Wings Of Disaster:The Birdemic Trilogy — Wings Of Disaster(Blu Ray boxset)
If you have even a passing interest in the bad-film genre, I’m sure you’ll be aware of at least the first Birdemic film. The 2010 production is a collusion of awkward/dead-eyed acting, cringe-inducing drama, very cheap-looking computer graphics of killer birds, and general inept filmmaking. Here we have a Blu-Ray boxset bringing together the three films in the Birdemic series-Birdemic: Shock and Terror, 2013’s Birdemic 2: The Resurrection, and 2022’s Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle. With each disc featuring at least two commentary tracks, and a few other extras.
The region-free three Blu-Ray set appears on Severin’s low-budget/ bad film-focused sub-label InterVision. Each disc comes in its own case, with the set presented in a glossy slip- featuring lenticular cover art, which neatly recreates the cheap hovering bird graphics from the first film.
Before we get into the films, let us talk a little bit about the creator/ mind behind the three films-James Nguyen. He was born in 1966 in Da Nang, Vietnam- and at a point moved to the US. His main career is as a software salesman in Silicon Valley- and this has helped to fund his filmmaking in the beginning. To date, he has five directional credits to his name, the three Birdemic films. Along with Julie And Jack (2003) which told of a computer chip salesman dating a software designer in a virtual reality programme. And Replica (2005) regarding a computer chip salesman who goes through an organ transplant- going on to get obsessed with the Doctor doing the transplant. He also has two films in pre-production- Birdemic 4: Garden of Paradise, and Sea Rising
So, on the first disc, we have the original modern bad movie classic Birdemic: Shock and Terror. This is from the year 2010, and like the best so-bad-there-great films, it really all takes place in its own lop-sided and wonky universe.
The version of the film we have here runs one hour and thirty-three minutes- though according to IMDB its original runtime one hour and forty-five minutes. And I guess you’d say the film fairly neatly splits it’s self in two- we have the pre- Birdemic for the first hour or so, and then the during/after Birdemic last half an hour.
The picture is set in & around the small California town Half Moon Bay. The two lead players (it’s a bit of a stretch to call them ‘actors’) are smug-though-dull Rob(Alan Bagh), who when we first meet him is working as a software salesman. And decidedly bland blonde Nathalie (Whitney Moore)- who is hoping to make a big break as a model. Fairly early on these two meet after Rob rather creepily follows her out of a café- it turns out they used to be in the same English class at school.
So, the first hour or so largely revolves around the pair's growing romance- this is both cringe-inducing, and at points rather mind-numbingly dull, yet still entertaining. As both Rob & Nathalie are extremely flat & vapid characters- this, of course, is made even more pronounced with both actors' very wooden & clipped performances. The two’s date nights are expectedly highly awkward affairs, but boy this gets pushed to the max- when they land up in bed together, still in clothes & rubbing feet!. Around these two we find a selection of the equally awkward supporting cast- there’s Rob’s work buddy, who is obsessed with sex, and has a seriously ugly/ dull girlfriend. There’s Nathalie’s middle-aged mum- who you can literally see reading off her script, with moments of humour and emotion delivered in a deadpan/blank-eyed manner. Oh, and smug Rob, gets even more smug as he gets a payoff from his job- which means he sets up his own solar power company!- which at one point sees him delivering the most yawn-inducing & bland presentation ever. We also get a selection of badly executed meant to TV news broadcasts regarding environmental issues, which Rob watches in a staring-into-the-void manner.
When the ‘Birdemic’ finally kicks off, our ‘lovers’ have just spent the night in a motel. And the ‘eagles’ start appearing at their bedroom window- basically, these are really low-grade computer graphics of the birds either hovering or just about to swoop down. In this part of the film they meet up with a machine gun-toting twenty-something army vet & his girlfriend, find two kids whose parents have been killed by the birds, as well as a few other badly acted/ presented characters.
Really at every level, the film is incompetent-I guess you can say at least the camera work is passable/ even. But otherwise, everything from the dialogue capture, the sound mixing, to the acting, through to the general sense/ logic of the whole thing is skewed. As a fan of the bad-film form, I’m ashamed to say this was my first ever taster of Birdemic: Shock and Terror. It really does deserve all the worst film ever praise, as truly it’s awful as a formal/ good film. But as bad cinema, it’s golden- with writer/director James Nguyen really pulling us deep into his own skewed & wonky cinematic universe.
