Swarmed (2005)

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Some time ago, I had this crazy idea of seeing as much Killer Bee-movies possible (since I never saw any in this sub-genre). I started with the soap-opera vehicle "Killer Bees!" (starring C. Thomas Howell), which was a boring pile of crap. So, fortunately, I did have a reasonable amount of fun watching "Swarmed" (in my country known as the less imaginatively titled "Killer Bee"). "Swarmed" gets it at least half right. The plot is sort of a "Jaws" rip-off with all the possible clichés. The effects are pretty good (this time no crappy black CGI killer dots, but nice-moving CGI close-ups of flying yellow jacket wasps). Some fine gory make-up FX's (the mayor with one of his eyes eaten away by a wasp), some corrupt politicians and cops, a male/female duo of scientists trying to stop this mayhem, a pretty fast pace, and an okay climax. This one also stars Carol Alt (I don't know how I do it, but I regularly get this: watching random movies in a short period of time which, as it turns out, can be related to each other in one way or another), and let's not forget Tim"Jack Deth"Thomerson, always a pleasure seeing him pop up in a flick. "Swarmed" is just fun to watch in a not-scary way (killer bees, or wasps or ladybugs or whatever just aren't scary...), it's unpretentious B-movie entertainment, really. Watch it for the scene where the mayor's assistant blows away one wasp with... a shotgun!

Wow, I caught this on TV, and was dumbfounded the entire time. This movie is unbelievably bad. Poor acting, bad writing, predictable format, just so generally unconvincing, not amusing, unbelievably bad! There are not nearly enough poor comments posted here! I mean we're watching killer bees here, attacking people.. we don't even see them stinging? .. the girl couldn't unlock the door and get out of the car in that time?! Please! If we must go to lengths of entertaining the idea that this many people can be killed by swarming bees, before using their brains and defeating them, then the actors should at least convince us that they're feeling genuinely threatened, and not completely stupid!

Oh where do I begin.I'll start with the fact that this movie was lousy in every way. Nothing at all was cool.Wasps are now genetically altered and are killing people for the most part this movie was dragged out. Parts that got me were the part where the police officer goes to investigate the scene where the doc was killed by a wasp is still in the room and doesn't sting him but flys away. We see the swarm of wasps going and flying around and see people walking around and attack no one. If we saw people getting attacked everywhere they went on the streets in the police station everywhere that would have been better. This film is a complete waste of time. Never watch it again for those who hated it. The part where the people were at the festival was very lame to attract the wasps. The swarm 1978 version looked better than this garbage, with more action and people dying. This was sad. The special effects were totally lame. The actors weren't the best.the only time in this film the wasps only attack when people cook meat another lame idea.The venom in the wasps altered and should have killed those peole right when they got stung. Boy they should make better movies than this. I'll never watch this again. The wasps going for meat is just laughable. Along with the wasps. I'll never get my time back. Just do me a favor and don't show crap like this anymore. Stay home people if you don't want crap like this. Awful in every way.

"Swarmed" is a clichéd and blood-less but still fun creature feature.**SPOILERS**Following an accidental chemical leak, exterminators Q, (Richard Chevolleau) and Rafe, (Jonathan Malen) are sent out to take care of an increased yellow-jackets in the area. After one assignment, they take more poison from Dr. Kent Horvath, (Michael Shanks) only to take the last batch of the chemical accidentally on their next job. Spraying the bugs with the poison, it results in them getting ultra-aggressive and forcing them to take stock of the fact that they took the accidental spray. Dr. Horvath joins the hunt, but when coupled with their increased mating drive, are unsuccessful and call in Cristina Brown, (Carol Alt) a prominent insect expert to help them. Realizing that their path will take them in direct contact with a small-town and their upcoming harvest festival, they race against time to stop the swarm before it overtakes the country.The Good News: This wasn't as bad as it could've been and does have a few decent points. For once, the CGI is pretty solid. Granted, computer generating yellow jackets isn't that huge of a feat, but these little creatures look convincing enough. A few shots betray their digital creation, but the vast majority of the yellow jacket sequences are effective. And when they do come across as a bit too unrealistic, it doesn't matter because it fits the lighter mood of the film. This is a real case that the CGI doesn't distract, even when it's sub-par, is a great plus for the film. When it gets down to it, the insect mayhem itself is decent. While there are presumably a finite number of inventive "sting-kills" one could conjure up, this one manages to throw together some entertaining dispatches. One guy gets a stinger square in the eye, another while hiding in a dunk tank, sucking in air through a hose inadvertently swallows a few enterprising bugs, a girl is overtaken inside a car when the jackets ooze through the heater vents, and more than a few victims are gang-stung. Most of these scenes are prefaced by a yellow-jacket POV shot, which is cheesy but appropriate for the film's tone. It's the ending, though, that really scores a lot of great scenes, as the long-promised overtaking of the festival that draws the best response from the film. To see that kind of mayhem is the general reason to see these, and it doesn't disappoint at all, and the on-screen action isn't that terrible. This also resorts to going for some cheap laughs, such as the one-liners uttered or by having someone go nuts and chase a lone wasp around a building blasting away it with a shotgun. The cheesy tone helps to make it more bearable and this does it well. Altogether, this could've been a lot worse than it is.The Bad News: This here does have some problems with it. The main factor is that there is really no surprise with this one. It's so clichéd and unoriginal that it's possible to watch only five minutes of this and know what's going to happen. That doesn't make the viewers who enjoy strong plots all that impressed when you know the film before getting into it. It's also pretty irritated that the film, for all it's cool deaths, manages to sneak out without showing anything in terms of gore or blood. There's not so much as a drop spilled in this, despite an entire massacre at a big festival or even some other deaths, which show nothing at all. Most annoying of all is that the film constantly resorts to showing us the wasps' point-of-view. The decision to make it look like it was filmed through the bottom of an amber-colored soda bottle to simulate what they were seeing is utterly nonsensical. There really is no need for it since virtually every creature movie has required some type of colored creature vision. The pace is also a little off, as it does take a while to get into the attacks and spends the majority of the beginning setting up the possible effects of the serum and ignoring the creatures until the middle section, and while it does redeem the film slightly, the technical jabber isn't that interesting. Overall, this wasn't as bad as it could've been, but it loses a couple points for the errors it does have.The Final Verdict: While it's not that bad of a creature feature, the strikes it does have are the worst ones it can have. Being slow, clichéd and quite bloodless isn't that endearing, but when it gets going, there's some good action and a nice cheesy charm, so there's far worse ones out there than this to waste on. Give it a shot, but don't set expectations too high.Rated PG-13: Violence