Dirtylogy
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
slayrrr666
"Swarmed" is a clichéd and blood-less but still fun creature feature.**SPOILERS**Following an accidental chemical leak, exterminators Q, (Richard Chevolleau) and Rafe, (Jonathan Malen) are sent out to take care of an increased yellow-jackets in the area. After one assignment, they take more poison from Dr. Kent Horvath, (Michael Shanks) only to take the last batch of the chemical accidentally on their next job. Spraying the bugs with the poison, it results in them getting ultra-aggressive and forcing them to take stock of the fact that they took the accidental spray. Dr. Horvath joins the hunt, but when coupled with their increased mating drive, are unsuccessful and call in Cristina Brown, (Carol Alt) a prominent insect expert to help them. Realizing that their path will take them in direct contact with a small-town and their upcoming harvest festival, they race against time to stop the swarm before it overtakes the country.The Good News: This wasn't as bad as it could've been and does have a few decent points. For once, the CGI is pretty solid. Granted, computer generating yellow jackets isn't that huge of a feat, but these little creatures look convincing enough. A few shots betray their digital creation, but the vast majority of the yellow jacket sequences are effective. And when they do come across as a bit too unrealistic, it doesn't matter because it fits the lighter mood of the film. This is a real case that the CGI doesn't distract, even when it's sub-par, is a great plus for the film. When it gets down to it, the insect mayhem itself is decent. While there are presumably a finite number of inventive "sting-kills" one could conjure up, this one manages to throw together some entertaining dispatches. One guy gets a stinger square in the eye, another while hiding in a dunk tank, sucking in air through a hose inadvertently swallows a few enterprising bugs, a girl is overtaken inside a car when the jackets ooze through the heater vents, and more than a few victims are gang-stung. Most of these scenes are prefaced by a yellow-jacket POV shot, which is cheesy but appropriate for the film's tone. It's the ending, though, that really scores a lot of great scenes, as the long-promised overtaking of the festival that draws the best response from the film. To see that kind of mayhem is the general reason to see these, and it doesn't disappoint at all, and the on-screen action isn't that terrible. This also resorts to going for some cheap laughs, such as the one-liners uttered or by having someone go nuts and chase a lone wasp around a building blasting away it with a shotgun. The cheesy tone helps to make it more bearable and this does it well. Altogether, this could've been a lot worse than it is.The Bad News: This here does have some problems with it. The main factor is that there is really no surprise with this one. It's so clichéd and unoriginal that it's possible to watch only five minutes of this and know what's going to happen. That doesn't make the viewers who enjoy strong plots all that impressed when you know the film before getting into it. It's also pretty irritated that the film, for all it's cool deaths, manages to sneak out without showing anything in terms of gore or blood. There's not so much as a drop spilled in this, despite an entire massacre at a big festival or even some other deaths, which show nothing at all. Most annoying of all is that the film constantly resorts to showing us the wasps' point-of-view. The decision to make it look like it was filmed through the bottom of an amber-colored soda bottle to simulate what they were seeing is utterly nonsensical. There really is no need for it since virtually every creature movie has required some type of colored creature vision. The pace is also a little off, as it does take a while to get into the attacks and spends the majority of the beginning setting up the possible effects of the serum and ignoring the creatures until the middle section, and while it does redeem the film slightly, the technical jabber isn't that interesting. Overall, this wasn't as bad as it could've been, but it loses a couple points for the errors it does have.The Final Verdict: While it's not that bad of a creature feature, the strikes it does have are the worst ones it can have. Being slow, clichéd and quite bloodless isn't that endearing, but when it gets going, there's some good action and a nice cheesy charm, so there's far worse ones out there than this to waste on. Give it a shot, but don't set expectations too high.Rated PG-13: Violence
Pietruck
If you enjoy your typical genetically altered insect turned into environmental catastrophe movie, then you will like Swarmed. Begins with run of the mill experimentations that are inadvertently foiled by the ever clumsy custodial engineer. For his part, the janitor pays dearly and hence begins the death toll for an innocent unsuspecting town. The absurdity of the story multiplies as quickly as the town folks death count yet somehow only serves to further augment the entertainment value. The movie's story revolves around an impending barbecued hamburger contest which co-incidentally and conveniently is exactly what the wasps are attracted to....yum....love that sauce!! This meat fest occurs in a tasty slice of small town America wrought with corruption, stupidity, and greed - bad combination for city and event planning, great combination for carnage. No worries for the citizens though, the local professor of entomology (doesn't every small town have one?), that also happens to be thank goodness a hotty, will piece it all together with help from the lab scientist that engineered the original overly aggressive easily antagonized wasps.This is a definite must see if you ever wanted to see an administrative assistant hunt city hall for a wasp with a double barreled shotgun. Quite impressive!! Equally impressive was the actual cook off where pandemonium strikes as the meat hungry wasps arrive. Kudos to Tim Matherson for masterful cameo - good to see he hasn't totally lost his B stature which he strongly enforces in the scene where he knocks over the mother and her baby stroller while trying to escape - well done Tim. Overall, it is much better than you might expect.
Michael O'Keefe
Swarmy. The Sci-Fi Channel gives yet another flying menace flick. A chemist (Michael Shanks)is working on a better insecticide. A few of his experimental yellow jacket wasps accidentally get loose and seem to be growing more aggressive and stronger after being sprayed with a super-pesticide. A nationally televised burger cook-off is scheduled sponsored by Phineas Washburn's(Tim Thomerson)barbecue sauce. The grilled burgers and the crowd become a huge buffet for the chemically enhanced killer wasps. The F/X are not all that bad; but the acting is. Also in the cast: Carol Alt, Balazs Koos, Booth Savage and Maria Brooks. The funniest scene is a secretary trying to shoot a wasp with a shotgun. As bad as this is...you still end up watching it.