Cheap The Birds II: Land's End (Video) (Alan Smithee, Rick Rosenthal) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Birds II: Land's End

The Birds are back
It figures. Something like this was bound to happen to me. After viewing all the reveiws off amazon, I was just a bit curious of The Birds II. It sounded exciting, but compared to everyone else's opinion, I seriously didn't think much of it. Somehow I predicted once I bought it, I would make a regret, but no. I actually liked it. To tell the truth, I make no regrets about buying it. I loved it, which is the problem. In B low-grade movies everyone else despises, I end up to be the one who breaks that chain. That's me of course. I suggest this movie to anyone who likes sequels to good movies. Not as good as the original, but good.

Ted and May Hocken (Brad Johnson, and Chelsea Field) and their daughters just want to get away from the normal world. Can you blame them after losing their son 5 years before? In the hopes of escaping their problems, they embark to Lands End, the part of small Gull island where the earth becomes water. It seems a quiet and boring start to what may seem like a nice summer. But things soon change. Unusual amounts of birds have been flocking around Lands End, and a few other small towns around the island. Birds people never even knew hung around the island. The Birds begin to do strange things. Ted is hit by a bird while doing a little painting, his daughters find a body with it's eyes pecked out, and a strange crow crashes through a window of their house. As this is happening, the birds began to mass in bigger groups, and once all hell breaks loose, there is no stopping them.

I have to agree that sequels do in fact need an ending. This should not have been called a sequel, but more of a follow up of the orginal masterpiece. Why bother making a sequel when there is no point. Just another part in the timeline. Maybe that's why the director went with "Alan Smithee". If he was that embarrased with the movie, why did he make it? I'm glad he did though, cause at least I liked it. I really have to say the only real good acting was by the two little girls, and Tippi Hedren. If you want to see the birds really get mad, rent this movie. If your ready for a disappointment rent this movie. If you want to see a masterpiece, rent the original. The only reason I put 5 stars was because I liked it very much. You won't like it unless your like me.

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Tippi Hedren returns to the birds in this part two.
A family with two girls rents a house for the summer at Land's End, 30 miles from Bodega Bay. They notice a boat out in the water, but what they do not know yet is that the occupant of the boat was grossly pecked and murdered by the birds. In town, at the Shell Shop, Tippi Hedren (The Birds [1963]) plays "Helen". She knows where everyone lives and knows all the secrets. When Ted gets pecked on the head by a seagull, he becomes concerned and sees a doctor. The doctor tells him, there have been more seagulls than normal. The two girls are enjoying exploring the beach for sand dollars. They come across a dead bird and then just behind them, the body of a dead man. His eyes have been pecked. It is the man from the boat. As in the first film, the birds begin to attack in mass quanities and to this family. Not as good as Alfred Hitchcock's film, but only Brad Johnson and Tippi Hedren can peak your interest in this made-for-cable tv movie. Cast also includes Chelsea Field, James Naughton, Stephanie Milfors and Megan Gallacher.

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A new movie on the same concept, rather than a sequel.
This is not as much a sequel as a new movie made on the same concept as the first movie. Both are based on Daphne De Maurier's short story, but the characters and plot are quite different between the two movies. It's not even the same characters, so it's not really a remake. I haven't read the short story, so I don't know which is closest to it (I guess the original version is). Tippi Hedren plays a very small part, Helen. Note that it's not her old character Melanie from the Hitchcock classic. Here, she plays the storeowner, Helen.

The movie is about a family who decides to spend a summer on Gull Island. While they are there, birds attack the people on the island several times. There's also a couple of quite pointless side stories, for example about May and her new Boss Frank's relationship. The actors' performances are of varying quality. Brad Johnson is not very convincing as the father. James Naughton as Frank and Tippi Hedren as Helen are the best actors in the movie. The bird attacks are more graphic, with more close shots and blood, in this movie than the old, but actually less scary. The movie isn't as suspenseful as the original version either.

The movie isn't totally bad. It's not worth buying, but if you're curious, rent it. It is entertaining if you don't expect too much from it.