Holy shit, where do I even start with this movie? That was straight up psychotic! I have punished myself with a lot of weird ass movies in my life (including Beverly Hills Chihuahua 1, 2, and 3 in succession in one sitting) but this was a horse of a different color. This scene from Birdy pretty much sums up how I felt watching this:
Going into it I only knew two things about this movie: 1) It’s called Birdy and 2) Nicolas Cage is in it. What I didn’t know was that it was going to be like watching a coming of age tale on an overdose of Percocet. I’ll start with the title: it’s called Birdy, because it’s about a boy named…. Birdy…. who is obsessed with birds. Cage spends a good portion of the movie yelling “BIRDY!!” as well.
Cage is Birdy’s best buddy who hasn’t seemed to notice that Birdy is batshit insane. The movie takes place in the mental ward with flashbacks to Cage and Birdy’s high school days before the war. Cage and Birdy are Vietnam vets and Cage is there to help pull Birdy out of a catatonic state in which he believes he is a…. you guessed it…. bird. Birdy basically spends all day squatting like a pigeon in his cell and he doesn’t talk, and at night he takes off all of his clothes and squats in the corner, like this:
There were so many crazy ass scenes that I don’t even know how to explain it. Several times the shooting goes into “bird cam” and we are seeing what it’s like to fly around as a bird (pre-drone era of course). Here are two scenes that Alexa sent me from Ireland that had a what-the-fuck impression on her:
Peter Gabriel did all of the music for this masterpiece, which definitely added to the weirdness of it all. The awesome cage flip out in Birdy was outstanding, best we’ve seen yet! We have discovered that the true sign of a stellar flip out is when he’s rolling so hard you can barely understand English. Take a look at this clip for proof:
FLIP OUT TALLY: 5
Lastly, Nic Cage is totally fucking ripped in this movie! All that talk I had about his not being able to pull off the heartthrob was total horseshit, hubba hubba!
The last five movies have been enjoyable, maybe a little bit boring at times, but for the most part painless. After watching Birdy I feel like I finally got slapped with the essence of a brutal Nic Cage movie. Oddly enough, it didn’t stop my momentum at all, I felt invigorated by the mission, especially now that our guy is playing some leading roles! Bring it on, Cage!!!
Next up is the Boy in Blue!! Oh boy!!