The filmmaker/visionary James Nguyen has made his third film and second blatant Hitchcock ripoff. The last movie was a "Vertigo" homage/rip off. This latest is...you guessed it, a rip off of "The Birds."
"The Birds" star Tippi Hedren is in all three of his films, but she only shot footage for the first one. He reuses the footage he shot with her in LA in his other two movies and puts her name right up on the poster.
I don't know if SAG could get involved in this case get Hedren extra money since all the films seem to be shot on home video cameras.
lots of postings and blog entries have appeared slamming the filmmaker. I will not speculate on anything anyone says because i have no proof. But when I read that his office was around the corner from where I work, I rushed over...It's sad to report that it's just a mail box with the word "suite" before the PO box #. The Northern Californian filmmaker has come down to the small town of Los Angeles to shoot his sequel to "Birdemic" - in 3D! Now be baffled and bored in three dimensions.
You can the original off a website that normally sells equipment.
In the meantime here's a list of things I love about "Birdemic: Shock and Terror."
- The pacing - It's almost shot in real time. When the leading man leaves his house to go to work, we see the entire trip. He walks to his car, gets in his car, drives down the street, pulls into a gas station fills up, goes back in his car, gets back on the road, drives to work gets to work, looks for a spot, finds a spot, gets out of the car, walks in the building heads to his desk.
- There are also scenes of majors phone sales, corporate mergers and promotions that have nothing to do with the plot or reality.
- The model! The female lead is a model. How do we know this? We see a photo shoot she is doing. Where's the shoot? On the beach? In a photo studio? Well, kinda. It's in an "one hour photo" shop. Like you find in a the town square. I didn't know they did
- How's the acting? Oh it's bad. But that's forgivable.
- The sound - it seems the whole movie is recorded using the sound mic that's built in the video camera. Sometimes, like when the professor type they meet on the road explains to our heroes why badly animated birds are attacking, you can't hear what he's saying.
- the birds themselves - in a movie that boasts killer birds right in the title, you would expect better birds. The director proudly says in an interview that he went to a graphics school and got recent graduates to do the fake birds attacking. that school should be shut down. They birds don't get smaller or larger or even seem to move that much. At the end of the movie when they fly off, it looks like they are flying in place because they don't get smaller into the sunset.
- The last shot - it's one long shot of actors staring skyward as the birds fly off. It's one shot. That meant those actors had to stand still for 5 minutes straight as the fake birds did nothing and the credits rolled.
As you can tell from the trailer, he decided to use, this is a slow paced movie that exists for no rhyme or reason. I love it.
Back stage at the premiere is just as exciting as the movie. Footage of people posing for still photos!
No comments:
Post a Comment