Black Swarm

Since satellite and cable have brought so many choices of what we can tune into on the box, it is only to be expected that the calibre of the content may drop from time to time. That being said it has provided an excellent opportunity for low budget movies and TVs show to help hone the skills of prospective Speilbergs and Scorseses. With this in mind I will often tune in, with gleeful optimism to what, on the face of it may sound like a bad idea at the time it was conceived, to she a glimmer of something to look forward to in the future at least. This however had absolutely no redeeming features. It was so bad that I barely made it through 20 mins, so forgive me if this is not a complete review.

The effects were adequate, but not really anything that a 14 year old could muster with a home PC and the smallest modicum of imagination couldn't put together on a rainy afternoon, if he was bored enough. As for the acting. Well lets just say I shouldn't think any of the cast were awaiting the postman when the academy made their shortlist. But they cant really take the blame for the dialogue and the plot. Overall this was awful. If you are planning to watch this, please find a newly painted room to watch instead, magnolia would be best. I promise a better time than however long this embarrassment lasts.

If still don't know how it all turned out so, if you know, my deepest sympathy.

You have been warned.

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.

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!

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.

not sure who has been rating this movie--my guess is people with a vested interest. it is NOT a 7 star movie. very slow. nothing happens for the first hour. didn't anybody notice that half the town is walking around like zombies with huge pustules on their faces? will the hot entymologist/evil spy get it on with the hot exterminator, the twin brother of the hot widow's dead husband? "you're an exterminator. she's an etymologist. you could talk about bugs." then it gets really bad. some passable actors, but they're wasted here. i think somebody said "nobody's mixed killer wasps and zombies yet. let's start there and make it up as we go along, then pour some sappy moralistic ketchup on this bad goulash at the end. don't flush any money on this.