the audience applauded

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely Fantastic

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I saw this at a local arthouse cinema that was showing a curated "Dystopia" series. This was a bit of a tongue in cheek selection. I kinda like 70's disaster movies and decided to see this even tho I was aware of it's bad reputation. I went in with open mind and was prepared to be positively surprised as I even own movies like Airport (all four), Towering Inferno, Rolleroaster, Earthquake etc, so I genuinely was prepared to like it.So, there was something good about it. It looks good, I saw an original 35mm copy. There are slow-mo shots that really look pretty good and the fx are really good. All of the bee shots are extremely well made, be it close ups or wides with the whole swarm. I guess they used real bees and a lot of them and the swarm was some kind of super imposed thing, but they really did look good. Music was ok, but nothing remarkable by Jerry Goldsmith.And the bad, almost everything else. The script is amazingly dumb. From dialog to anything that happens really. There were so many face palm moments that it makes no sense listing them. It's also very much politically incorrect with the "africans" as villains and all white cast, that alone would make this a bomb. I can't imagine it being ok even in the late seventies.Acting was bad, but that is mostly due to the dumb script and characters. Michael Caines character must be one of the worst protagonists ever. He's not very likable and he doesn't even make very good decisions in the movie.What bugged me a bit tho while watching this film was that part of the audience was clearly laughing because they thought this is a movie you have to laugh at every scene. To me it wasn't a movie that is bad enough to be laughable for the most part, it was just bad. Sure there were a few scenes which did spark a non intended smile, but some people were laughing their asses off when kids were dying in slow motion.Difficult movie to judge. They clearly knew that killer bees might be a bit hard to accept as a real threat, but there were scenes that had tension. It was mostly everything that happened between those scenes that made the movie bad. I saw the original "short" version and it felt really long. Glad they didn't show the longer cut as I would've surely fell asleep.

I have not seen many films by Irwin Allen, but I somehow get the idea that he was quite a primitive filmmaker. This, I think, is best shown when one reads that he was confused by the success of the original Star Wars, in that it had no love story or major stars and yet became the highest-grossing film of its time. The Swarm, one of the disaster movies that killed his career, could not possibly be more primitive. One of the problems it has is one that it shares with killer bunny movie Night of the Lepus: it has way too serious of a tone and yet seems to be filled with silliness, intentional or not.After a break-in at a military base, Dr. Brad Crane (Michael Crane) takes charge of an operation meant to get rid of a giant swarm of killer bees headed for the United States. That is as simple a story as you could get. Most of it is just repeated attempts to find a way to destroy the bees. However, there are a couple of sub-plots that have nothing to do with anything, such as the wooing of Olivia De Havilland's school headmaster by Ben Johnson and Fred MacMurray; all classic movie actors who have seen better days. Another sub-plot includes Patty Duke being widowed due to killer bee attacks and giving birth to a child, after which she falls in love with her doctor. Neither of these go anywhere as Johnson, MacMurray, and De Havilland are all killed in a train crash caused by the bees before the latter makes a decision about who to marry, and Duke disappears after the birth of her child; none of these people even interact with Dr. Crane or his love interest, Dr. Anderson played by Katharine Ross from The Graduate.Other problems include the acting; it's downright awful. Even Caine, who is usually fantastic, seems dull and uninterested. He did get to buy his mother a house with the money he earned, so he got something out of it. Everyone seems half-hearted, and Ross competes with Caine in terms of dullness. With the characters constantly referring to the killer bees as "Africans," one can be excused for thinking the film is racist, or even anti-immigrant.The script even calls for the characters to do things that border on the hilarious. After losing his parents to the bees, a kid sneaks out of the hospital to throw Molotov cocktails on the beehive, which causes the bees to rampage in his town and kill over 200 people. The kid rightly acknowledges that he is to blame, but Crane tells him "I would have done the same thing." All I can say is, "No you wouldn't." This is an example of Allen's weak attempts to get emotions out of the viewer, along with the unneeded sub-plots and ill-defined relationships. Crane and Anderson are supposed to have a romance, but that hardly seems to come through in the movie. That kid who firebombed the hive is important to Anderson, but how? The film is also too long, as there is very little story to go on, even with an attempted conflict between Crane and Richard Widmark's General Slater, who only seems to dislike Crane because he is a typical tough-guy American general.One detail mentioned in the film is that the fight against the bees has been going on for 15 years. What I don't understand is, if the bees have been killing people for that long, why have they only just started to invade America? I'd say a flashback was in order.To conclude, The Swarm is a film I do not recommend watching, as it is not an enjoyable creature feature. Even Frogs, which was arguably a worse movie, was more entertaining. Irwin Allen has done good work in the 70s, such as with The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, but The Swarm shows what happens if you try to be as pretentious and simple as possible and make money from an audience in a decade when people wanted their movies to be smarter and fresher.

The Swarm (1978) * (out of 4) Millions of African killer bees are ravishing a small town and afterwards over two- hundred people are dead. Bee expert Brad Crane (MIchael Caine) must work with a scientist (Katharine Ross) and a General (Richard Widmark) to try and find a way to destroy them before they reach Houston, Texas and more people are dead.THE SWARM was a notorious flop at the box office and critics ripped it to shreds with many calling it one of the worst movies ever made. I personally wouldn't go that far but there's no question that it's an incredible bad one that manages to have one of the greatest casts ever assembled but that just makes the end result all the more sad. I should point out how bad you find the movie will probably depend on which version you watch. The first time I saw the movie it was in its 155-minute version, which just makes the film all the worse. Here recently Turner Classic Movies ran the 116-minute theatrical cut, which is also horrible but at least it doesn't run as long as the extended version and that makes it the one I'd recommend people to watch.So, what went wrong with THE SWARM? I'd say the biggest problem is that fact that Irwin Allen decided to direct it himself. There's no question that he was a terrific producer but his directing skills left a lot to be desired. There's certainly no drama to be found anywhere in the film as scenes are all poorly put together and the director never manages to make you afraid of the bees. Another problem is that the screenplay contains some extremely bad dialogue that just makes you laugh more than anything else. I mean, how many legendary actors are here and saying lines that make you feel bad for them? It also doesn't help that the majority of the movie has the cast members talking or arguing without any bee action.The special effects are probably the best thing about the film and they work the best whenever we're given close-up shots of the killers. Some of the far shots look obviously fake but there's no question that the effects are good and I'd argue the bees give the best performances in the film. As for the cast, Caine and Ross are clearly just sleepwalking through their roles but at least Widmark appears to be trying to give the thing some energy. We get Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson and Fred MacMurray in a love triangle that just doesn't work. We also get Patty Duke, Jose Ferrer, Lee Grant and Richard Chamberland. Slim Pickens does get a touching scene but both Henry Fonda and especially Cameron Mitchell are wasted.THE SWARM was one of a string of disaster movies that closed the decade out with a dud. This here is certainly one of the worst disaster movies to be made and even in the "bee" sub-genre it's pretty weak. Both THE DEADLY BEES, THE BEES and THE SAVAGE BEES are much better.

the good part - the cast. the bad fact - unrealistic script. the best thing - it could become a kind of comedy. slice of a period fears and trends, it is only an ordinary dark utopia, a form of Jaws but at very different level. without be a good film, it is an useful demonstration about the taste of public and the vision of artistic team. the virtue - good intentions and few scenes. a film who remains legendary for the desire of a part of actors to give roots to a not inspired project. like many other cases, a good idea with huge potential and a not remarkable result. that is all. unrealistic but interesting for discover Michael Caine, Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland or Richard Widmark in an easy film about a huge danger. the solution - not different by the entire film.