On the extras side on this first disc, we have the following two commentary tracks- one with James Nguyen, and one with stars Alan Bagh and Whitney Moore. I played the first of these tracks, and the director starts off by briefly commenting on the film's popularity. He talks about the town where it was filmed been forty miles south of San Francisco. We find out the film's two key influences were The Birds, and An Inconvenient Truth. He talks about how lead actor Alan Bagh is not a natural actor- though a nice person. He discusses his attempts at building romance in the first half of the film. He comments on the high gas prices at the time of filming. How the film was influenced by his own career in Silicon Valley. How the lead actress is a natural, and the film's environmental message. A fair bit of the track does have Nguyen just talking about what’s on screen. It has a few unintentionally amusing moments, and seemingly the director doesn’t see/ admit the film's badness, being its reason for popularity. We get two short, deleted scenes- one with optional director’s commentary. There’s Birdemic Experience Tour Featurette (12.02) which charts the film's popular stateside tour, with a selection of short Q & A clips with the director. James Nguyen On Movie Close-Up (27.05) which sees him being interviewed on what looks like a cheap ‘n’ cheerful cable show. It dates from during the production of the first Birdemic- so he talks about the filming of this, as well as touching on his early films. We get a few trailers Moviehead: The James Nguyen Story, Teaser, Birdemic Experience 2010 Trailer, Teaser Trailer, Theatrical Trailer, and Electronic Press Kit
Appearing three years after the first film we get Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. This runs at the one hour and twenty-two-minute mark, and while there are some effective moments of cringe-induing bad-ness on display. There are also real pacing & clear padding issues, which at points make it quite a trial to get through.
The film opens with an overtly long, and frankly, deeply uninteresting shot of the film's lead character Bill (Thomas Favaloro) walking along Hollywood Boulevard all suited up. I timed it & it lasts over six minutes, and boy you certainly feel every second. He finally gets to his destination-a dinner, and things improve. Bill is a film director who is just trying to put together his third film Sunset Dreams, and at the dinner, he starts leering & badly chatting up his waitress Gloria (Chelsea Turnbo) who is a very flat & void-like blond. Fairly soon we get the return of the ‘dynamic duo’ of Rob (Alan Bagh) & Nathalie(Whitney Moore) from the first film turning up at the dinner, and within a blink of an eye Rob has handed over a large cheque to help make his film.
The first forty or so minutes basically revolve around the two couples wandering around LA itself & Santa Monica beach, meetings regarding Bill’s film, and visiting the cites tar pit. In this part of the film we do get some notable/ enjoyable bad moments- the men trying to impress their dates, some awkward presentations, and a very cheap computer graphics replay of the classic stalking under the sea scene from Jaws- but the woman is attacked by a giant jellyfish instead.
When the ‘Birdemic’ kicks off we get dodgy PC graphics raining blood, more wonky-looking animated birds, and badly animated gunplay. Added to this we get a moment when a group of zombies rise from the grave, and two cave people return from the stone age. Again, there are effective moments of bad-ness here, but it all just feels like its way, way overdone, been made up as it goes along, and worst all trying to be deliberately bad, which largely doesn’t hit home- but instead induces boredom & eye-rolling.
Cast wise our leading man Favaloro comes across as a low-grade, often set cheeky smiling James Franco. His interaction with Gloria is amusing, and I guess he attempts to act at points. The returning Rob (Alan Bagh) & Nathalie( Whitney Moore) get some wonderful moments of awkwardness, and really it would have been better if the film had just focused on these two again. We get a few other returning characters like Nathalie bubbly-yet-dead-eyed mom, and the glum environment fact-dumping Doctor
Sadly Birdemic 2: The Resurrection too often feels like it’s trying too hard to be bad, with not enough substance. Yes, we get some rewarding examples of awful filmmaking magic here, but it’s all little too consistent to make for a wholly rewarding bad film classic like the first picture.
On this disc, we have three separate commentaries- one with James Nguyen, one with producer Jeff Gross and actors Alan Bagh and Thomas Favaloro, and one with Cinematographer Bobby Hacker and actress Whitney Moore. I listened to the first track with the director. He begins by telling us he’s lived in Hollywood for the last thirteen years. He talks about how the film's male lead is based on himself & other directors he knows personally in Hollywood. He discusses how he wanted the first part of the film to tell the story of the small guy trying to succeed. He touches on how he had a budget & crew for this film- which made things easier. We find out this was lead actor Favaloro first feature. Later on, he talks about the films hit song(!?), and who wrote it. Filming on the backlots including the Jaws set up on the Universal studio tour, and more. This isn’t the most inspiring/ involving of tracks, but there are moments of unintentional humour again. We get around nineteen minutes of onscreen interviews with some of the cast, the director & one of the producers-these give you some nice insights into the creation of the whole thing There’s behind-the-scenes footage (4.46) which shows the director/ crew filming on the backlots. Lastly, we get a trailer for the film.
