The Birthday

Preparing for a special birthday party, a man's attempts at controlling the situation are undone by a series of incidents that threaten his proposal plans which are even further hindered by the realization that a cult is actively using the hotel for their own means forcing him to stop their plans as well.

This was intriguing enough if somewhat problematic genre effort. Among the better aspects found here is the strong central setup that provides this one with the kind of quirky and offbeat energy it thrives on. With the majority of the first half presents the celebrated birthday party that goes from one awkward setup to another as he tries to go about making everything right for his girlfriend in front of her family as they celebrate the occasion with a lavish extravaganza filled with high-end drinks, food, and live entertainment, this sets the stage for what's going on quite nicely. As everything happening here is a direct result of his meek personality misconstruing everything and getting into bigger confrontations against the high-society demands on her parents throwing the party, this gets carried out the longer he's together with others there as the night starts getting strange including unexpected power-outages, mysterious guests gatecrashing, and the gradual intrusion of the cult which leads into a mind-blowingly over-the-top finale. The main thing with all of this is the pacing is so egregiously off that it becomes maddening waiting for something to happen. This is far more in the vein of a quirky black comedy than outright horror for the majority of its running time as we see him wander around the party trying to make things right by his girlfriend so that he can potentially propose to her at the celebrations, yet instead of being scary or funny, it becomes somewhat grating. With his somewhat irritating voice for these scenes and the prominence of his part of the film, this can make for a very tiring and frustrating experience as much as the extravagant length. There's little reason for this to be two hours with the different tidbits and subplots at play here all bringing the running time of this one to a longer degree than it needs to. Along with the low-budget nature of everything, these all manage to bring this one down overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language and Violence.

Welcome to Feldman's next career move, doing horrible Jerry Lewis impressions while pretending to have a sleeper hit movie as a comeback actor. I have no doubt that every 10 star review on this movie was written by the same crew he pays to flatter him daily.

Five minutes into this movie will give you an accurate understanding of the low grade trash you're about to subject yourself to for however long you watch.

Cut rate Corey aside, the script and acting is very trying on the patience. I get the distinct feeling those movie is another in a long line of Feldman ego projects. He's not a musician, he's not a guitarist, he's not a playboy, and he's definitely no longer an actor. He's sad. Corey is a sad desperate boy desperately seeking your approval.

There's not much that's really redeemable here, just cringe worthy performances that were either coerced or were done by sycophants too hopeful that even bad publicity is good publicity.

Watch it to see Corey, but don't expect to be even neutral afterwards about what a waste of time this is.

I had the opportunity to see this wonderful film at last Sitges Film Festival. It is not an easy film, in fact, it is dammed to be misunderstood by the big crowds and the old fashion film reviewers. This movie is something really weird in the Spanish cinema, you can tell by seeing 2 seconds of it, that its director knows about cinema, he knows how and where put the camera and fills the screen with lots of details .

One of the things that I loved the most from it was all the homages to the biggest 80s classic films (Gremlins, Back to the future,etc.)

The birthday, besides its multiple good things, its far from perfect, it is way too long (almost two hours)and one of the main characters in the second half is really disturbing and was near of taking me out of the movie.

Eugenio Mira is a filmmaker to keep an eye on, he just made the geek film of the 2005 (Donnie Darko is one of the films that comes to my mind when thinking about The birthday).

If you are able to check out this film in a festival, don't miss it, you won't be disappointed!

I also got to see the movie at Sitges and I am perplexed. I agree with my Italian counterpart on the "love or hate" stance but I believe that the movie still has to grow on us all. The tempo is awkward but it's compensated by the brilliant sound and camera movements that keep us inside the movie's technique, something I believe Eugenio Mira intended for when he made the movie. I would say once again that it is too soon to judge "The Birthday" when, for now, it is heading to be a cult movie, indeed similar to Donnie Darko (my all time favorite), that has still to be seen and compared to similar movies that are trying to grasp a new style of cinema that young filmmakers are trying to institute in the new millennium. Last but not least, I want to point out that the actors are great specially taking into account the fact that the movie was made on a low budget in Spain. Corey Feldman makes me wonder why he disappeared for a decade from mainstream movies ( "The Birthday" looks like one of them, anyway...) but I believe that with this movie he has a made a great comeback playing a role that suits him well and that probable only he could represent. Check it out dudes! THE cult movie of the year (and it's only just started!)

I don t believe much of the reviews seen here, i think that they are written by the crew of the movie. In Sitges, 2 years ago, all the crew was in the cinema during the movie: they were the only ones to applaud, to clap their hands and to "like" the movie. I've seen thousands of movies, and this one was the one that disappointed me the most and bored me the most on a cinema. It s boring, no implication at all from the viewers and ultra long, so you want it to end but it never happens. You spend all the movie time expecting for some climax but that never happens. As a friend, a lover of cinema, a huge fan of fantastic and horror movies, don t waste no minute in this garbage.