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Birdemic 2 The Resurrection

Started by Pedro_Bear, February 01, 2014, 05:25:40 AM

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Pedro_Bear

Okay then. How do you follow up one of the most beloved, naive, and terrible, so-terrible-it's-best films of all time? By rights Birdemic 2 The Resurrection shouldn't exist. It's inconceivable that the amateur auter James Nguyen avoided the hours and hours and hours of analysis of the first film. The very things that make Birdemic so compelling are unreproducable without descent into self-pastiche, or worse, shit-eating self-parody a la Tommy Wiseau. Is Birdemic 2 going to stray into Uwe Boll territority, basically?

No. OMG NO. Birdemic 2 is balls to the wall awesome Nguyen goodness. He's made an all-out Hollywood disaster movie, literally. He doesn't try to replicate Birdemic, but instead attempts to show progression. The string refrain is now enshrined ever-after in the production logo, the camera falls on the Hollywood sign and then down to street level for an unfussy Nguyen-pan over cars stuck at a traffic light, and... Rod starts walking to a jaunty piano number.



We can stop the film right there, they've nailed it. This is so rare. Birdemic 2 displays natural progression from Birdemic. It's still wooden and creaky and just awful, but more competently so. Nguyen has taken the punt of cynical cash-in to try new things, like, having extras milling about in the background as our hero tries to stroll up a street. This is proper amateur film making with more than credit card money chucked at it. And it is glorious.

Birdemic 2 is not a good film by any stretch of the term. Yet viewed as a way-point in a determined film making career it is goshing triumphant. We laughed all the way through the credits, it's utterly what we wanted and delivered with an earnest "well, here it is, we tried harder this time, and we think you'll like it". We can actually feel the Nguyen "style" in every shot. Fans will be aware of his other Great Work, and here, finally, is the distillation and rounding off of the unofficial trilogy of films. The cast are loving it. Everyone is out to prove they can act this time. With predictable awfulness at many, many points, but goddammit they are making an effort and they want to entertain us.



The plot is that a new type of eco-enraged bird attacks Hollywood, and Rod and Nathalie save the day. That's not why we're watching it though. I am reminded of John Waters' ensemble films, with that same cock-eyed "we're here too" vibe that colours them. Birdemic 2 has something to prove, and it goshing well proves it. If we liked Birdemic fondly, this film is amazing. I never thought that this could be done, that a so-bad film could have an enjoyable, uncynical sequel, yet here it is, in all of its glory. It's going to break the internet with point-missing sarcasm, but equally it is a rich gift to alternative cinema. The rifftrax is just going to be all three of them laughing, and it is a very funny film for all the right wrong reasons.

Just look at this:



That, folks, can't be faked.