Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, and this week with special guests Donal Smith and Donal Sweeney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users.
This time, James Nguyen’s Birdemic: Shock and Terror.
Software salesman Rod has the perfect life. He has just closed the biggest deal in the history of his company, which has itself just been bought out by a giant conglomerate. More than that, a chance encounter with an old school friend leads to a blossoming romance with a Victoria’s Secret model. Everything is going well, until death swoops in from above.
At time of recording, it was ranked 5th on the list of the worst movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.
Show notes:
- Recorded 18th March 2020.
- This is the first episode of The 250 to be recorded entirely remotely, as we discuss. The audio quality is a bit variable, but that feels appropriate for the film.
- Birdemic: Shock and Terror at The Internet Movie Database.
- The IMDB Bottom 100 as it appeared at time of recording.
- Listen to Atlanta Dream Season on Spotify.
- Guy Goma appears on BBC News, mistaken for an expert on streaming music, but just powers through, May 2006.
- Vice looks at the production and origin of Birdemic, August 2016.
- David Itzkoff at The New York Times on how James Nguyen made Birdemic, March 2010.
- Brian Truitt at USA Today looks at the improvisational low budget approach to making Birdemic, March 2011.
- Bonnie Steiger documents her own claims against James Nguyen’s behaviour during the making of Birdemic, August 2009.
- Josh Tate at LAist previews Birdemic: Shock and Terror, February 2010.
- Dangerous Minds offers an introduction to the premiere of Birdemic, hosted by Tim and Eric, February 2010.
- Alex Blagg at VideoGum offers his account of the Los Angeles premiere of Birdemic, March 2010.
- Whitney Matheson at USA Today makes an argument for Birdemic as a film worth seeing, February 2010.
- James Nguyen outlines his vision for Birdemic to The Mercury News, April 2010.
- Christy Lemire at CBS News on how Birdemic and other terrible films went mainstream, May 2010.
- James Nguyen talks to boston.com about the possibility of releasing Birdemic through Paramount, May 2010.
- Danny Leigh at The Guardian looks at Megan Ellison’s move into Hollywood, February 2013.
- Mike Fleming Jr and Dominic Patten at Deadline on Megan and Larry Ellison’s difficulties with Annapurna films, August 2019.
- Neha Jain at MongaBay on how encroachment into nature increases the risk of deadly diseases spreading, February 2020.
- Jim Robbins at The New York Times on the ecology of disease, July 2012.
- Madison Park, Dayu Zhang and Elizabeth Landau report on the giant hornet epidemic in China for CNN, October 2013.
- Adam Chan at CTV News reports on the possible return of giant hornets to Vancouver, March 2020.
- Mack Lamoureux at Vice on the Berenstain Bears conspiracy theory, August 2015.
- Caitlin Aamodt at Discover Magazine on the Mandela Effect, February 2017.
- Lenika Cruz at The Atlantic on Birdemic and The Room as dysfunctional explorations of American small talk, July 2016.
- Scott Tobias at The A.V. Club on the “cinema as a second language” internal dysfunction of films like Birdemic, March 2013.
- Margaret Qualley talks to IndieWire about her anxiety about her dirty feet in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, July 2019.
- Damien Carter’s Hangin’ Out With My Family on Vimeo, March 2011.
- Damien Carter talks to Cinedelphia about providing songs for the soundtrack to Birdemic, October 2013.
- Karen Ho at New Straits Times on the appeal of naive art, March 2019.
- Maria Popova at Brainpickings on the legacy and reappraisal of the works of Henri Rousseau, December 2014.
- Peter Schjeldahl discusses the Henri Rousseau retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in The New Yorker, January 2006.
- Jonah Weiner at Slate on what makes a bad movie great, April 2010.
- Chris Berube at The New York Times on how terrible films have drawn cult followings in the modern age, February 2013.
- Mark Olsen at The Los Angeles Times on how directors like Tommy Wiseau and James Nguyen are acclimitising to their status as cult filmmakers, May 2010.
- Nina at Flour, Water and Yeast offers a recipe for Pain a l’Ancienne, February 2011.
- The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart, November 2001.
- Follow The 250 on Twitter.
- Subscribe to The 250 on iTunes.
- Subscribe to The 250 on Stitcher.
- Listen to The 250 on Soundcloud.
- Listen to The 250 on Spotify.
Filed under: The Bottom 100 | Tagged: auteur, birdemic: shock and terror, coronavirus, covid-19, cult, donal smith, donal sweeney, film, Movie, podcast, remote, review, sundance, terrible, tim and eric |
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