Finally, we have Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle- this was made in 2022, and I must say it’s a better bad film, than the previous Birdemic. Yes, it doesn’t quite hold up to the truly atrocious yet strangely compelling awfulness of the first film, but there are some splendid moments of awkwardness & deadpan interaction.
The film opens with some impressive overhead shots of a motorway, Santa Cruz, and its coastline- and you wonder if you’re watching the wrong picture. But then we get a too close-up shot of this film's lead driving along in a car, and we know we’re watching a Nguyen film, and from here on the badness wonderfully rushes in. Our lead man is Evan (Ryan Lord)- another smug, arrogant, dead-eyed-dead pan hero, who is on par with Rob from the first film. After his drive he sets down in Santa Cruz- wandering along the pier- with wonderful inept camera work, awkward angles, and the odd shooting rhythm sets in, as he peers at the coast, & walks slowly back along the pier. On the beach he bluntly introduces himself to Kim(Julia Culbert) who is seemingly pouring seawater from one glass to another- he peppers her with a series of blunt questions, and we find out she’s an oceanologist studying the seawater, as she thinks it could be causing cancer in the sea lions. He also reveals he’s a scientist too, and he studies human ageing. Fairly soon the pair are back along the pier having a few drinks, and discussing science & their joint love of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. And boy is this a very clunky & unconformable chat. On their way back again we get another classic moment of awkwardness- as we see a group of three adults, and one little girl holding up big text signs regarding the environment, and shouting- as the little girl & her mother bumble their basic lines with dead-eyed charm.
As the film unfolds the pair have one stilted restaurant date after another, and meet a selection of folk who awkwardly recite their doom & gloom environmental dialogue. Along the way, we have truly one of the most cringe-inducing bar dancing scenes ever, as well as another bikini & clothes-wearing hotel room make-out.
The ‘birdemic’ doesn’t appear until the last twenty or so minutes of this one-hour & twenty-three-minute film. It occurs due to a band of sea eagles coming in from the coast, and flying into a large evergreen forest. Here the two leads bump into Rod- from the first two films, he’s now bearded & can actually act in a formal proper manner, though he is joined by a new dead-eyed love interest. We get the usual shooting blindly at the sky’s shots at the animated birds- and some of these are very amusing.
After the rather uneven & often just plain bad/ trying Birdemic 2: The Resurrection. This third film is a big improvement in its so-bad-it’s-great charm, with some true toe curly & wonky moments on display. Sure, at points the pacing still drags, and the plot seems to appear then disappear throughout the film, but I guess this adds to the prime badness of it all. Not up to the first film, but close.
Extras wise on this last disc we have a filmed intro with the film's director (3.00) where he talks about why he thinks this is the best of the trilogy and its more serious tone. We get three commentary tracks- one with James Nguyen, one with Cast Members Ryan Lord, Julia Culbert and Alan Bagh, Bridemic 2 background actor/four-time jeopardy champion Andy Wood and his neighbour Tony(?!). Once again, I played the first of these with the film's director- he starts off by commenting on the film's uplifting song, and mentions a few of the names in the credit. We find out the film's male lead was found via a Craigslist advert, and that the film had a small budget- sitting between the first & the second film. He talks about how he feels the romance in the film is realistic/believable (!), and the film's climate change themes. How he feels we can return the earth to been the garden of Eden again, and his love of Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Later on, he discusses how he thinks the universe is beautiful, and talks about some of the film's location. This is the most consistently listable of all three tracks- though at times it does become a tad trying, with the directors over pressing of the environmental themes in the film. We get just shy of seven minutes of footage of the film's festive showing. And a trailer.
In summing up this set it’s certainly great to have all three films in one place- I just wish maybe we could have got a feature-length documentary covering all three films together, as well as the director's filmography in general- but I guess it’s all down to affordability, and how many people would be interested in seeing it. You certainly get your fill of commentary tracks, and I’m sure I’ll be returning to play some of these down the line.
This Wings of Disaster box set is primed perfectly for any fan of the so-bad-it’s- great film form, and kudos goes to InterVision for putting this out with the neat lenticular cover art, and all. And I most certainly look forward to seeing where Ngguen takes us with his next slice of cinematic awfulness.