Search - Flu Birds on DVD

Please don't rent

PROFESSOR MO-JO | NASHVILLE | 10/19/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is an awful movie. I wish I hadn't rented it. It was so bad I could barely watch the whole thing. What a waste of time.Do yourself a favor....don't bother."

Having actually seen it, not so stoked

Trevor Johnson | Houston, Texas USA | 10/02/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Not a bad idea for a film but has weak acting by the crew of 20-somethings that try to pass for under-18 reform school kids. The guys playing rednecks in the prologue were pretty convincing and the poor impulse control and nutty exaggerations by the "delinquents" seemed somewhat appropriate but used more generally to move the story forward. The digital and injury effects were generally pretty good though some wounds were obviously laced with spaghetti. The story has some decent disease-containment scenes showing how different people might react to a SARS-type of situation but some of the storytelling was generally choppy between plotlines."

Don`t bother with Flu Birds!

D. Becker | 10/03/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I`m all for b rated and dumb movies,but Flu Birds is lame!You will be very upset if you get this.Not at all what I expected.JUST PLAIN DUMB AND A WASTE OF TIME,sorry to say."

Juvenile Delinquents Versus Mutant Condors: Believe It On No

Robert I. Hedges | 04/22/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I watched "Flu Birds" as the second half of a theme double feature paired with "Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America," which I thought I disliked until I saw this. "Flu Birds" is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of cinematic cheese. The brainchild of Leigh Scott, "Flu Birds" tells the story of a group of people in their mid-twenties posing as under-eighteen juvenile delinquents out in the woods on a retreat for fledgling criminals who are attacked by giant, mutant birds. They really don't look like any birds you've ever seen, but if you imagine a California Condor with more reptilian features, you'll be close. There is no clear reason given for why the birds attack, only that it has something to do with being infected by the avian flu virus.

The film gets off to a fast start with a really elaborate (and completely idiotic) trust exercise for the little hooligans who are in the reform camp for charges ranging from arson and murder to shoplifting and hacking the Pentagon's mainframe computer. There are idiotic teen-angst related conflicts amongst the kids (who are actually played by actors ten years too old to be convincing in their parts,) and the flare gun is the weapon of choice in settling feuds. During the trust exercise great flocks of birds descend upon the teens, and quickly prove that a picnic table is not a shelter in the process. (Don't ask.)

Mercifully my copy of the DVD was unable to play chapters seven and eight of the film, and for that reduction in running time I am grateful. (I tried multiple players; I presume this is a flaw only in my copy.) By the time I rejoined the action in chapter nine, the delinquents had obtained guns somewhere and were being pursued though the forest by the birds while taking occasional time out to point the guns at each other and try to be menacing. Eventually the survivors pile into a jeep while a helicopter is launched to target the fowl menace. The scenes of the birds dueling the jeep and the helicopter are models of inept filmmaking that should be watched by aspiring auteurs in an attempt to never repeat these grievous errors. Ultimately the most obnoxious of the hooligans sacrifices himself with the assistance of a mysterious warehouse in the middle of nowhere, some dynamite, and the vaunted flare gun. Then everyone relaxes and strolls through the forest knowing that he got them all. How, exactly, do they know he got them all? Amazingly the movie doesn't close with a shot of more mutant birds hatching thus inviting a sequel.

All told "Flu Birds" is a stunning embarrassment. It is a horrible concept that attempted to exploit public fears about the avian flu threat, but failed miserably on all levels: it is badly conceived, terribly executed, and has absolutely awful special effects, particularly the birds themselves. If you are bound and determined to watch a movie about killer birds, please just stick to "The Birds," but if you decide to watch this anyway, don't say I didn't warn you."