Swarmed

Okay, so this is not a great movie, but I have to admit I was engaged through the whole 90 minutes. It was also one of those rare creatures in that it was made for TV and never made it to TV, it went straight to the Movie Channel. You have to be tipped off by the size of the budget when the 'big' confrontation scene should have thousands of extras milling around but you can actually count them- less than 30 by my count. I'm a fan of any mutated creature film: fish, insects, rodents, whatever, so I HAD to watch this one. The special effects were pretty good for the most part but not great. The acting is also not great but less wooden that in all those '50's movies I love like Them and Kronos. There are holes in the plot you could drive a wasp through but without them there wouldn't be a movie. And by 'them' I mean both plot-holes and wasps. I think if you are a fan of mutated creature movies it won't supplant your favorites but because there aren't that many made you have to see it. If you aren't a fan, give it a pass because it doesn't have any interesting sub-plots (it doesn't actually have any sub-plots) to keep you interested.

TV movie about a swarm of genetically enhanced wasps. This was made very much tongue in cheek, with some good dark humour. The acting is pretty bad, but some of the scenes are great in a bad way. It makes 'The Swarm' starring Michael Caine look like an oscar winner. Fun to pass the time but nothing more

This made for TV film is another in a long line of science fiction human versus nature films, and unfortunately it is not one of the best of the genre. The directing, cinematography, pacing, script, and acting are poor. It may fulfill cable TV's need to fill a time slot with inexpensive fare, but does not compare well with the vast selection of viewing available to the modern cable viewer.

Who will like this film? If you relish watching bad guys get their due, you'll get plenty of satisfaction. If you like films that are so bad that they are funny, you'll get plenty to mock and laugh at. If you love the B films of the 1950's, you might find this a entertaining way to waste ninety minutes. If you like the campy and quirky, check out Richard Chevolleau's portrayal of Q, the exterminator.

Chevolleau does a great job in the role and is a pleasant distraction in an otherwise dull and plodding flick. I did not recognize him as the same actor who played Marcus 'Augur' Deveraux in "Earth: Final Conflict" or Charlie in "Flowers for Algernon" (2000). His performance made me want to re-watch both.

Who will dislike this film? Any die hard science fiction fans will be disappointed by the lack of thought in the plot and the unoriginal scenario. Special effects junkies will be in heavy withdrawals by the cheap effects. The scientifically inclined will be at a loss with the weak to absent science and logic in this flick. Connoisseurs of fine film will be horrified than the horror occurred behind and in front of the lens.

In all, there is not much to recommend in "Swarmed." As I was voting at IMDb, I was conflicted in giving it as low a score as I did. If it was that bad, why did I watch the whole thing? Was it such a train wreck that I could not pry my eyes away? Was there a belief that it had to get better? In the end, it was one actor's performance and a desire to be intellectually honest in this review.

Should you watch? Well if you are actually thinking about it, probably not. This is more a movie for a mindless moment.

This movie handles about a wasp-invasion in a little town called Dundas, Indiana. I'm not sure if the town has a high-school football team, but if they do, they should rename themselves the Dundas Yellow-jackets and adopt a guy in giant wasp suit as their mascot! Just an idea...

"Swarmed!" is a typically made-for-TV killer-insect horror flick from the early 2000s. That doesn't automatically make it terrible, it simply means you must take into account a few standard shortcomings, like clumsy and cheap-looking CGI effects, derivative storylines, barely any (intentional) humor, and pretty poor performances.

A local research institute experiments with a new type of pesticide against yellow-jacket wasps, but it doesn't really work as planned, since the liquid makes the critters even more aggressive and their first sting deadly already. As a matter of course, bottles accidentally get mixed up, and a killer swarm of yellow-jackets heads towards town to partake in the annual BBQ-contest.

There we have the inevitable "Jaws"-copy! The mayor, sponsor and chief of police obviously refuse to cancel the town's big publicity event, and they'll live to regret it! "Swarmed" is a silly and insignificant creature-feature, but fun enough to watch once thanks to a couple of hopelessly idiotic moments. There's a notable sequence in which the mayor's secretary goes after a single wasp with a shotgun, and for some reason the wasps seem to specifically target the "bad people". While hundreds of people are running around and form easy targets, the yellow jackets prefer to kill the sponsor who ingeniously hid himself in a barrel of water. Smart wasps!

Did you know that you can kill a deadly mutated yellow jacket wasp with a shotgun? You'll find out if you watch this SciFi channel flick. The script is intentionally campy and funny with lines such as, "Why don't you go out and play with the cows or something?" The acting runs the gamut from Joe Namath level to a screamingly funny performance by the awesome bug buster Richard Chevolleau with a trusty Robin-like assistant he is sort of keeping out of trouble. Tasty Sauce King Phineas Washburn (Tim Thomerson) is almost as hilarious. Don't miss Miss Washburn Tasty Sauce 2005.

Don't expect anything on the level of "Them" or "Arachnophobia" and you won't be disappointed. The special effects are really cheesy and the ending is as predictable as the sun going over the mountain. Otherwise, it's fun all the way right down to the comical stereotyping of the rather stout, donut-loving police chief everybody calls Tiny. And, oh, yes, the satirical commercials within the film are better than the real-life commercials that appeared during the showing. Actually many of them are much better.