Love Birds

I'm sick of the Hollywood version of the romantic comedy. It seems like all this time, Hollywood has been trying to get close to repeating the critical and commercial success of When Harry Met Sally – itself an attempt to pull off a more accessible version of Woody Allen's late-70s bittersweet romantic comedies. However, Hollywood tends to get it wrong each time, with either bad casting, a bad script, or a very dubious moral centre (or all three - step forward Made Of Honour).

Away from the Hollywood version, Love Birds manages to entertain without leaving a bad aftertaste (the sort of guilt you usually feel after watching a romantic comedy when you realise you've just wasted 90 minutes of your life). Kiwi comedian Rhys Darby plays Doug, down-on-his-luck after being unceremoniously dumped by his long-term girlfriend. He finds solace in caring for an injured duck – also taken away from its partner – and this leads him to the supporting cast of Sally Hawkins and Bryan Brown.

Both actors are as awesome as ever, and Darby – by trade a stand-up comedian and comedic actor – more than stands up against them, carrying the film on his shoulders. The film is set in Auckland, New Zealand and it serves as a good showcase of the city's key features. In fact, the Auckland tourism board should really pay this film some attention (if it hasn't done already).

All in all, not the greatest film in the world, but a pretty entertaining one and a nice example of Kiwi filmmaking.

I quite like Rhys Darby and I do like Sally Hawkins, so seeing this at my local video store, had to get it out. I was blown away by its humour, good, gentle story and fine acting. Fabulous aerial shots of Auckland, and a very well-trained duck. Yes, it's a corny story, and it's not earth-shattering,(but then neither is the asteroid). For its genre, it ticks all the boxes and entertains along the way. The kids are polished performers too. It's made me want to get up in a hot-air balloon, which probably isn't a good thing, but it held my attention all the way through - and there are not many movies that do that today. Full marks to all concerned. Will be going out to buy this one.

At the end of this movie I realised my face was tired from smiling so hard. It was a fun movie with plenty of laughs. Especially funny was the trip to the bird sanctuary and the lip-synched end credits.

The romance unfolded slowly and sweetly and realistically and the movie managed to make me care about the characters and hope things would work out for them.

The duck - sorry Shelduck - in the movie was very cute and not at all annoying like I had feared it might be. And who couldn't resist a duck who likes listening to Queen music?

While the lead actor Rhys Darby is usually a comedian, I thought his acting and screen presence was up to the challenge of this feature length film.

I liked it. I have seen Rhys Darby on Modern Family and Life in Pieces and thought he was hilarious. So I decided to check this out despite that one horrendous review. I liked it. It's nice to see a movie about a man being kind to an animal and being a good guy in general. it was light and cute with a fantastic soundtrack. Loved that they did a Queen video at the end.

Excellent movie! to those that find it not funny, it's probably because you have no concept of life in New Zealand. It is quirky. It is funny. It is a great story. Excellent movie. apparently i need 10 lines to be a real review, so i'll need to waffle on a bit more, but the just of this review remains. Good movie. If you want to watch something, be entertained, have a smile on your face and a happy tear in your eye, then watch this! Still got 3 more lines to go and the site warns me about padding the review, so i better stop and just be about the movie. Good to see Rhys being genuine and funny without trying too hard. Nice to see the mix of culture in the movie that New Zealand is fast becoming known for.