Must See Movie...

Just perfect...

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Loved this movie! Watched it on TV back in '76, six days before my 12th b'day and it absolutely terrified me...the only movie that ever made me shake(my sister had to call my mother home from visiting her mother to calm me down)- my reaction could have been caused by me getting a bit to close to a hive a year earlier and being chased more than a quarter of a mile and stung an estimated 75 times...I still have nightmares about it- and it was exactly like in the movies...screaming and swatting wildly while their buzz filled the air. Anyway, I watched the movie again about 15 years later, and, of course, it didn't have the same effect, but this time, I actually got to enjoy the movie. It's a charming '70's movie with a lot of personality. It's well acted, well written...and the action scenes are well done and not to slick(like so many of todays' flicks). It also gives some factual history on how the Africanized bees came to be. I loved the background being New Orleans, with my favorite scene being the couple dressed as pirates who, I think, had had a bit to much to drink, drove their Cougar convertible to a bee infested hotdog stand. They just don't make them like this anymore(and I don't think it would work now..not enough gore and computerized effects). GOOD STUFF..and one of the best of the killer insect movies of the '70s.

The Savage Bees is set in Louisiana & starts as a banana boat from Brazil sails into freighter about twenty miles off the coast of New Orleans, the banana boat is completely deserted & her crew are nowhere to be found. Arriving home Sheriff Donald McKew (Ben Johnson) is shocked to see his pet Dog dead, McKew takes the Dog to the nearest hospital & manages to convince assistant medical examiner Dr. Jeff DuRand (Michael parks) to perform an autopsy which he does & discovers that the Dog was killed by Bee stings. A body is found floating in the water & he too was killed by Bee stings, entomologist Jaennie Devereaux (Gretchen Corbett) confirms that the Bees in question are killer African Bees that presumably reached the US by being on the Brazillian banana boat. With Mardi Gras in full swing the city of New Orleans faces a potential disaster & it's up to a few city officials to come up with a plan to stop the Bees & prevent a massacre...This made for US telly killer Bee flick originally aired at the end of November in 1976 & has been released on home video a few times since, produced & directed by Bruce Geller who is credited as the 'Creator' of the original Mission: Impossible TV series & was later killed in a plane crash in 1978 this killer animal/insect film was probably made after the huge success of Jaws (1975) the previous year & just about everyone in Hollywood jumped on the killer animal bandwagon usually with less than impressive results. Here The Savage Bees is watchable enough I suppose but it's so talky at times that I found myself getting bored with it, the Bee attack scenes are tame & uninspired although the ending is alright if only for it's outright silliness. I mean a single cop car can clear the whole of New Orleans by itself broadcasting from just one loudspeaker? Also if the Bees hate loud noises & the cop actually tells people to turn machinery off & be quiet because the Bees will attack them why is he shouting out warnings at the top of his voice from a loudspeaker no more than a few feet from the swarm of Bees? The majority of The Savage Bees is taken up by scenes of various city officials talking about the killer Bee threat & what to do about it, that's fine in an exposition sort of way but it does get dull after a while. At almost 90 odd minutes long The Savage Bees could have used five or tens minutes edited out to speed things up a bit, overall a pretty forgettable entry in the killer Bee sub-genre.There are a few attack scenes but nothing special, expert Bee handlers made sure things were done safely on set as real Bees with real stingers were used. To be honest I don't think Bees make the best killer creature for films like this, great big Sharks or Snakes or even Spiders are much better as Bees just sort of buzz around & not much else. Even though the film takes place during the Mardi Gras this angle is totally wasted, the obligatory uncaring politician as seen in jaws who is only interested in money is also present but again goes nowhere.Filmed in Louisiana & the Superdome in New Orleans where the improbable climax takes place. I can't believe you drop the temperature in a huge football stadium such as the Superdome by over 15 degrees in a matter of minutes, can you? The acting is standard fare, no-one stands out but it'll do. A young Michael Parks stars & he has had a bit of a comeback lately with Quentin Tarantino casting him in several of his films.The Savage Bees is standard made for telly killer creature feature stuff, it's just about watchable if your absolutely desperate for a killer Bee flick but that's the best I can say for it. Followed by the made for telly sequel Terror Out of the Sky (1978).

This is not just another cheapy television movie from the 1970s, but actually an intelligent, scary horror film worth seeing, something along the lines of "Kingdom of the Spiders" or "Phase IV" - 2 other very good underrated insect attack movies. There is some good location filming of New Orleans and the swamps of Southern Louisiana, and veteran Ben Johnson is solid in the lead role of the local sheriff. Movies like this need to know how to push the right buttons, and this one does, containing one scene with a scientist in a protective suit poking a giant beehive that really impressed me with how skillfully it was set up. This ain't Shakespeare, but it is the finest quality you will find for this genre.

From the writer who brought you "Jaws 3-D" comes this very boring "thriller" about killer bees. Writer Guerdon Trueblood seems to have a one-track mind, as all his "thrillers" involve either bugs or airplanes. There must be something Freudian to that. Nevertheless, there are no airplanes here but plenty of bees. Oooga-booga! Scary stuff! Half of this movie involves people talking about bees, the other half is people driving around looking for the bees. Watch as they discuss for 15 minutes how to get bees off a Volkswagen. Then marvel as they drive the whole carload of bees downtown to see a Saints game! The only purpose of this movie is to sit around with some friends and make fun of it MST3K-style.Oh yeah, and look for James Best aka Rosco P. Coltrane... um... he doesn't do his funny voice though.