Clichés? You bet. A few logic holes. Yup. Worth a look? Indeed.First, anyone who claims this is a typical SyFy channel film should be avoided in public and in private. This is that 1 in 50 SyFy film that was actually well made.Second, anyone who claims the acting is amateurish must stop writing reviews. Period. The acting is top notch, especially considering that every one of these Americans is NOT American and yet I didn't hear an accent dropped once.Also, anyone who didn't notice the terrific music score should be made to take a music appreciation class. Twice.Oh, and you've got three gorgeous women to enjoy. You've got a real nasty ROC. You get to hate some truly nasty hicks (reminds me of the setting and characters in Shuttered Room).I enjoyed it. I think most people will, if they can find it.

ROADKILL, a SyFy Channel-style giant monster flick complete with CGI beastie and some horrid acting, offers something a little different for B-movie fans. This one's set in Ireland for a change, and sees a group of American vacationers going on a road trip in their RV (or camper van for Brit viewers) and finding themselves at the mercy of an ancient curse.It's all preposterous nonsense of course, and the film's cause is little helped by the cheesy, sloppy execution. The writing is equally poor: there's a fairly large cast and yet none of the main characters is in any way memorable or indeed stands out from the pack. When the token black guy shows up you know that the calibre of the writing is sub-par and totally clichéd to say the least.And yet, and yet...ROADKILL has a certain atmosphere that I found highly charged and plenty of fun. The effects are cheesy, yes, but the giant bird creature is good fun, although more than a little out of place (I'd expect it in an Arabian Nights adventure, not a rural Irish horror). There's plenty of action, and Irish actor Ned Dennehy chews up the scenery with relish as the primary antagonist. Watch out for Stephen Rea's shame-faced cameo as a copper. ROADKILL may not be high art but it does offer plentiful amusement and, for me, that's what counts in a B-movie.

A group of friends touring Ireland for a re-acquaintance trip run afoul of a gang of gypsies during an accident and are soon stalked by a gigantic predatory bird as part of their revenge on the friends, forcing them to battle the vicious creature to get away alive.This one isn't so bad and comes off a lot better than it should. One of the better elements in here is the rather impressive attack scenes which are frequent enough in here to really work quite well. The first attack on the RV and the ambush on the stranded truck in the forest, being the first ones in the film anyway, are quite fun showing off the creature's antics quite well as the surprise attacks give the bird a behavior that's quite chilling. Likewise, the scenes in the woods are just as much fun as they manage to not only feature the stalking by the townspeople through the fog-shrouded landscape but also the incredibly dramatic secondary scene in the creature's nest where it plays up much more tense situations alongside plenty of thrilling action with the location-setting having as much to do for the scene as well. These do manage to help it overcome enough of its flaws to make for a pretty entertaining effort although its flaws are still apparent. The biggest one here is undoubtedly the lack of anything here about the actual bird in any shape or form. All we're given is a line or two about a mythological bird of prey that it supposedly resembles but that's barely touched upon by the gang, then it turns around and has the locals not only ignore that telling but also give a totally different explanation and name for the creature. This makes it hard to follow what's going on while also questioning why the mythological viewpoint was even brought up to begin with. Following that viewpoint, this also manages to greatly differentiate the birds' impact on the community as the creature's initial attacks are suggested to be a curse on the group yet the search to acquire the protective medallion implies it's always been around so their actions are so scatter shot and confusing it really does lower this. Along with the weak CGI that runs rampant here, these do lower this though it does have those good parts to hold this up.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

OR ---Another SyFy Channel(US) Saturday Night Special---Roadkill is one of the special breed of "Made for DVD" forgettable movies that have become so numerous over the last decade. This is due to the increased use of CGI technology which allows anyone, talented or not, to make giant monster moves on a shoestring budget.The group traveling across Ireland in a Winnebego motor-home (really? The narrow roads and villages aren't a problem for that behemoth?) is made up of the stereotypical beautiful college kids, the "Brain", the "Jock", the "Pretty but Dim", the "Wallflower", the "Token Minority", the "Geeky Goofball" and most importantly, the "All American Nice, Strong and Independent Girl."The movie's 2 dimensional gypsy bad guys, act with sneering impunity, which is strange when faced with a giant demon bird that can attack them just as well as the kids.In the end the Goofball is the surprising lone survivor, not the All American Girl (who went insane?). He has a long drawn-out chance to display his acting skills in a voice-mail message to his dad. My only thought was who did the actor know so he could be the last teen alive and get so much uninterrupted, solo screen time?Skip this if you've ever seen any SyFy channel Saturday night movie with giant creatures. It's the exact same story with different, baaaad special effects and acting...