Hi, and welcome to my review of 1978s The Bees.
The story gets a 0.50 out of 2: Damn, this is one hell of a poor story. Even the writer Alfredo Zacarias, who also directed, appears to have recognized this. Throughout the movie, the story changes in bizarre and unbelievable ways. I'm unsure if he was ridiculing the better Bee movie of the year, The Swarm, but he appears to borrow a plethora of its plot devices. We start in Brazil, where a scientist is developing a less dominant and violent breed of African Killer Bee. As might be expected, the experiment goes disastrously and fatally wrong. His widow then moves to America, where she joins her Uncle, who's attempting to produce the same outcome. They are carrying out their experiments in the name of commerce. There's money in them damned honey jars. Directly, the major conglomerates decide they want the royal jelly for their anti-ageing creams. Sadly profitable business is not patient, and they opt to smuggle in their own Killer Bees; what could go wrong? It's at this point the story begins to stride down the path of the ridiculous. The scientist turns into Dr Doolittle, and Bees decide enough is enough, and it's time for world domination.
The Direction and Pace receive a 1 out of 4: The opening and dynamic sequence set the audience up perfectly for the film. However, something odd begins to happen. Zacarias plummets the movie's pace down to a tedious crawl before we're halfway through. Subsequently deciding it might be a good idea to add a few comedic deaths. There are also way too many stock film segments, especially in the segments where the armed forces are required. Evidently, it's cheaper to insert somebody else's film than pay actors, build sets, and buy uniforms. Some directors search for similar film stock. Zacharias doesn't care. I think he'd have happily included some black and white film if it had been cheap enough. These issues are annoyances, and there is way too many, especially when added to the poorly written story.
The Acting gets a 1 out of 2: By far, the performances are the soundest element of the film. Everyone does a great job with their portrayals, except John Carradine. I find Carradine is either an outstanding actor or the guy who stinks the most. He's definitely in stench mode for The Bees. For a start, his accent is all over the place. He should have stayed with his normal voice; most of the cast did. Even Angel Tompkins opted to lose the foreign accent quite quickly. It was so feeble, to begin with, you scarcely notice she's stopped speaking in it. Secondly, Carradine appears to stumbles everywhere. Not just in his movements but his perfomance. At intervals, it's disagreeable to watch.
And my Enjoyment level hits a 0.50 out of 2: I love B-Movies, but this Bee Movie includes a confusing storyline, a jagged and bewildering filming style, which produces a film too irritating and dull to enjoy fully. Zacarias needed to decide on one outcome for the movie and work a good story around that conclusion. He also needed to decide on a genre or a mix of genres the story was to include. Suddenly jumping from one genre to another is horrible.
Giving The Bees a total of 3 out of 10: Stay Away from this travesty. Unless you're a budding filmmaker, then watch this mess to see how not to do it.
Take Care & Stay Well - Get Inoculated.
If your Bee Masters decide you've been a good human, then nip on over to my Absolute Horror, The Final Frontier, and Monstrous lists and see where the Queen Bee set up her hive. But mainly to find a better film to watch than this one.
The story gets a 0.50 out of 2: Damn, this is one hell of a poor story. Even the writer Alfredo Zacarias, who also directed, appears to have recognized this. Throughout the movie, the story changes in bizarre and unbelievable ways. I'm unsure if he was ridiculing the better Bee movie of the year, The Swarm, but he appears to borrow a plethora of its plot devices. We start in Brazil, where a scientist is developing a less dominant and violent breed of African Killer Bee. As might be expected, the experiment goes disastrously and fatally wrong. His widow then moves to America, where she joins her Uncle, who's attempting to produce the same outcome. They are carrying out their experiments in the name of commerce. There's money in them damned honey jars. Directly, the major conglomerates decide they want the royal jelly for their anti-ageing creams. Sadly profitable business is not patient, and they opt to smuggle in their own Killer Bees; what could go wrong? It's at this point the story begins to stride down the path of the ridiculous. The scientist turns into Dr Doolittle, and Bees decide enough is enough, and it's time for world domination.
The Direction and Pace receive a 1 out of 4: The opening and dynamic sequence set the audience up perfectly for the film. However, something odd begins to happen. Zacarias plummets the movie's pace down to a tedious crawl before we're halfway through. Subsequently deciding it might be a good idea to add a few comedic deaths. There are also way too many stock film segments, especially in the segments where the armed forces are required. Evidently, it's cheaper to insert somebody else's film than pay actors, build sets, and buy uniforms. Some directors search for similar film stock. Zacharias doesn't care. I think he'd have happily included some black and white film if it had been cheap enough. These issues are annoyances, and there is way too many, especially when added to the poorly written story.
The Acting gets a 1 out of 2: By far, the performances are the soundest element of the film. Everyone does a great job with their portrayals, except John Carradine. I find Carradine is either an outstanding actor or the guy who stinks the most. He's definitely in stench mode for The Bees. For a start, his accent is all over the place. He should have stayed with his normal voice; most of the cast did. Even Angel Tompkins opted to lose the foreign accent quite quickly. It was so feeble, to begin with, you scarcely notice she's stopped speaking in it. Secondly, Carradine appears to stumbles everywhere. Not just in his movements but his perfomance. At intervals, it's disagreeable to watch.
And my Enjoyment level hits a 0.50 out of 2: I love B-Movies, but this Bee Movie includes a confusing storyline, a jagged and bewildering filming style, which produces a film too irritating and dull to enjoy fully. Zacarias needed to decide on one outcome for the movie and work a good story around that conclusion. He also needed to decide on a genre or a mix of genres the story was to include. Suddenly jumping from one genre to another is horrible.
Giving The Bees a total of 3 out of 10: Stay Away from this travesty. Unless you're a budding filmmaker, then watch this mess to see how not to do it.
Take Care & Stay Well - Get Inoculated.
If your Bee Masters decide you've been a good human, then nip on over to my Absolute Horror, The Final Frontier, and Monstrous lists and see where the Queen Bee set up her hive. But mainly to find a better film to watch than this one.