Swarmed

Did you know that you can kill a deadly mutated yellow jacket wasp with a shotgun? You'll find out if you watch this SciFi channel flick. The script is intentionally campy and funny with lines such as, "Why don't you go out and play with the cows or something?" The acting runs the gamut from Joe Namath level to a screamingly funny performance by the awesome bug buster Richard Chevolleau with a trusty Robin-like assistant he is sort of keeping out of trouble. Tasty Sauce King Phineas Washburn (Tim Thomerson) is almost as hilarious. Don't miss Miss Washburn Tasty Sauce 2005.

Don't expect anything on the level of "Them" or "Arachnophobia" and you won't be disappointed. The special effects are really cheesy and the ending is as predictable as the sun going over the mountain. Otherwise, it's fun all the way right down to the comical stereotyping of the rather stout, donut-loving police chief everybody calls Tiny. And, oh, yes, the satirical commercials within the film are better than the real-life commercials that appeared during the showing. Actually many of them are much better.

This movie handles about a wasp-invasion in a little town called Dundas, Indiana. I'm not sure if the town has a high-school football team, but if they do, they should rename themselves the Dundas Yellow-jackets and adopt a guy in giant wasp suit as their mascot! Just an idea...

"Swarmed!" is a typically made-for-TV killer-insect horror flick from the early 2000s. That doesn't automatically make it terrible, it simply means you must take into account a few standard shortcomings, like clumsy and cheap-looking CGI effects, derivative storylines, barely any (intentional) humor, and pretty poor performances.

A local research institute experiments with a new type of pesticide against yellow-jacket wasps, but it doesn't really work as planned, since the liquid makes the critters even more aggressive and their first sting deadly already. As a matter of course, bottles accidentally get mixed up, and a killer swarm of yellow-jackets heads towards town to partake in the annual BBQ-contest.

There we have the inevitable "Jaws"-copy! The mayor, sponsor and chief of police obviously refuse to cancel the town's big publicity event, and they'll live to regret it! "Swarmed" is a silly and insignificant creature-feature, but fun enough to watch once thanks to a couple of hopelessly idiotic moments. There's a notable sequence in which the mayor's secretary goes after a single wasp with a shotgun, and for some reason the wasps seem to specifically target the "bad people". While hundreds of people are running around and form easy targets, the yellow jackets prefer to kill the sponsor who ingeniously hid himself in a barrel of water. Smart wasps!

On the surface, this movie is about mutated wasps that make a huge swarm to kill people.

In effect,it is light comedy, and obviously done on purpose. This is one of those movies that has a lot of little things, and probably a lot in the background that I didn't bother noticing, but that the geeks surely will.

The formula story of the officials who refuse to believe in an emergency situation, straight from "Jaws", the ambitious reporter, the camera man who will do anything to get a camera shot, the few people who know what is going on that no one will listen to (which is actually true to life, which is what makes these movies work.) All of these are in this movie.

There are then the light hearted comic bits. The head honcho macho guy who has a spotter for his 65 pound bench press will crack up any gym goer. The attacks as seen from the bug's point of view is purposely comical. The girl using a rifle to shoot at a wasp. These and other little things make this formula movie almost bearable. It is possibly made for those who will try to spot little things. A great movie for the dorks, but with enough obvious comedy to appease the masses somewhat. Not a great flick, but not a bad one.

Okay, so this is not a great movie, but I have to admit I was engaged through the whole 90 minutes. It was also one of those rare creatures in that it was made for TV and never made it to TV, it went straight to the Movie Channel. You have to be tipped off by the size of the budget when the 'big' confrontation scene should have thousands of extras milling around but you can actually count them- less than 30 by my count. I'm a fan of any mutated creature film: fish, insects, rodents, whatever, so I HAD to watch this one. The special effects were pretty good for the most part but not great. The acting is also not great but less wooden that in all those '50's movies I love like Them and Kronos. There are holes in the plot you could drive a wasp through but without them there wouldn't be a movie. And by 'them' I mean both plot-holes and wasps. I think if you are a fan of mutated creature movies it won't supplant your favorites but because there aren't that many made you have to see it. If you aren't a fan, give it a pass because it doesn't have any interesting sub-plots (it doesn't actually have any sub-plots) to keep you interested.

Enjoyable easy going watching, saving the community from killer wasps hooray. Nothing very complex or deep, basic plot well executed Good rainy afternoon viewing.