Cinema Saturday The Swarm

Cinema Saturdays Presents : The Swarm

Run Time: 2:35:05

Rating: PG
Movie Grade: B

Principle Cast:

Director: Irwin Allen

Michael Caine….. Brad Crane

Katharine Ross…Captain Helena Anderson

Richard Widmark….General Slater

Richard Chamberlain…. Dr. Hubbard

Synopsis: A mysterious incident leaves an entire army base dead with no explanation.  Enter Brad Crane a renowned entomologist who explains that the culprits are none other than a massive swarm of African killer bees that could result in the complete eradication of mankind.  It’s a race against time as humanity must find a way to destroy these bees or be destroyed themselves, the war of the insects has begun and man will be the first casualty. 

Spoiler free review: If you’re looking for a good cheesy animal on the loose killer bee movie then this is one of the best, if you’re looking for a classic cinematic disaster film like the towering inferno then it’s probably best to look elsewhere.

Review:

The Swarm is often hailed as being one of the worst movies of all time even earning a spot on the raspberries top 100 worst films.  However I argue that The Swarm’s quality as a film is purely a matter of perspective.  It’s true that the film has flaws; it’s also true that the group of movie critics that went to see The Swarm expecting it to be the same masterpiece of disaster drama that was the Poseidon adventure or the Towering Inferno were rather disappointed, but that doesn’t necessarily warrant such harsh criticism of an otherwise excellent killer bee movie.  I came into this movie as cold as you can go into a film with no knowledge of casting or history making my experience as unbiased as I can make it and I can say without hesitation I was thoroughly entertained solidifying  The Swarm as my new favorite killer bee movie.

 I think The Swarm’s strength lies in the fact that I was expecting another B movie schlock film with a standard slasher movie kill count where you find that every seen without someone being attacked by the monster pure agony.   What I got instead was a movie that generally cared about what it was doing and made a commendable attempt to make a movie about killer bees something that could appeal to the larger mainstream audience, and it probably would have succeeded too if it wasn’t for some poor directorial choices .  One of these poor choices is that the film suffers from an alarmingly large number of odd scene cuts and transitions where it leaves the viewer baffled about how the current scene came to play or why we just jumped somewhere else.  There are also a large handful of plot hiccups where characters and storylines are simply dropped or quickly disposed of not to mention a big helping of too stupid to live moments, but these are excepted and honestly not nearly as bad as some other films I’ve sat through. The most common critique of the movie receives is usually  directed towards the hammy acting and cheesy dialogue which in my opinion wasn’t a flaw at all but a boon that made the movie much more enjoyable and easy to sit through.

Despite all the films shortcomings there is a great deal of positive material that gets over looked.  For one thing even though this film was merely a paycheck film for Michael Caine he still brought his incredible professionalism and talent to the screen making him an excellent character to follow on this crazy journey. The pure scope of the film was also incredibly impressive to me It’s not often that one gets to see a killer animal movie with such high stakes, where those stakes are truly felt and not just assumed.  I would also be remiss in not pointing out that the bees were handled fantastically  we saw plenty of bee on human carnage without it looking like  a bunch of actors waving their hands in front of a green screen.  Even the global effects of the bees were well played out showing how much damage could be done if we don't to rid ourselves of these menaces, sure there are a lot of silly  moments but that's half the fun. I for one recommend The Swarm for anyone who is looking for a fun animal on the loose feature that also dares to try be something bigger and bolder then just a killer bee movie.

Fast Facts:

.During Production the actors would often find yellow dots on their clothing after working with the bees. Actor Michael Caine confessed to eating some of the yellow dots thinking it was honey only to find out later it was in fact bee feces.

. In order to get better shots of the bees and for the safety of the actors 800,000 bees had there stingers removed to make them easier to shoot.

.French Horns were used in the film score in order to make a soundtrack that sounded like bees humming.

. There are two different versions of this movie a 116 minute theatrical version and 155 minute extended version.

. the extended version dose not add much to the film merely drawing out a few scenes and adding a little more context to others. there are few scenes extended and there's a bit more of an ending but otherwise its still the same movie.

Favorite quotes:

-Brad Crane: “We've been fighting a losing battle against the insects for fifteen years, but I never thought I'd see the final face-off in my lifetime. And I never dreamed that it would turn out to be the bees. They've always been our friend.”

-Brad Crane: “Are you endowing these bees with human motives? Like saving their fellow bees from captivity, or seeking revenge on Mankind?”

