{"id":7984,"date":"2024-11-02T20:29:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T00:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=7984"},"modified":"2024-11-02T20:29:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T00:29:08","slug":"the-swarm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/02\/the-swarm\/","title":{"rendered":"The Swarm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Swarm\u00a0 <\/strong>(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 155 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence, bee-related mayhem and chaos)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Irwin Allen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stirling Silliphant\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: July 14, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Caine, Katherine Ross, Richard Widmark, Bradford Dillman, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Lee Grant, Ben Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Patty Duke Astin, Jose Ferrer, Slim Pickens, Henry Fonda, Cameron Mitchell, Christian Juttner, Morgan Paull, Alejandro Rey.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $7.7M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for disaster movies ever since I caught The Poseidon Adventure on TV when I was 11 years old. There’s something about an all-star cast facing some kind of natural disaster that gets my adrenaline pumping. Irwin Allen, the undisputed “master of disaster” responsible for The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, decided the next world-ending event the world should face is a bee invasion. Thus, The Swarm <\/strong>was born.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Swarm <\/strong>didn’t fare well at the box office that summer and the reviews weren’t kind either. But you can’t always rely on the opinions of others. Sometimes you simply have to go with a genre you like. I really enjoy The Swarm<\/strong> even if it does have some of the cheesiest effects I’ve ever seen in a major motion picture.<\/p>\n

\u00a0It opens with the discovery of several dead bodies at a military base in Texas. The sole survivor is Brad Crane (Caine, Harry Brown), an entomologist who may have an explanation for what’s happened. It seems that a huge swarm of killer bees from South America have made their way to the United States and are intent on destroying everything in their path. Don\u2019t you hate it when that happens?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The main action is set in a small town where a flower festival is about to get underway. Talk about your bad coincidences and worse timing. There’s enough drama in this small town that one could be excused for mistaking it for Peyton Place. Local elementary school principal Maureen (de Havilland, Gone with the Wind) is torn between two lovers, retiree Felix (Johnson, The Last Picture Show) and town mayor Clarence (MacMurray, Double Indemnity). There\u2019s also a pregnant diner waitress (Duke, Valley of the Dolls), a grieving father (Pickens, Blazing Saddles) and a reporter (Grant, Damien: Omen II) as well as various medical and military types.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While a battle of wills brews between Dr. Crane and General Slater (Widmark, Kiss of Death) over how to handle the bee crisis, doctors Krim (Fonda, 12 Angry Men), Helena (Ross, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and Hubbard (Chamberlain, Dr. Kildare) try to come up with a more humane way to deal with the bees before they reach Houston and create a disaster of gargantuan proportions. Not that they haven’t done that already. The little buggers manage to derail a train and blow up a nuclear power plant before they\u2019re through. Hey, I never said The Swarm <\/strong>was believable. It’s just a silly disaster movie with a cast of stars in panic mode running for dear life. But who really cares how believable these movies are? They’re made in the spirit of fun. There\u2019s plenty to be found here in the right state of mind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Swarm<\/strong> was originally released at 116 minutes. I never saw that version. I\u2019m reviewing the extended version and while it\u2019s far from perfect; it’s still a fun movie to watch on a dull weeknight. Like a lot of disaster movies, it has corny dialogue, bad overacting and cheesy special effects. With regard to the bees, the viewer mostly sees black masses in the sky before they attack various characters in slow-motion. It looks like a bee handler throws a handful of bees at the actors while Allen instructs them writhe in pain before they pretend to succumb to the deadly venom. In these moments, The Swarm <\/strong>is absolutely laughable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0On the upside, it’s always cool to see old-school actors like Fonda, Widmark and MacMurray show up in a movie even one as corny as The Swarm<\/strong>. It’s no surprise it isn\u2019t regarded as a film classic, but how many disaster movies are? Not too many, that I\u2019m sure of. The cool thing is that these movies are generally great fun. It\u2019s fun to guess which has-been actor will buy the farm next. Then there are clich\u00e9s like the obligatory final scene where the survivors ask what if something like this happens again and what can be done to prevent it. This is what makes disaster movies like The Swarm<\/strong> worth watching.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As always, I don\u2019t care what the majority thinks. I think The Swarm <\/strong>is great! At the very least, it\u2019s better than Allen\u2019s swan song, the vile volcano flick When Time Ran Out. I realize it\u2019s faint praise, but isn\u2019t that better than no praise at all?\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Swarm\u00a0 (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 155 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, violence, bee-related mayhem and chaos)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Irwin Allen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Stirling Silliphant\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred J. Koenekamp \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: July 14, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Michael Caine, Katherine Ross, Richard Widmark, Bradford Dillman, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Lee Grant, Ben Johnson, Fred MacMurray, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Swarm-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7984"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8095,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7984\/revisions\/8095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}