The Swarm (1978)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 116m
Director: Irwin Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Henry Fonda
Synopsis:
Mutated South American bees wreak havoc across the southern states, and an entomologist tries to prevent the military from over-reacting and further upsetting the ecology.
Review:
Though not quite as bad as you expect so opportunist a film so late in the disaster cycle to be, this is still as glib and perfunctory a piece of exploitation as you are likely to get from the above résumé, pregnant as that is with interesting possibilities. The effects are actually quite good, the narrative fast-moving, the escalation in destruction entirely wanton - and callous in the way it summarily removes star performers without so much as a second look. Which is no less than they deserve, given the woodenness of much of the acting, though Fonda and Ross succeed in grabbing you by the viscera for a fleeting moment each, and Ben Johnson is incapable of being less than authentic. Sample dialogue: 'Oh, my God! Bees! Bees! Millions of bees!' Michael Caine, soberly: 'We'll have to evacuate the town and close down all the factories.'
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 116m
Director: Irwin Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Henry Fonda
Synopsis:
Mutated South American bees wreak havoc across the southern states, and an entomologist tries to prevent the military from over-reacting and further upsetting the ecology.
Review:
Though not quite as bad as you expect so opportunist a film so late in the disaster cycle to be, this is still as glib and perfunctory a piece of exploitation as you are likely to get from the above résumé, pregnant as that is with interesting possibilities. The effects are actually quite good, the narrative fast-moving, the escalation in destruction entirely wanton - and callous in the way it summarily removes star performers without so much as a second look. Which is no less than they deserve, given the woodenness of much of the acting, though Fonda and Ross succeed in grabbing you by the viscera for a fleeting moment each, and Ben Johnson is incapable of being less than authentic. Sample dialogue: 'Oh, my God! Bees! Bees! Millions of bees!' Michael Caine, soberly: 'We'll have to evacuate the town and close down all the factories.'
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 116m
Director: Irwin Allen
Cast: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Henry Fonda
Synopsis:
Mutated South American bees wreak havoc across the southern states, and an entomologist tries to prevent the military from over-reacting and further upsetting the ecology.
Review:
Though not quite as bad as you expect so opportunist a film so late in the disaster cycle to be, this is still as glib and perfunctory a piece of exploitation as you are likely to get from the above résumé, pregnant as that is with interesting possibilities. The effects are actually quite good, the narrative fast-moving, the escalation in destruction entirely wanton - and callous in the way it summarily removes star performers without so much as a second look. Which is no less than they deserve, given the woodenness of much of the acting, though Fonda and Ross succeed in grabbing you by the viscera for a fleeting moment each, and Ben Johnson is incapable of being less than authentic. Sample dialogue: 'Oh, my God! Bees! Bees! Millions of bees!' Michael Caine, soberly: 'We'll have to evacuate the town and close down all the factories.'