Review of The Swarm (1978) by Tim S — 14 Jan 2013

I can only imagine what Irwin Allen was thinking at this point in his career. 'I've done the disaster movie repeatedly. How about a killer insect movie?' The studio went for it and we ended up with The Swarm, which has enough star power for five or six other movies.

It's chock full of familiar faces, set against a movie about killer African bees coming to the US and taking out several small towns. It also has a disaster movie mentality to it. It stacks the odds against the characters pretty high and hardly lets up for a second.

There's also plenty of impressive stunts and miniature work on display, but I wouldn't expect anything less in an Irwin Allen film. The cast is great, especially Michael Caine, who is absolutely committed to his role.

I can't forget the fact that the movie is unintentionally hilarious as well. The version that I saw was 2 1/2 hours long, but I understand it was released theatrically in a shorter version. It definitely felt long, but it also felt like there were a lot of pieces missing.

Oh well, such is the case with these kinds of movies I suppose. I wouldn't call it a complete flop, but it's amazing to me that a studio gave Allen the money to do this movie.