Sunday, March 20, 2011

Birdemic: Shock and Terror

Bad films.

Some folks scratch their head why some bad films receive a cult status. Why watch something that is complete schist, right? I have to admit I have no good answer. I just know every now and then comes a film so jaw droppingly bad that it becomes an experience.

The trouble is, in this day in age the cult of bad films is now recognized. That means folks intentionally try to make a bad film. Trouble is, that's an art you can't really fake unless you are some genius. The general results then are films that wind up like third rate "Airplane" knock offs or worse bore fests.

I saw the trailer to "Birdemic" a while ago and nearly swallowed my gum. This, I could see was the real McCoy. After seeing the film, I can safely say this is a truly bad film. It is a modern classic of the genre of crapola. If there was a king of crap he'd have to give the crown to this one.

One thing that makes this a truly real bad film, is that it actually takes it time. It's not some ADD riff on "Plan 9 from out of space." It gives us time to wallow in pointless traffic shots and incredibly bad sound work. One of my favorite early points in the film was in the very credits where it lists "Supporting Casts." Plural. Love it.

The film is about a boring guy, and he meets a boring girl. He says he remembers her from high school, she was two seats behind him. She says, "You can remember that far back," though it's not clear if far back is all the way to high school, or two seats back. From this meeting they become eventually, oh so eventually bed buddies. Then one day, they wake up and the sky is full of screaming, oh so screaming, cgi birds.

This is the type of film that after watching you go and grab a friend and say, "Oh holy crap you have to see this!" Truly a classic of badness. It will not be topped or bottomed for generations.

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