Movie Review - The Swarm (1978)

There is something to be said about the hypnotic noise of buzzing that bees do when going from flower to flower. It’s relaxing to listen to when chillin’ in the park or your backyard but what about a few million of them? You be the judge when you watch the movie “The Swarm” (1978). Bees are my favourite insect and therefore took a real interest in this film.

The movie opens right into some action; men in hazmat suits running around what seems to be a military base. They are being extra careful in entering the facility. The group encounters a control room with officers collapsed at their desks. Just then they give the all clear but are confused over what has occurred. Dr. Brad Crane (Caine) had mysteriously shown up on site and being questioned as a civilian. Dr. Crane explains that he has been following a group of bees which had come from the south; specifically the African honeybee. The bees had come in and stung everyone. General Slater gives him a hard time at first until he talks with General Thomson who is in Washington. As it turns out the good doctor happens to be the advisor to a minister that works with the President. All control has been given to Dr. Crane to get the bees under control. Dr. Crane’s first order is to have a few colleagues flown in who have expertise in this field. A vaccine was also trying to be made as the sting is very potent. It would only take 3-4 stings to kill a person. In a series of tests, investigations and efforts to control the bees, they migrate to a small town and wreak havoc on the residents. They sting and swarm their way to Houston, Texas where the final fight occurs. Control of operations had been given back to the military but in the end the doctor works out one last plan to eradicate them. I really want to remain a little vague on this one as to not ruin the complete story.

I really liked the effects on this one. The bees are real. They attach themselves to people and objects resulting in some good death scenes too. There were a couple scenes though where the victims were hallucinating of a giant bee –that looked fake. Overall good fright created. The problem with this movie was the storyline dragged; it built a good beginning but was slow to come around to produce the final product. Too many ‘filler’ scenes broke the flow and prevented the story from being held together. The acting was decent, a star studded line up; Sir Michael Caine, Henry Fonda and few other veterans. Everyone played decently enough. The sound affects were pretty good, nothing like a million angry bees buzzing. Oh wait, I heard that back in the summer with the world cup soccer.

I did like this movie aside from the storyline flaw. I will have to admit I’m swayed because the film involves bees but in any case there isn’t too many bee inspired movies out there. I would recommend watching this and rate it 6.5/10 but note it had potential to be better. If anything you have to see the bees!

Movie Review - Bug (1975)

It just goes to show you that you don’t need anyone else but bugs to headline a movie and even more so if the bug in question is a slow almost non moving cockroach. If you want to see what I mean, check out “Bug” (1975).

So we start off with a small town on an average day. An earthquake of low to moderate richter rocks the area and forms a rips a ridge in the ground. Sure, nothing odd about that. Soon residents begin to be involved in mysterious fires and some are even terrorized by some bugs. Later a scene shows steam and cockroaches bellowing out. Enter - Professor James Parmiter, he is a teacher of entomology at the local college. He is contacted by a local resident who recently had an experience with these fire cockroaches and brings one to him. The professor starts investigating their strange ability to start a fire in their back end. A visit to the rip in the earth confirms his findings. His wife is lost in a fire and starts loosing his mind. Held up in a fixer up shack on the outskirts of town he carries on his experiments with the cockroaches. He tries everything from using a pressure tank to breeding with a domestic cockroach making notes along the way. Things get concerning when the new batch of cockroaches ends up being bloodsuckers. I won't ruin the ending and leave it at that.

The story starts off like most would but for the latter half it turns down another road which is almost unexpectedly. The latter end of the film is entirely about the mad professor’s experiments. From a scientific side I did find it interesting but it made the movie boring. The only thing that kept from being worse is you see the professor slowly becoming more crazy and obsessed with the cockroaches. You just wonder where it’s going. I would have preferred more terror of the town but oh well.

Some pretty good effects -- well for 1975. These particular cockroaches move slow but they managed to create fear. When a cockroach drops from the ceiling and lands on you, you’re done for. Good camera shots. The acting was alright, they do have to act scared of something that isn’t and did so but the whole concept is cheesy and so it ends up being fake-ish. The professor was likely the star along with the cockroaches.

The movie was alright for what it was. I think maybe something further couldn’t have been done with the story direction. After it was realized that the cockroaches were dying, the story continued in lab experiments...where is the terror in that? It was what it was and I rate it 4/10 but suggest watching it only to see the affects and feel of fear created by a docile insect.

Movie Review - The Man That Fell to Earth (1976)

Just when you think you’ve seen everything, there is the odd movie (or should I say weird) that is still out there. I’ve been meaning to watch “The Man That Fell to Earth” (1976) for a while now and finally got the chance. Watch out on this one!

The story follows a humanoid man; Thomas Jerome Newton who is new to Earth. He has come in hopes of bringing water back to his home planet to save it from a drought. He first meets up with patent lawyer Oliver Farnsworth and shows him multiple inventions which enables him to build an electronics empire worth millions. In his travels he meets up with Mary-Lou a young aspiring no body from a motel and they have a bit of a relationship. Thomas experiences things like sex and booze. Things turn bad when the empire’s competition starts to fight back and Thomas is later attempted to be exposed as an alien visitor. This stops his plans of launching a space ship and is taken hostage to a mountain side retreat for testing. The government finally allows him to leave after months but his business is lost and so is the millions he was going to use to fund his departure. The film ends showing Thomas has come to terms that he is not going to get home and has integrated himself into society.

The movie stars David Bowie (the singer) as Thomas. He played his part well and was very creepy about it. The movie also featured a younger Rip Torn who played his usual shifty character. The acting overall was alright. There were some special effects but nothing major. For a movie set in the 1970’s, it was what it was.

This issue with this film is the plot, now although the storyline is interesting; it was also confusing and contained a lot of holes. You don’t really know why he is there until closer to the end. The storyline mixes multiple vignettes from Thomas’s home world life but to make matters worse there were extra scenes of gratuitous nudity that did not fit in. All of this compounded to interrupting the story flow. For the most part, I sat there confused wondering what the point of it all is. What I did find out is that the story is based on a 1963 novel and spawned a TV movie as well, so it looks like the story is popular.

Did I like this movie? It was okay. I’m thinking you should view it from another angle though, just maybe I should watch it again. I’m not sure what the director was trying to achieve, perhaps art? I was hoping for a decent science fiction movie though. I will say it definitely had potential to be better but and has merit for what it is. I rate it 6/10. I would recommend viewing it only because it’s supposed to be a cult classic.