Deadly Swarm

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.

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")

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.

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.

Another case of black CGI killer dots swarming around and killing people. As far as CGI effects go in these new millennium killer bee/wasp/housefly flicks, there's only one that got it right and that's "Swarmed" (the one with Tim Thomerson). "Deadly Swarm" is a bit on par with "Flying Virus" (the one with Rutger Hauer), only it doesn't go over the top as much. "Deadly Swarm" features a funny line when the local sheriff says "They look like @#$&%# flying piranhas!". The scene were they blew up the morgue (especially how they do it) got me laughing. And the ending is waaaay too convenient. But still, if you switch off your brain, you just might have some fun with it. But probably not enough.