CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Uriah43 This movie begins with a small squad of armed airmen clothed in chemical protective gear cautiously entering a small Air Force substation near the town of Marysville, Texas. Upon their initial investigation they find several dead bodies and an unauthorized civilian named "Brad Crane" (Michael Caine) on the premises. It soon turns out that Brad Crane is a world famous etymologist who believes that billions of mutant African killer bees are responsible for the deaths of these airmen. Not long afterward the search party subsequently finds a medical doctor by the name of "Captain Helena Anderson" (Katherine Ross) who was hiding in a sealed room and she reports that there are a handful of wounded airmen with her in need of serious medical treatment due to bee stings. This report validates what Brad Crane has told them and as more reports come in about deaths related to these swarms of African killer bees. In no time the military turns over all of the resources they have to him but even with the excellent team of scientists that Brad Crane manages to obtain the situation soon becomes even more perilous. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this was much better than a similar film by the name of "The Bees" which was made during the same year. For starters, the director (Irwin Allen) made good use of the CGI technology available at the time which certainly helped to some degree. Likewise, he also managed to assemble an all-star cast as well. Additionally, unlike the previously mentioned film of the same year, the ending wasn't nearly as ridiculous. In short, although this movie has its faults and certainly won't appeal to everyone, I found it somewhat entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Robert J. Maxwell Lots of stars, major and minor, can't lift this shoddy piece if commercial garbage out of the dismissible category. But it DOES have one thing in common with "Hamlet" in that almost everybody of importance dies.It's not really fun watching watery-eyed Henry Fonda inject himself with a bee venom antidote and see his EKG rise to "really sssspooky rates." And it's positively embarrassing to see Ben Johnson talk about love to a plump Olivia De Havilland, who resurrects her Melanie accent from "Gone With The Wind." We can cover the special effects with the observation that everyone dies in slow motion and that buildings, trains, and automobile blow up.The structure of the tale is awful. Every attempt to kill the monster swarm is ineffective until, at the very end, Michael Caine as the requisite scientist springs a new weapon out of nowhere. And what a weapon. Now, I'm no apiarologist or apiariatrist. I'd be the first to admit it. But I'd bet the house my ex wife got that bees don't have a mating call, not being moose. Some kind of scent, a pheromone, might get my attention but this movie loses its organoleptic thread when it introduces portable hummers.It should be shown in all film appreciation classes as a bad example.

jmillerdp Such an incredible trainwreck! And, yes, there is a trainwreck in the movie! You can say that it is at that point in the movie where the movie goes off the rails. (Get it?)First, I have to tell you perhaps the funniest story of my movie-going life. It was summer 1978. Our family had rented an RV, and were about to go to Colorado. I loved disaster movies, and still do! Well, back then, with a truly great movie like "The Poseidon Adventure," and recent silly, but still likable ones like "Airport '77," I was ready for Irwin Allen's latest! Like, really ready!Now, I couldn't just see it. I had to see it on the BIG SCREEN! That meant the Grandview II, with two 550-seat auditoriums, in St. Louis' North County, 30 or so minutes away. So, I basically dragged my mother and brother up on the opening day afternoon to see "The Swarm!" And, it is as delightfully awful as you know!So, instead of getting ready for our trip, I had the three of us spending hours in going up and back and seeing this crazy movie! You can bet that I didn't hear the end of it for a while. And, the thing is? I didn't care! I loved it. It's awful, it's gloriously insane! It all-but-immediately ended Irwin Allen's career!Plus, I got to read the terrible one-star (at best!) reviews all during our vacation!Everything else you know, if you've seen it. The hilarious actor's reactions to being killed by bees. The endless disasters within disasters: the aforementioned trainwreck, the nuclear plant magically blowing up (!) because bees got into the control room (what?!). It goes on and on.Plus, introducing all these characters, just to kill them off for the heck of it! And, the only-here-for-the-paycheck actors of the requisite "All-Star Cast." Lastly, you have to LOVE the way they deal with the bees at the end! The one thing I can unequivocally endorse is Jerry Goldsmith's score. 1978 was his greatest year, with one great score after another (plus, another Oscar nomination for "The Boys from Brazil") Here, Goldsmith again provides a score as if he is providing music for the greatest film ever! I love this movie, as impossibly bad as it is! Please, please, remaster this and release it on Blu-ray. After all, we could all use a good laugh these days!******* (7 Out of 10 Stars)

LeonLouisRicci Henry Fonda, Michael Caine, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia De Havilland, Ben Johnson, Fred MacMurray, Slim Pickens, Kathryn Ross, Jose Ferrer, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Bradford Dillman, Cameron Mitchell. Whew!Irwin Allen Managed to Sign These "Names" for this Movie and That's Where the "Accomplishments" End. This is Arguably the Most Disastrous Disaster Movie Ever Made.It was Dated from the Get-Go. Just Who Thought that the Romantic Triangle of Sixty Somethings Would be of Interest to Ticket Buyers Under the Age of Sixty Something? The SFX are Chinsy Even by the Standards of the Day with Obvious Models, Cardboard Sets, and the Like. The Dialog Never Even Reaches Sophomoric, More Like Moronic. The Story is Never Clear on Motivation of the Killer Bees or Anything Beyond Elementary Environmental Concerns...Chemical Spraying is Bad. Nuclear Power Plants are Accidents Waiting to Happen and So Forth.The Term "Africans" is Used Throughout to Describe the Threat. Some May Say that it is a Stretch to Call that "Racist", but Considering that there is Not One Black Actor from the Leads to the Extras to be Seen in this Extremely Long Movie Says Otherwise.Overall, an Awful Waste of Money and Talent, not to Mention the Time Moviegoers Spent Watching This Embarrassing Excess of a Truly Terrible Movie Maker...Irwin Allen. A No-Talent, Deep Pockets Hack that Never Had an Original Idea or an Artistic Bone in His Body of Work. A Clueless Dumbo that was Old Before His Time.