Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Sameer Callahan
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Aiden Melton
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
Michael_Elliott
Hive, The (2008)* (out of 4) Extremely bad "nature" flick about two-hundred million (give or take a couple) ants that are ravaging through South Asia. The critters are eating countless people until a controversial extermination group comes in but soon they begin to think they're dealing with something much larger. I'll never claim to be any type of expert but I'm pretty sure the title, THE HIVE, is incorrect as ants live in colonies so I'm not sure what's up with the title or anything else that happens in this movie. I'm really not sure where to start on this one but I guess we can start with the actual story. Sure, I guess we could make a movie about millions of ants eating people but this film takes it a step further. Early in the film one of the workers has an ant crawl into his ear and to his brain. Soon this ant is "controlling" the man to do what the ants want but it doesn't stop here because it turns out that aliens are the ones doing all of this stuff. The story is just downright stupid but just when you think it can't get any worse it actually does. I think another major issue is the CGI, which is really bad. The effects are so obviously fake that you can never take anything serious and not for a single second will you actually think or feel as if you're watching all of these ants. What's worse is that at the end of the film the ants are teaming together and creating various things including an arm that can come down and pick someone up. Yes, more dumbness. The performances in the film are pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this and there's no question that the screenplay does none of them any justice. I think the biggest problem is that the film is simply boring. As wild, stupid and crazy as this thing is you'd think that it would at least be entertaining in a bad way but it isn't.
NavyOrion
I've liked movies about rampaging army ants ever since seeing Charleston Heston chewing the scenery in 1954's "The Naked Jungle." So I knew I'd have to check out "The Hive" on Sci-Fi (or SyFy, whatever they are this week.) This being the Sci Fi channel, I knew not to expect much in the way of special effects, and was not disappointed. The effects were, as usual, terrible, and the acting was only a small step better. Kal Weber stars as a cut-rate Keanu Reeves, Eizabeth Healey is annoying as the inevitable too-earnest scientist / love interest, and Tom Wopat of "The Dukes of Hazard," now so grizzled that he was completely unrecognizable, twitches and jerks as the world's most macho exterminator.But as I said, all that was to be expected of a Sci-Fi original; if you can't take that, you need to look elsewhere on a Saturday night, because bad acting and effects are a given on that network's home-grown films.Where "The Hive" improves over most of their flicks was in the story. The idea of an ants as individual cells in a larger brain, so that the colony can become self-aware and even sentient, is pretty novel, and was fairly well-handled. This revelation followed closely on the discovery that the ants had developed new physical tricks like working together to form huge tentacles. These tentacles could have been overdone (and later were) but were very effective in a couple of surprisingly subdued scenes; a field of writhing giant ant tentacles (which might have been expected to attack but instead were shown just looming ominously) was satisfyingly creepy. Coupled with a pretty cool ant-zapping ray gun, fairly plausible environmental suits for the exterminator / special forces team, and some good location shots and it's enough to keep me watching (if there's nothing better on.) Now, the gripes. First off, while bees come in hives, ants form colonies, so the whole title is wrong. Secondly, people who use the words "telemetry" and "species" in daily life would likely know how to pronounce them, not as "teleMETry" or "spee-shees." The subplot of Bill (Wopat) having an ant in his ear biting down every now and then to access his nervous system seemed to be forgotten; after all the foreshadowing I kept expecting the ants to exercise some kind of control, but the only effect was for Bill to drop into an occasional stupor or jerk like a dog with a shock collar, both of which were well within Wopat's acting abilities. The native Thai extras (only a little less talented than the main cast) were used in two ways: to walk past the camera or to run in terror past the camera. In both cases they looked mainly bored, and a little embarrassed.Finally (and worst of all) the writers seemed in the end to not know what to do with their promising storyline. The gradual revelation of the ants' physical and mental abilities was pretty effectively done (and who could have resisted having the ants form a giant ant that stamps on a human?) but the ant-based computer pushed the limits of even my generous tolerance for BS. The final reveal (that the whole thing was caused by aliens) was just a let-down.Overall, "The Hive" isn't great cinema, but it's worth a look, if just for the schlock factor. It's definitely one of the better of the Sci-Fi originals (talk about a low standard!) Keep your expectations realistic, and you won't be too disappointed.
movieman_kev
The Thorax team is tasked with exterminating ants that somehow managed to take over an island, but these are no ordinary any, oh no, there's are super-ants with a master plan. Yes, this movie is utterly ridiculous, but it's also extremely watchable and has a very high camp factor. The Sci-fi channel doesn't have the best of track records when it comes to their 'Sci-fi Originals', but thankfully this one stands head and shoulders among the best of those. Turn off your brain, just go with it, and enjoy the film with your choice of alcoholic beverage. The only grip I have is that the ending was a bit of a let-down.My Grade: B
haradoka
This is a ridiculous albeit somewhat compelling low-budget effort at an "eco-disaster" movie. From the title you might imagine that it revolves around bees, but it is in fact about ant colonies which have developed advanced intelligence and super-powers as a result of alien intervention. The plot is mostly predictable although it does include some bizarre twists, the acting is mediocre and the special effects are not so special. That said, the premise is quite interesting - we know that ants communicate in some way and work together, but what if they got really clever? It is a mixture of "The Naked Jungle" (an oldie but goodie with Charlton Heston having to deal with "the marabunta") and "Phase IV", both of which are far better films.