General Slater: “I always credit my enemy, no matter what he may be, with equal intelligence.”

-Dr. Andrews: “Billions of dollars have been spent to make these nuclear plants safe. Fail-safe! The odds against anything going wrong are astronomical, Doctor!”

Dr. Hubbard: “I appreciate that, Doctor. But let me ask you. In all your fail-safe techniques, is there a provision for an attack by killer bees?”

-General Slater: “Houston on fire. Will history blame me, or the bees?”

Observations:

.the music in this movie is so awesome!

. Yeah well a lot of other people died in the incident too! You don’t see their loved ones threatening to… oh were just going to let him in? Well that’s cool too I guess.

. The bees are our friends? What do we have like treaty with the high queen of bees that states we will negotiate in trade and labor deals?

. Forget the nuclear option African killer bees are a far more effective weapon of mass destruction capable of derailing trains and blowing up nuclear power plants. We should just sign them all up right now.

. anyone else slightly uncomfortable  every time someone talks about wiping out the Africans?

.Children are idiots: for throwing Molotov cocktails at a swarm of killer bees.

.wait, why is he hallucinating a giant bee? Since when does bee venom do that?

.Those end credits just made my entire day.

Cinema Saturday announcment

Greetings readers I’m here to announce a new blog series that I will be doing known as Cinema Saturdays where I will be bringing reviews of different movies of years past every month. I’ll be mostly be focusing on lesser known cult movies but a few big titles and mainstream movies might make their way in from time to time.

I also want to take time to introduce my new Cinema Saturday grading system. I abhor having to use a star or numerical rating system since  I believe art is far more complicated than giving something 5 out of 5 stars but when reviewing one does need an easy reference system to help clarify what the general premise of the film is like.  so instead of trying to juggle with those messy numerical and star value systems  I’ve decided to make my own film grades. This post will act as a key for my new rating system that I will be using to help you get an idea of the quality of each film I review.

A+: these films are the cream of the crop. these are not only good movies but legendary feats of cinema and art. These are the classics, the stories that stay with us for generations to come, that go above and beyond what we expected. These might not all be artsy films but they have left their mark on cinema history or if there more recent films they left a very big impression on me. 

A: this is for everything in between the two A’s.   These are all fantastic pieces of high cinematic art but just not quite the legendary status of A+  they pushed boundaries and challenged ideas but they just missed being part of the 100 best films of all time.

A- : These are great movies but they are mostly just flash and eye candy there might be some deeper aspects to these films but that’s not really the point of them.  The point of these movies is to entertain and make the audience leave the theater with a smile.

B+: these are the best of the best when it comes to genera and cult films.  Usually the budget is a little lower than an A movie and for certain critics some of the themes and dialogue may be considered silly or not mainstream enough but they are well loved and well written making them more then worth the time of anyone who loves film.

B: these movies are the middle ground love em or hate em kind of movies.  Most of these films are pretty good but usually are missing at least one major thing to keep them from bumping up higher on the list.  These movies are usually still absolutely worth your time if you’re a lover of genre film but if you’re just a casual viewer these are easily skippable in favor of higher grade movies.

B-: These are movies are the movies that fit in the so bad their good category.  These movies are stupid no one can argue that, but in that stupidity there is an element of immense entertainment as one can’t help but point out all the silliness with the movie and laugh at the cheap special effects, much like Mystery Science Theater 3000.

C+: these are movies that may or may not be bad but they simply weren’t my cup of tea and I did not enjoy them. There production value is usually fine and if you like this kind of thing you might want to check it out but I had issues with it and can’t honestly give it a high rating.

C: I hated this movie with a passion but there may be people who think these kind of movies were worth seeing. I don’t really understand who would want to defend these films but those that do need to have their heads examined. Let’s just say that no one should waste their time with drivel like this.

C-: These are all those terrible made for TV/direct to video movies that companies like                        sfy channel and Asylum produce en mass and always end up being terrible and boring.  there usually  cheap trite trash with awful cgi that might be entertaining for a laugh or two but get old quickly.

Z:  these films are so bad that we have to skip all the way to the end of the alphabet to get there.  There is absolutely nothing redeeming about these movies and everyone involved in their production should be so ashamed of releasing this monstrosity on mankind that they change their names and remove themselves as far as they possibly can from humanity.  These are usually zero budget films that actually make you debate about the benefits of scooping your own eyeballs out with a soup spoon.