director itself ( and the hungry kids).( Btw : in case u don't know, the special effects are really bad)..
From the terrible muffled sound which varies with every camera angle, revealing that there microphone was on the camera and sometimes the background noise drowns out the dialogue, to the script and acting which makes you want to throw things (the lead guy walks like a drugged 5 year old, which is a shame as there are many long minutes of footage devoted to showing him just walking).And then we have to bird effects which look like a screen saver or a phone app.
Stuck just on top of the filmed action we see looped animations of birds which can seemingly hover in one place flapping in slow motion.The appalling plot sees our heroes spend 45 minutes doing normal everyday things like dating, meeting the parents, visiting restaurants and driving cars before anything happens.
It might just be the worst, most boring movie about killer birds and ecology ever made.Rod (Alan Bagh) is a successful software salesman who has just started dating Nathalie (Whitney Moore), a Victoria's Secret model.
But it's not as relevant as the message of this movie: Nguyen saw 'An inconvenient truth' and thought it would be a good idea to make global warming the cause of the birds' madness, turning this movie into a bad horror with elements of ecological propaganda that nobody cares about.
Like if you want a good laugh with some friends, watch this movie.A group of my buddies and I were in stitches the entire time.Aside from the humorous aspect of this disaster, I'm afraid there is little-to-no-value in watching this.
The 1st problem I have with this....um..."thing" is that whoever was involved in this process couldn't speak up and say "Um, Mr. Nguyen, what the fu*$ are we doing?" The 2nd problem is whenever someone tries to send a political message in a film, either you better know what you are talking about or at least do it somewhat well, because if you do it as shitty as this nutcase, you will look like a complete idiot and disgrace all your hippy friends...dear God!
You inevitably realize how the filmmakers are trying to manipulate the viewer rendering its manipulatory attempts ineffective but not without reminding you that it does nothing else than what most action-y big budget movies do and you think to yourself: "Even if done well, how could I ever fall for such stupidity in other movies?" It exposes the fabric of movie-making itself and therefore if you watch 'Birdemic' attentively you will never see an overly manipulative or cliché-ridden movie the same way again.There's the story arc of establishing the hero with a romance before it turns into the movie we actually want to see.
So careless that they take a break from escaping the attacking birds by having a picnic outdoors with their kidnapped children who just lost their parents and whose only purpose in the film (apart from getting "rescued" by our the-second-coming-of-Siegfried protagonist) is to bitch that they are hungry and that instead of fresh fish they want a Happy Meal®.There's a theme that runs through the whole film as is typical for even the most shallow disaster movie but this one really rubs it into the viewer's face.
The sound comes and goes from time to time, the picture quality is good, not much for horror scenes, and the birds when they attack looks so fake; like a video game.We have seen our share of bad movies but, this one takes the cake; I would not recommend this movie at all unless the person is that bored and willing to watch this kind of cheesy class b movie.I have noticed that there is supposed to be a part 2 to this movie; I don't think I will be renting it, it's supposed to be in 3D too but, if it's as bad as this one; forget it, I won't waste my money or time.This is more of a made for TV movie, but I wouldn't recommend this for TV either; I don't know what they were thinking when they did this movie..
My view on this movie is that the director wanted you to feel his pain, wanted you to understand how difficult it was to make a movie on Tesco vouchers, wanted you to experience all the feelings of watching his masterpiece movie that he knew he could never make so he gave you all those feelings by reversing the 'good film, plot, special effect' guide developed by Hollywood and translated it into Birdemic.
Anyone who has watched this film is in an elite club, they know and they cant wait to pass on the word.Despite what anyone else thinks my short summary is: I love many movies however I don't write a god damn review about them.
I fail to understand how any person can dislike such a masterpiece.I will stand by my word, the film Birdemic, is truly one of the best movies I have ever seen (and I've seen thousands) Why?
The special FX birds and gore were an afterthought, the sound was either muddled or rerecorded ADR in a studio with different actors, some of the shots went on for way too long, the direction of the actors was jarring and made the characters feel creepy towards each other, the plot is an abomination, and every step these characters take, you're screaming at them as the audience, "what are you doing?!" The main blonde actress has been interviewed about the film where she explained that the director would often run out of money and call them back to shoot scenes randomly.I had a great time watching it, though.
If you like to watch bad movies, you've got to see Birdemic.
I know that a lot of people call this or that movie "the worst movie ever made," but in this case I have to say that this is definitely the worst movie I've ever seen.First I'll discuss the "plot." Apparently global warming is so bad it makes birds in southern California attack people, even conducting kamikaze attacks against buildings and gas pumps (complete with aircraft sound effects!).
Kids playing with a ball and having a good time while they're on the run from killer birds (and after their parents were killed by same).The first 45 minutes or so of this "movie" center around the hero, Rod, who finds the woman of his dreams, Nathalie, and starts to develop a relationship with her.
Watch the scene early in the movie where Mr. Stick-butt is walking into the building, and then contrast that with how naturally the extras are walking.And the piece de resistance is the incredibly cheesy special effects birds in the form of what appears to be animated GIFs added to the video post filming.
If you don't want to sit through the whole thing, watch the trailer or see the video showing the "best" action scenes from the movie.I understand they've made a Birdemic 2.
I don't undersand why a lot of people still thinking that "The Room" of 2003 is the worst movie in history exinting this.Comparing to The Room, this one has worse directing, worse acting (hard to belive but true), worse script, worse visual effects (with much difference), and worse sound.But beacuse is an idependient film got no nominations to the Razzies at 2010, The Last Airbender (from that year) at least has good sound, descent cinematography and decent prduction design and not so bad acting.You better search the accidentaly hilarous scenes on youtube than see it, is a waste of time..
I am lighthearted, and like lots of movies people consider bad (Troll 2, Satan's little helper, The Room, etc.), I can usually laugh at films that I myself find bad.
Possibly the finest acting, story, editing, and sound engineering ever committed to film.What happens when a director/writer completes a masterpiece?What movie can fill the empty hole in your life?What is the meaning of life?Where can we look for answers?Birdemic is the answer to all of these questions..
There's even one particularly hilarious scene where Rod and Nathalie go out for a double-date and chose to see "An Inconvenient Truth", just so Rod can spout the dialog "That was a good movie, 'An Inconvenient Truth!'" while his friend retorts with "That is it, I am getting myself a car that's more environmentally friendly!" The film is liberally peppered with awkward and out-of-place moments like that, and it's brilliant picking up on them with repeated viewings.Our entire cast seems completely clueless, save for a bizarrely honest and well-natured performance by Patsy van Ettinger in a supporting role as Nathalie's mom and Stephen Gustavson as a frankly kind of eerie "tree-hugger" (that's how he's credited) that the gang runs into.
There are some great scenes in Birdemic, like the choppy applause scene, but I got more bored while watching this movie than many other bad movies.
Well, then you learn by watching a bad movie and not masterpieces.Birdemic is about a small Californian town which gets attacked by deadly birds one day.
But the script, directing and most of all acting is so poor.Alan Bagh who plays the main character in Birdemic, is the worst actor I've ever seen in a movie.
And the birds make a sound that gives you an headache within a second.The movie continues to be a bad film throughout.
Like many other bad movies, this has massive pacing problems making the film a very dull slog.
This movie made the room look like a masterpiece its terrible acting, terrible set,awful cgi effects,and weird audio cuts during dialouge,I can't find anything good to offer in this film,I actually procrastinated this review multiple times because i couldn't finish the "movie",atleast the room has a cult following,but not birdemic oh no this film has a following but its not at cult status thats how bad it is,not to mention the first hour out of the 1:31:10 running time of the film is nothing but pointless sequences that have nothing to do with the film and i swear they used a 8 mm camera to film this,for a 2010 release it has poor visual qualities and the audio OH GOD!
Worst movie ever, that you MUST watch (So bad it's good).
In this film you get what you would see in any other bad movie like the CG, the acting, the music, the lighting, and the camera work to name a few staples.
Watching this movie will be a good primer for anyone looking to get into the genre because it will be bad, it will be terrible, but the "accidents" to gawk at in other films are here in spades.