Terror Birds

A group of whiny thirty-something college students go in search of one their dads who went missing on a heavily fortified ranch, probably to escape from his whiny daughter and her whiny friends. During the course of the investigation they whine their way onto the ranch and come whiny face to beak with the titular large birds.

Watchable, but just barely. Take away the incessant whining and you would have a decent 1950's large animal movie worth six stars. But with all the whining, four stars is generous.

Attempting to find her missing father, a woman and her friends head out to his secluded ranch in the wilderness to look for him, finally coming across another isolated farmhouse housing a doctor's secret collection of vicious terror birds and must find a way to get away alive.

Overall, this one was quite fun for what it's trying to do. One of it's better features here is the fun setup that emerges here to have the birds get loose in the facility. The idea of the facility being based to study the creatures in secrecy after being discovered on the expedition, out in the middle of the woods and filled with plenty of security and secrecy serves as an appropriate launching pad for what's going on here. The scientists' discovery of the site results in a fantastic attack scene that gives this one the impetus for its true plotline of having the kids coming to look after him and get caught up in the same mess he did. Likewise, with them completely unaware of their existence and no one being forced to explain why these creatures are still alive so we're spared that kind of useless padding that typically fills these kinds of films. That also brings up the series of fun attacks by the killer birds which is rather enjoyable throughout here. The initial attack by the birds while being released from their transport vessel makes for a strong opening here, and the fateful attack that brings the kids into the storyline has a modicum of suspense with the desire to get him out of their corral before the creatures get to him. Later on, when the group arrives and the realize the creatures are there really starts this one going with a relentless series of attacks and encounters that builds up the pacing far more than before. With attacks and chases throughout the corral as well as interference with the other guards attempting to kill them without getting their hands dirty and trying to force the birds to actually deliver the killing blow which is a rather unique tactic, giving off some great action of the dwindling survivors trying to get off the ranch. As these provide enough gore to stay interesting during this section and showing off the great design of the birds, these here are what make this one enjoyable. There are some issues with this one. One of the biggest issues with this one is the rather unnecessary padding that is quite prominent in the first half of the film. There's plenty of subplots in this one, namely the series of arguments over the ethical treatment of the birds and what's going to happen to them following the accidentally killing of the father in the compound which is completely overbearing and mishandled with the way he disregards everything like always in these kinds of films. As is the case with the constantly-complaining sorority queen that joins them on the expedition to look after her boyfriend that has no business being out there or a subplot featuring some stranger following them for retribution after insulting him as these two plot-points make this one take longer than necessary to get to the creature action. The birds are distractingly CGI but it's not detrimental which is perfectly fine for this kind of film and really amount to its only real flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language.

Given the title of the movie, "Terror Birds", you know exactly what you are getting yourself into when you sit down to watch a movie like this. But still, I did so, because once in a while a couple of these creature features actually turn out to be surprisingly good and entertaining...

..."Terror Birds" wasn't one of those times!

While the movie definitely was entertaining enough, for what it was of course, then it was also horrible generic in terms of how movies of this particular type goes. It followed a very straight forward script, but also one that was so mundane that it sort of felt like it was running on autopilot, and it offered very little to the audience.

The idea of the movie was adequate, although it didn't make sense about the acquisition of the birds or how they would come to be alive. But hey, science facts is hardly the crucial ingredient in a movie such as this. But at least serve the audience something that passes as just an ounce of believable or agreeable.

Creature features such as "Terror Bird" needs to have either realistic practical effects or really good CGI effects. "Terror Birds" had none of this. The CGI animated birds were just not believable, it looked too fake. And the CGI animated blood in some scenes was just atrocious to bear witness to. And bad CGI in a creature feature drags the movie down, far, far down.

As for the acting in "Terror Birds", well... First of all, I wasn't familiar with anyone here, and I consider that to be a good thing. I enjoy watching unfamiliar faces on the screen, because then I don't associate them with previously portrayed characters from other movies. However, the actors and actresses here had so little to work with that they were indeed fighting and losing a steep uphill battle.

I managed to sit through "Terror Birds", as it was sort of pseudo-entertaining, albeit a less than mediocre movie experience. It is not a movie that I will be watching a second time, that's for sure.

Very cheesy, with a fair amount of Gore. If that's what you're looking for this is for you. Personally sorry to see Greg Evigan Reduced to having to do this kind of thing for a paycheck. But it's a gig right ?

Two outsized birds escape captivity and cause CGI havoc amongst a cast who appear to be having a great time. Such ebullience is addictive, and if you're in the mood, this is pretty good fun, on a strictly Scooby-Doo level.

Dumb adults and funny, smart-arse cute teens (of whom, my favourite might well be constantly sniping Taylor - Lindsey Sporrer - the silliest of all) hog too much of the running time when what we really want to see is some decently rendered birds pecking some poor blighter to death. This being a fairly family 'friendly' ScyFy project, there are no profanities and nothing too shocking.

My score is 6 out of 10.