Locusts: The 8th Plague

I don't want to write a spoiler so I'll just say this. There are many "holes" in the story. Bad story, bad plot, bad graphics, bad acting. Most of the dialogue is laughable and pretty much and insult to the intelligence of a nine year old. Most of the lines try to use twenty dollar scientific words, but most are not used effectively. Some parts are so bad you almost laugh even though you want to cry. The movie's solution to the nemesis is fairly lame. If you watch the entire movie, your scalp will be hurting from scratching your noggin and asking "why" did I watch this movie? Do yourself a favor and push the button the remote until you find something else worthwhile to watch.

A swarm of bio-engineered locusts escape from a research centre in Bulgaria - sorry, I mean Idaho - and have a taste not for crops but for flesh! I expected this to be yet another bad Sci Fi creature feature and while this is hardly a good film I certainly would not call it terrible either, hence my 5/10. Acting wise the leads - Dan Cortese, Jeff Fahey & Julie Benz - do a good enough job. Some of the minor roles were played by Europeans & this does show. Lots of cheap CGI here including helicopters (I've seen more realistic ones on video games). Plenty of gaffs too - many of the vehicles are obviously European; there's a scene where our hero is driving along a dirt track but when the camera is inside his vehicle it's obvious that it was filmed on a proper road, buildings & other vehicles are visible. What I do like about this film is that it's not played with tongue in cheek, nor is it unintentionally fun. It's actually played straight & when the locust descend on human victims it is done efectively to scare.

The attack scenes and carnage left is particularly nauseating and there's David Keith once again playing the main villain. I've seen him in at least two other Sci-Fi channel movies this weekend. Give this guy rest or a casting against type!

It's yet another show done by the sci-fi numbers including but not limited to: a dumb jock military group (God has any of these writers seen Aliens???) coming in with the common sense of one eighth of an amoeba's's brains and messing up the situation all the more and the two leads the only ones with all the sense and all the answers. Once again we have the villains who have the answers and won't care to provide jack-squat any. Well, God provided me with a remote. I've seen this film in it's entirety once before and don't have the endurance to watch it again.

The Sci-Fi Channel has once again cranked out another "made for TV" movie in their tired formula of species versus human engagements. As the film title indicates, the locusts have the honor of being man's nemesis this time.

A good director, cast, crew, writer, et al could have made this a passable piece of entertainment, but alas not in this case. The writing is predictable. The editing and photography are generic. The special effects are far, far from special. These scenes are particularly disappointing for a science fiction movie. While acceptable for a student film or a sci-fi spoof, they lack believability and appear to indicate a project with a meager budget.

David Keith does a good job as Gary Wolf, the corporate head. He has become a staple of The Sci-Fi Channel's flicks. Among this swarm of bad acting, he is a welcome relief, but has a limited amount of screen time.

Dan Cortese is very disappointing as Colt, the organic researcher and "good guy." His performance was stilted and uninspiring.

However, this is not unique in this film that lacks originality and recycles old themes. The evil cooperation versus the little guy. The government drone versus the civilian. The testosterone toxic military type versus the rebel. The industry versus the environmentalist. The geneticists verses the organic farmers. ... The banal list continues culminating in the human versus species of the week theme that is reflected in the title.

If you have a free moment with nothing to do and are bored out of your mind, consider this as a possible option.

As I sat down to watch the 2005 movie "Locusts: The 8th Plague", I must admit that I weren't having much of any high hopes for the movie. Why? Well, the movie have a rather low IMDb rating. And let's just be honest, the cast ensemble wasn't exactly screaming high-end production worth here.

But still, I do enjoy monstrous creature features, so of course I sat down to watch "Locusts: The 8th Plague". But I can't claim to have been overly impressed or particularly entertained.

The storyline is pretty straight forward and generic actually, for better or worse. So you know exactly how this movie will play out and writer D. R. Rosen didn't even once veer off the generic path of how-to-make-a-killer-insect-movie blueprint. And it was something that the movie suffered from, leaving not much of anything for director Ian Gilmour to work with.

Movies such as "Locusts: The 8th Plague" need proper special effect, which was something that it actually didn't have. The locusts looked like something taken out of a mid-1990s computer game. Fairly horrible CGI textures, and not once did I actually buy into the feeling of this being a swarm of dangerous mutated locusts. It just didn't work out, and it took away so much enjoyment from the movie.

Now, I can't claim to be much of a fan of actor Dan Cortese.. But I must say that when I saw David Keith and Jeff Fahey on the screen, I thought that maybe, just maybe, the movie could pick up. But no, it didn't, and they had small and rather insignificant roles that hardly mattered for the outcome of the movie as a source of entertainment.

If you enjoy movies about killer animals - or insects, as it is with the case of this 2005 movie - do yourself a favor, and don't waste your time on "Locusts: The 8th Plague", because it just doesn't offer anything to the genre that haven't already been done and seen, and done and seen better in other similar movies.

My rating of "Locusts: The 8th Plague" lands on a three out of ten stars.