Les Guêpes mutantes

This trashy, poorly scripted, badly acted film seems to struggle between the combined aliases of a drama, sci-fi and zombie movie all in one. Quite possibly the worst film to be released in 2007. There are so many parts of this movie which are just cringe worthy. First of all there is the extremely poor biological backing to it, including only a crude understanding of wasp behaviour. Then there are the numerous occasions that the lead "scientist" character feels it necessary to explain genetics to a seven year old child. Then there is the clear lack of emotion shown when the lead female cop finds her daughter has been "kidnapped" by wasps! These are only a very few of the most notable flaws in this movie - quite frankly, this movie was just a wreck!

I couldn't recommend renting this movie, unless it is a choice between this and some of the real garbage out there. It is definitely a formula science fiction movie, very predictable in every detail, about monster wasps.

I would hate to spoil the movie, but suffice to say, nothing will surprise you.

So why not a real low grade? First, there are enough likable characters. It suffers from some lame actresses, namely the police woman and the bad woman. One day, those who do the casting will realize that even men would rather see actresses than hourglass figures. We can go to the porn shop for hourglass figures, thank you. When we see a movie, we want a story that isn't slowed down by hams.

Part of it is some meager, lazy writing, however.

Still, the people in the movie have some appeal and credibility, which keeps you moderately interested in this routine plot. It helps, too, that there aren't a lot of video game special effects to confuse you. Instead, there is a logical, easy to follow story (at least easy to follow in comparison to most science fiction).

The twin brother character doesn't hold the movie back. It doesn't add a lot, but it falls into the mold of "unusual circumstance which isn't unusual since every circumstance has one or two unusual ingredients".

Probably Englund's best film, which is saying very little. Certainly one of his better roles. It isn't a great film by any means. I don't see it being considered a horrible movie, either.

I would expect this film to get 90% of the ratings from 3 to 7. Anything over and under would seem to be a vote for ulterior motives.

There are really only two reasons to watch this film: Robert Englund and Rebecca Windheim.

Director David Winning did a good job of keeping the action going, but the question remains: Do we need another film about a swarm of insects taking over? We have already had killer bees, what do we get different with killer wasps? The fact that the government is developing strange weapons that get out of control has also been done. Do we really need another? That aside, it is was good to see Robert Englund in another role; this time as the scientist that developed the killer wasps, and who is trying to fix his mistake. It may be the best work he has done.

Also enjoyable was young actress Rebecca Windheim in her first movie. Looking for good things from her.

It was interesting to see a different twist on zombies. This time as host for the killer wasps. Kind of scary.

Black Swarm (2007)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Robert Englund plays a scientist who is hired by the government to create some wasps who they are going to use to kill terrorists. The only problem is that they have no way of controlling the wasps plus whoever they kill then turn into zombies. A new deputy in this small town doesn't think this is such a good idea so she plans to destroy the wasps no matter what it takes. This Canadian production is yet another entry in the unstoppable "nature runs amuck" series and I'm starting to realize that it's best to stay away from bees and wasps. THE DEADLY BEES is a deadly bore and everyone familiar with the genre remembers the disaster known as THE SWARM that was released with a big-budget and major stars. I think the closest this genre ever came to a good bee movie was THE BEES with John Carradine simply because it was so incredibly silly that you couldn't help but laugh and have a good time. BLACK SWARM really doesn't offer too many good things, although I'll admit that I thought the story was rather interesting but sadly nothing good is done with it. The thought of wasps stinging people and turning them into zombies could have been a good, fun movie but the filmmakers decided to take this silly plot and try to do something serious with it. The characters are all taking this thing way too serious and I think the filmmakers are too. There's nothing believable about the story and the reasons they come up with are just as silly. I think it really hurts a film like this when those making it don't realize they're dealing with camp. The CGI wasps don't look too bad but don't expect anyone to think they're the real thing. The attack scenes are all rather poor with some bad make up effects and some really silly sound effects. There are a few good things in the film and one is Englund who actually turns in a pretty good performance. I thought he was believable in the role and thought he had some terrific chemistry with the young actress Rebecca Windheim. The two are very good together and one wishes they had more scenes together. There's a required joke of some of the action taking place on Elm Street but outside of this there's very little going on here. It's a real shame too because there are enough interesting ideas here that should have at least given more entertainment to the viewers.

This film essentially begins with a relatively young widow by the name of "Jane Kozik" (Sarah Allen) returning to her old home town of Black Stone, New York, after being gone for almost 10 years. Also with her is her daughter "Kelsey Kozik" (Rebecca Windheim) who has never lived there but, having been raised in New York City, is somewhat curious what life in a small town is like. For her part, Jane has mixed feelings about returning but, since she works in law enforcement, feels that this is the best place for her. The scene then shifts to a man by the name of "Devin Hall" (Sebastian Roberts) who works as an exterminator in Black Stone and has recently been informed about a strange new type of wasp which has suddenly migrated into the town and has caused the death of at least one of its citizens. Although he is not overly alarmed at first, he soon begins to realize that this new wasp is much more dangerous than anything he has ever encountered before. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although this film certainly had potential, it soon became rather difficult to watch due to the number of unnecessary subplots all along the way. Perhaps if the director (David Winning) had focused more heavily on the wasp-riddled zombies--or possibly just the swarms of wasps attacking everyone--the film could have been salvaged. Unfortunately, this was not the case, and I have rated this movie accordingly. Below average.