The Movie

Shelly and I watched "The Big Year"last night. Well, not quite, i fell asleep durin the last 10-minutes are so. Don't know if I'll bother to go back and finish watching. It made the birders look like a bunch of slow-witted dwebes and the luke-warm at best comedic action had its roots in the three principal stars previous works. Steve Martin's bits looked like they were culled from Trains, Planes and Automobiles, for example. Bird imagary is a combination of CGI impossibilities and spotty-quality live action shots. But perhaps the worst ornitholgical faux paus, is the use of silly naming conventins. Purple footed Goose is one that I recall. Umm... Heptactic Tanager, Wood Stork, Snowy Owl... any of these and many others could have lent a thread of autenticy to the script. The movie is based on a book which included real-life birder Greg Miller, among others, in pursuit of observing the greatest number of birds in North America in a single calendar year. The book is entitled The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession which was written by Mark Obmascik.

The film has received mixed reviews from critics. It holds a 39% rating on Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus stating: "Though made with care and affection for its characters, The Big Year plods along, rarely reaching any comedic heights". CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B-minus" on an A+ to F scale. The film was a box office failure, given of the established stars like Martin, Black and Wilson as the leads. Based on a budget of $41 million, it took in just $7 million in ticket sales.