Canaries

I watched this because I adore Kai Owen, but I didn't laugh once while watching this predictably dreadful movie. The effects are absolutely awful, and there's some of the worst US accents and acting (other than Kai) I've seen in along time. Aliens my bottom. The love children of a zombie and a bad Wolverine more like...

The movie played at Frightfest and it arguably had if not the best introduction to a movie, then definitely one of the best. The main actor got conned into stripping (only partly, upper half, but still a hoot for all the women and some men I guess, but fun nevertheless). And it all was setting the mood for one very funny movie.

The main character, a radio DJ, who is past his prime, goes back to his roots. For financial reasons of course. What he doesn't know: there are things happening outside of his realm ... literally! But while the dialog is amazing, the script may seem a bit convoluted in general, especially when it comes to coherence. Still that takes not much away from the fun you can have with this. Just roll with it and it's idea, that is really out there ...

An enjoyable 84 minutes, which may bring to mind peripherally Jaws, Hot Fuzz, I Know What You Did Last Summer among others, with some rather fancy locations. To producer Craig Russell, how on earth did you manage on the budget you mention? Congratulations: the mixture of eerie atmosphere, thrills (accompanied by notable soundtrack) and humour (some wry lines here) worked thoughtfully.

This film has a lot going for it, and deserves a lot more than 4/10. While not original in itself, there are enough extras in the script to make it that bit different. The characters are believable, and it's nice to see aliens attacking Wales for once! It's low budget, and some of the acting, and editing could be better, but it's much better than many bigger budget, star laden affairs. Well worth a watch if you get the chance, definitely better than average.

Don't take the ten star reviews too seriously as those are people that are related to someone that has something to do with this movie. It's certainly not that great as they pretend it is, and the excuse that it is a small budget has nothing to do with it. There are plenty of good movies with a low budget but unfortunately Canaries or whatever name it is isn't one of them. I'll admit that the beginning was intriguing and promising but as soon as the first alien appeared it went seriously downhill with the quality. Those aliens must be one of the worst aliens I ever saw. A couple lenses for a different color of eyes, long claws glued on a pair of cheap working gloves where they didn't even take the time to erase the brand on the back of the gloves, that's about it. The acting was also, let's just stay friendly, not Oscar winning material. The fight scenes were most of the time just awful. They talk about a sequel but I don't see any reason why we would have to endure this for a second time.