Sciame assassino

Watchable, but totally absurd. This is yet another take on the killer bugs idea; this time somebody, somewhere in Mexico, is somehow engineering our buzzing friends, but something goes wrong and (hold on to your seats, folks:)they attack people!

There are some good action scenes, if you can overlook all the mockeries of scientific law that occur. Swarms of bees, or wasps, or something....take direction very well and choreograph their dive-bomb attacks viciously. You have the usual idiot politician who insists there's nothing wrong, (this time the mayor of a tiny town); thus ensuring lots of violence and carnage.

The movie doesn't seem to be sure if it's a horror movie, or a comedy, though. Mostly, the plot darts around, and doesn't make much sense. The irony of the potential victims being at a Dia de los Muertos ("Day of the Dead") observance suggests it wanted to be taken seriously. But then, during the generic panic scene; well, there's this policia guy who tries to exterminate the swarm with....ahhh, I'm laughing too hard to type it--just see the movie.

There's lots more that's outrageous to the point of being comical in this film. It's like watching John Belushi in the old Killer Bees skits on SNL. Of course, the movie is topped off with another one of those "Oh, come on!!!!" endings that are so notoriously common in these "nature gone berserk" movies.

All the flaws notwithstanding, however, this one actually has its moments, and is fun to watch. If nothing else, it's good for a few laughs.

All though there are some lame-O effects and things that just don't make sense in the script, like the base jumping scene that introduces the lead character as a bad-ass, it is still an enjoyable romp through Mexico. I wish there were more Wasp effects. Definetley recommended for people who like monster movie and still have a brain.

DEADLY SWARM? DEADLY JUNK, more like, because this is the nadir of the B-movie genre; a piece of junk, filled with lame effects and worse acting, and not much else. The attacks by a swarm of killer bees are animated via cheesy CGI effects, as you'd expect, but even they are few and far between and the rest of the running time is taken up by boring dialogue scenes and cheesy emoting.

Most noticeably, DEADLY SWARM lacks the 'hook' of a name actor to hold the whole production together. These B-movies usually wheel out some old face or another, but not so here; the viewer is left rudderless as a result, drifting aimlessly in an ocean of inanity. Although a US production, this was shot in Mexico, giving it a slightly exotic look, but the production values are so poor that it's difficult to sit through from beginning to end.

In some respects, I've always felt a little sorry for town mayors in films like "The Deadly Swarm." Ever since Jaws, they've been depicted as greedy Capitalist entrepreneurs that readily ignore the sensible advice of the scientist/cop/journalist/sexy teens who know about the rapidly approaching ferocious monster(s) for the sake of chasing those delicious American dollars. Call it crazy, but I've always felt a twinge of sympathy for them, they are just trying to do their jobs and protects local economic interests at a time of tremendous cultural importance. However, none have tugged at my heart strings quite like the Mayor in this film.

Here is a man who we are supposed to despise, but when we first meet him, he is asking the hero (an insect specialist this time around) how the job of solving the mosquito problem is going. Rather than saying "yeah, I've killed them all with my fancy insect-specialist stuff," the response is more along the lines of: "well, I'm bringing thousands more mosquito's into the neighbouring countryside. Oh, and some bats too." The movie then expects us an audience to condemn the mayor when he makes the logical step of firing the man, enchanting though his eyes may be and telling him to get out of town. All because he's fat, wearing a designer shirt and smoking a cigar. Lousy successful people! How dare they occupy positions of office!

Fast forward about twenty five minutes and the Mayor now has the town's police chief sat before him. When asked whether the previously mentioned insect specialist has been thrown out of town, the sheriff doesn't say: "yes of course mayor, he's well on his way to the border." No, instead, the reply this time is more like: "no, actually I've been hanging out with him for the past few hours and done nothing but blow up the city morgue because it had a bit of a wasp problem." Just like before, we are expected to applaud this decision and cheer on the honest lawman for not giving in to the reasonable demands made of him. But surely shelling out for a can of Raid would do?

Fast forward even more and for the third time in the movie, we are expected to condone the mayor. The reason this time? Simple, a large group of men in military uniforms have turned up with a very polite man and lots of expensive looking equipment, claiming to be from an environmental protection agency. Yet again, the mayor tells the good natured old sheriff to deal with the rugged hero. He's a loose cannon! A wild card! For all we know, he could be siding with the bees! From the tone of the scene, it's quite obvious that we should be shaking our fists with rage at the mayor's foolish decisions but let's be fair now...the only reason he's willing to trust this new group is because they look like professionals, act like professionals, haven't blown up any of the town and haven't said "actually, we're here to carry out an evil plan." Needless to say then, this is not a great movie when it comes to even-handed depictions of public officials. Though to be honest now, films about swarms of killer bees which have remote Guatemalan tribesmen speaking fluent Castellan Spanish probably didn't spend much time on the script. "The Deadly Swarm" is a terrible movie, the only reason I'm giving it two stars is because at one bit, a UFO nut starts firing a shotgun wildly into the swarm while shouting "Nobody's probing my rectum!" Don't even rent this one folks.

In Guatemala, a team leaded by the lunatic scientist Dr. Schroeder (J. Patrick McCormack) gets rare specie of killing wasps by force from some Indians. They hire a drug dealer to bring the insects to Mexico, and provoke an accident with his truck, releasing the wasps. The truck is followed by a snoopy American journalist, Sandra (Kaarina Aufranc), that is covering a matter about traffic of cocaine. In the location, coincidently the American entomologist Daniel Lang (Shane Brolly) is making a research with mosquitoes. When the wasps attack the locals, Daniel sees how dangerous the species is and tries to help the population with the support of Sandra.

"Deadly Swarm"is supposed to be a horror movie, but is so absurd and has so many flaws that become funny. I found this low-budget flick very entertainment, and laughed a lot. Therefore, if you shut-down your brain and stop thinking, you may find this movie a great joke and have a good time. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Vespas Assassinas" ("Assassin Wasps")