The Bees

Bees, The (1978)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

It was expected that THE SWARM would be a major hit so this Mexican film was rushed into production to try and cash-in on the others success but when the Irwin Allen film turned out to be a disaster there wasn't any "demand" for a rip so THE BEES has fallen into never land and very few have been brave to dig it up. The "story" involves some African bees that are crossbred with some from Brazil and they turn out to be craving humans and animals. Soon the bees are killing people throughout Brazil and Mexico and soon find their way to America and it's up to three dedicated folks (John Saxon, Angel Tompkins, John Carradine) to destroy the killers. I guess I should add that the major break in killing the bees is to create a special serum that will turn the males into homosexuals and they'll end up attacking one another. I'm not kidding. With that added bit you can tell this sucker is from the 70s and what a poorly produced mess it is. The nature attack genre has given us killer sharks, snakes, whales, bears, frogs and countless other creatures but the bee hasn't been too friendly as quite often its films are very bad. That trend continues with this production, which is just a major joke and you have to feel sorry for the cast members. Thankfully the film is bad enough to where you might find yourself laughing and being entertained by the campiness. As with THE SWARM, the special effects here are just awful with the majority of the bees being "dots" on the screen or some type of item being blown around by a fan. Every once in a while the image of bees are plastered over the footage we're watching but for the most part there's not a bee to be seen. There are several sequences where we see one attack after another and this is where most people are going to get the laughs because the performances are beyond horrid. The funniest has to be one where a woman removes her glasses, wipes them and then puts them back on just in time to see what's getting ready to attack her. Check out the woman in the bathroom who gets stung and then goes into her "death scene", which is bad enough to where many viewers might die from laughter. There's not a single death scene that actually makes on feel for the character or builds up any suspense and that's not a good thing for a film like this. Saxon is clearly bored with the material as he sleepwalks through it but he's always fun to watch. Carradine really hams it up as he's quite often shouting for no reason but this over-the-top performance at least gives us something entertaining to see. Thankfully both Saxon and Carradine have quite a few scenes together so genre fans will at least get to see them. THE BEES isn't the worst movie on the subject but it might just be the dumbest. The political speech at the end is unbelievable and let's not even get started on the other political stuff that works itself into the story.

If you would like to laugh at a truly silly, truly original, truly awful film, then this is the movie for you. I won't lie to you- it's terrible! If you're looking for an evening of suspense and drama go rent JAWS. If you're looking to see a Mexican farmer stung to death by several hundred special-effect bees while shouting for his honey, THE BEES is for you.

It stars the King of the B's himself, John Saxon, as some sort of scientist bee expert. Or something. He and a nearly-attractive blonde try to warn the world about the over-breeding of the killer bee, and the inevitable disasters to come. But those greedy fat cats have only one thing on their minds: Honey. I swear to you I laughed so hard while watching this movie that I choked. If you like B movies, you will love THE BEES!

Yikes!

I can't believe I watched the whole movie.

There are only 4 things wrong with this movie: 1) Acting- most of the characters sound like they are improvising, and not very well. There are weird outbursts that I think they thought would be funny - they are not.

2) the script and editing. No rational continuity to either. Out of sequence or too brief to make sense.

3) Special effects- weakly dubbed images and weird bee attacks that lead characters to jump through glass.

4) the music- most of the time it sounds like it is for a different movie, or just plain corny.

The last part of the movie just seems like random stuff thrown together.

How did John Saxon ever get mixed up in this ??

Finally John Carradine - I could live with his poor German accent but his arthritis in his hands and fingers makes me cringe for the poor guy.

Don't get stung by wasting your time with this movie.

Wow. This must be the funniest bad film of modern times, a real 1970s counterpart of Ed Wood's earlier classics. It features some awful acting but the main cast is kind of cool: B-movie veterans John Saxon and John Carradine, with glamorous starlet Angel Tompkins who apparently failed her "Charlie's Angels" audition, so ended up in this.

There's familiar and anachronistic stock footage, cheap dummies impersonating characters jumping from heights, and some crazy overacted bee attack sequences.

Love that funky and totally inappropriate theme music too! See it with "Demonoid" for maximum laughs.

A swarm of bees create disaster.

Made to cash in on the soon to come Irwin Allen block buster - The Swarm (1978) - so much so that Swarm studio Warner Brothers paid the Bees studio big bucks to delay the screening so the two films would not clash.

The most memorable thing about The Swarm was the energetic Jerry Goldsmith score that pumped away every time the bees were seen. Such music is obviously missing in this other flick and it gives you some insight into just how important music is to film.

The Bees (1978) is filled with boring talk and boring acting.

John Saxon proved he does have talent with his guest appearances in The Six Million Dollar Man (1973), The Fantastic Journey (1977) and The Time Tunnel (1966) but, sadly, The Bees is another example of boring John.

This movie is poor.