"Free Birds" makes no sense, but somehow it's actually good.

"Jim Spanfeller" (awesomeaustinv)
08/10/2020 at 14:10 • Filed to: oppo movie reviews

Free Birds, IIRC, was a bit of a flop. For one thing, it’s a largely Thanksgiving-themed movie which was released in December for some reason, and a bunch of people freaked out about it because they thought it was against Thanksgiving (it’s not). Also, it’s frickin’ weird. The premise is literally a couple of time-traveling turkeys going back to 1621 in an egg-shaped time machine named S.T.E.V.E. to prevent Thanksgiving from taking place so that all turkeys may be saved. It’s just as ridiculous as it sounds, maybe even a bit more. Watching it I got the weird impression that this should be a terrible movie, but somehow it actually isn’t. There are movies that try to take themselves seriously, but you can’t because they’re too absurd, so the movie fails, Like Disney’s Black Hole:

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(that movie had several other things wrong with it as well but I digress)

Then there are movies that don’t take themselves seriously at all and are intentionally absurd for comedic purposes (like parody movies), but with a lot of those I feel like you can’t really become too invested in the story because, well, the whole story is a joke. This isn’t to say that parody movies are bad, they certainly have their place, you just can’t become too invested in the story.

Free Birds is weird and ridiculous but falls into neither of those categories. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like it takes itself seriously enough that you become emotionally invested in the story, but not so seriously that you question the fact that this movie’s premise is weird as heck? I dunno. All I know is that this is like the most random movie but somehow it just works. It’s delightfully crazy, but it has heart. Unlike Black Hole, I found myself actually caring about the characters. The jokes aren’t bad, either. If anything, my one criticism of it is that it feels like it’s building up to an epic fight scene at the end and you’re excited to see a bunch of native American turkeys (yes, you read that right) kick Pilgrim butt, but (mild spoiler) it resolves before any real fighting happens. But the ending is good enough that I was able to forgive that.

In my review of Black Hole, I spoiled the whole thing because nobody’s going to care, but because I believe Free Birds is actually a good movie and I think you should check it out sometime (again, you can watch the whole thing for free on Youtube), I won’t spoil it. I was going to, but I can’t mock it like I did with Black Hole, so what’s the point? Go see it for yourself!

Also, I’m thinking of doing more reviews of weird/terrible movies like Black Hole, especially old Disney ones (because Disney+) or movies on Amazon Prime or Netflix . Is that something you’d be interested in? If so, what movies should I consider?

DISCUSSION (12)

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 14:27

This is at least one person who would rear another review. I understand what you mean about a piece of media walking that fine line between taking itself seriously but not too seriously. I felt like Tokyo Drift got that right too.

CalzoneGolem > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 14:34

I’d read another review. I saw this movie in the theate r it was worth my ticket price . I completely agree with your assessment of this movie.

I’d like to quote the MST3k theme song

If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes . And other science facts, Just repeat to yourself “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.”

That’s really how you should interact with this movie.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 14:38

welp...that certainly was a better review than my ebenink entertainments lol

(grunk say go watch..it are gud)

Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street. > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 14:46

It was also a massive plug for Chuck E Cheese.

Kinja'd!!!

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 14:51

I love bad movies and I love good movies. Meh movies are boring. I am very interested 8n reading more similar reviews.

You don’t happen to watch Mystery Science Theater 3000 by any chance, do you?

bob and john > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 14:51

‘how do we adress it? “
“with cranberry sauce’

IDK why, but that line killed me

A Boy and His Longtail > CalzoneGolem
08/10/2020 at 15:42

I see you are a man of culture as well

Jim Spanfeller > Demon-Xanth knows how to operate a street.
08/10/2020 at 20:08

I find it slightly odd that the pizza guy is delivering two different brands of pizza...

Jim Spanfeller > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
08/10/2020 at 20:14

I’ve been meaning to watch MST3K for some time now, but I always want to watch things in chronological order and I’m not sure where to find all the episodes...

Jim Spanfeller > bob and john
08/10/2020 at 20:16

It’s such an unexpected dad joke it cracked me up as well :) My other favorite line is “Do you know what ‘ hypothetically’ means?” “No, but I can imagine a scenario in which I might.”

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > Jim Spanfeller
08/10/2020 at 21:44

You can’t find all of the episodes anywhere . Quite a few were never re-released, but bootleg copies abound all over the internet.

I have not watched all of them, but the early ones were a bit rough around the edges. I like watching in chronological order too, but if ever there is a show that it doesn’t apply to, it is this one.

Basically, the show started with the protagonist Joel and the antagonists Dr Forrester and, what was his name? His assistant was replaced by “ TV’s Frank” and the second season was much better produced. After a while, the protagonist was replaced by Mike and a season later the villain was replaced by Pearl Forrester and her assistants. There is exactly zero story between episodes besides the occasional reference to the jokes of another one.

Taylor Martin > Jim Spanfeller
08/12/2020 at 17:32

Bad movies are fantastic! I’d never seen this one, but now I m ight have to. Didn’t realize it was actually funny.

If you haven’t seen The Cat In The Hat starring none other than Austin Powers/Mike Myers, that’s a trip. It’s bad. Real bad. But it sticks some jokes that would never ever ever make it into a movie today... The 2000s were wild...