Hot Picks
|
|
|
The Bees
Mexico / USA 1978
produced by Alfredo Zacarías, Miguel Zacarías (executive), Roger Corman (executive) for A Bee One Productions, New World, Panorama Films
directed by Alfredo Zacarías
starring John Saxon, Angel Tompkins, John Carradine, Claudio Brook, Alicia Encinas, Julio Cesar, Armand Martin, José Chávez, George Belanger, Delroy White, Roger Cudney, Julia Yallop, Chad Hastings, Elizabeth Wallace, Al Jones, Gray Johnson, Whitey Hughes, David Silberkleit, Brian Hanna, Alfred Melhem, Don Maxwell, Eddie Alexander, Xavier Marc, Ivan Scott, Max Kerlow, René Munoz, Eduardo Alcaraz, Julián Navarro, Giovanni Korporaal, Martin LaSalle, Carlos Bravo y Fernández, Walter Hanna, Bill Bordy
written by Alfredo Zacarías, music by Richard Gillis
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
Killer bees have overrun South America, and the one scientist, Dr
Miller (Claudio Brook), who worked out in the field to find a weapon
against the bees, failed to do so because somebody embezzled his funds,
and ultimately he's killed by the bees he's supposed to render harmless. His
wife Sandy (Angel Tompkins) smuggles some of the bees to the USA for
professor Hummel (John Carradine) and Doctor Norman (John Saxon) to
continue her husband's work ... and not a moment too soon, as some greedy
businessmen after the killer bees' royal jelly tried to smuggle bees to
the USA on their own, but they got loose and now start to kill people
already. It gets pretty bad before long, but then Hummel and Norman find
the solution, and all bees, all over the country, are neutralized. However,
with this success, Hummel starts to ask the wrong people the wrong
questions, first and foremost who embezzled Dr Miller's money in the first
place to delay research ... and suddenly, he, a national hero if there
ever was one, finds himself on the hitlist of some corrupt politicians. He
is killed, too, but not before a highly intelligent newly evolved species
of killer bees is set free, and these are immune to everything. What's
worse, they have an agenda ... Norman and Sandy (by now a couple of
course), having run out of means to fight the bees, now try to find a way
to communicate with them ... and find out they want to take over the
earth. They are prepared to share it with humankind, but beekind is to be
the dominant species. When Norman and Sandy explain that to the UNO,
they are ridiculed ... until a swarm of bees enter the room as well ... One
of these films that, apart from a few fun performances by dependable
B-movie veterans, hasn't much to offer in terms of quality or originality,
and it's not exceptionally accomplished on either a narrative or a
directorial level, and the special effects are of the so-so-variety - and
yet there's plenty of (probably unintentional) fun in there, as in how
quite a few of the bee attacks occur, or in the ending with the talking
bees and the like. Though by no means the best bad animal horror flick,
nor the most outrageous ... but most certainly worth at least a few
chuckles.
|