Eric D. Snider
Bee Movie
Movie Review
"Bee Movie"
Review by Eric D. Snider
Grade: B-
Rating: PG
Released: Friday, November 2, 2007
Directed by:
Cast:
Jerry Seinfeld's "Bee Movie" doesn't really make sense, even taking into account that it's a cartoon. The plot is absurd, sometimes so outrageously harebrained that you have to figure Seinfeld and company were doing it on purpose. Other times, you think the whole thing is just a mess and they didn't know what they were doing.
Both views are at least partially correct. I ultimately come down on the side of liking the movie for its bold disregard for convention (whether it was intentional or not), and also because I laughed quite a bit during it. That said, it's a minor film. It'll be amusing once and then forgotten.
Seinfeld hatched the idea and co-wrote the screenplay with some old "Seinfeld" scribes, and he voices the main character: Barry, a bee who has just graduated from school and is preparing to enter the workforce but doesn't like the idea of doing the same task constantly until the day he dies. Most bees never leave the hive. Barry wants to go out and explore.
He does so, and he's delighted by the outside world of New York City. He is saved from a squashing by a florist named Vanessa (Renee Zellweger), and even though it is forbidden for bees to talk to humans -- apparently, bees can speak English, and they've just been hiding it all this time -- he feels like he ought to thank her. So he does. And after some initial shock that bees can talk, she becomes his friend.
Because this is Seinfeld, they talk about minutiae, like what's the deal with women wearing toe rings? It's like putting a hat on your knee. But more importantly, Barry develops a crush on Vanessa, which is silly, since she is 10,000 times his size. A relationship could never work out. Plus, she already has a boyfriend, Ken (Patrick Warburton), who hates bees. What's interesting is that in the movie, the boyfriend is the greater obstacle.
The story kicks into high gear when Barry discovers that honey is sold in supermarkets. Since he'd never left the hive before, he didn't realize what happened to other, less fortunate bee colonies, how their honey was plundered by humans. He is outraged! And so he files a lawsuit against the big honey companies on the grounds that they've been stealing what rightfully belonged to the bees.
I don't think anyone disputes that. I think we were assuming the bees didn't care, or that, at the very least, they did not speak our language and would be unable to file court papers. If we learned that they were sentient beings who could speak and reason, I suspect it would change a lot of things.
The film gets even more surreal after that. Often, I was laughing at the strangeness of the movie more than at its actual jokes, which are hit-and-miss. Who could have expected a scene where Ken comes home early and is jealous to discover Vanessa eating dinner with Barry? When you have a man envious of his girlfriend's insect acquaintance, that's how you know your movie, for better or worse, has gone off the deep end.
The voice cast is plenty of fun, including John Goodman as a conniving Southern lawyer (a role he's perfect for, you'll agree), Matthew Broderick as Barry's worry-wart best friend, and, for some reason, Larry King, