Friday, May 21, 2010

Ryan Watches a Motion Picture #30: Birdemic: Shock and Terror (2008)


So I saw this for its Canadian debut with London Colin and Mission ImPoseable at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto last night, and it was beyond my wildest dreams.

In case you might not have come across this phenomenon of a film before in your journeys through the interwebs, Birdemic: Shock and Terror is this independent film written, directed, and produced by James Nguyen for about 10 grand. Styled by James as a "romantic thriller" of the same school as Hitchcock's cinema, Birdemic presents audiences with one of the most hilariously inept films ever made and asks them a very serious question. The question is as follows. When global warming drives eagles and vultures mad, who will survive? The answer can be found somewhere amidst the terrible cast and terrible dialogue, ridiculous special effects, piss-poor sound work, laughable camera handling, and hamfisted politics.

Birds divebomb the pumps, exploding on impact.

In our Mystery Science Theater 3000 and internet meme savvy world, this is of course exactly the kind of film that many would be pay to see, and Birdemic seems to be a hit - as The Room and Troll 2 was. It was a pretty amazing experience to laugh and clap along with a crowd of people indulging in the lowest dregs of cinema, and just as amazing to meet James Nguyen himself in the Q&A session that occurred afterwards. Heartbreakingly, he's an earnest man who seems completely unaware that his film is popular for none of the reasons he'd intended.

So: Catch the film while you can before Birdemic 2: The Resurrection hits our faces!

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