The Swarm

The Swarm Review

Disaster films are kind of a discredited genre but there's something aesthetically satisfying about things blowing up real good. Another guilty pleasure to these flicks is guessing which members of the paycheck mode star-studded cast members are going to buy the farm. "The Swarm" isn't classic stuff but it kept me entertained even at 155 minutes. If I were to nutshell the movie I would describe it as "The Birds" with killer bees without Hitchcock's artistry. The pre-CGI visuals are quite good and director Irwin Allen ratchets the tension quite nicely. The acting here is perfunctory but movie's like this aren't meant for the award shows. No-think entertainment of the best kind.

The Swarm Overview

Irwin Allen's doomsday epic pits an all-star cast against a North American invasion of killer bees!

The Swarm Specifications

Legendarily chintzy "event" producer Irwin Allen (The Towering Inferno) went out with a gargantuan buzz-on with this jaw-droppingly goofy disaster flick. No cliché is left unturned, as a hyperactive strain of hallucination-inducing killer bees get it into their microscopic brains to derail a commuter train, destroy a nuclear power plant, and otherwise decimate a veritable cornucopia of washed-up Match Game panelists (Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, and narcoleptic dreamboat Richard Chamberlain are just a few of the legendary has-beens to get fatally stung by what appears to be airborne coffee grounds). Be sure to stay tuned through the closing credits for a (lawsuit-preventing?) coda absolving the good ol' hardworking American honeybee of any and all sinister charges depicted herein. An irresistibly hilarious chunk of honey-roasted cheese--'70s style. --Andrew Wright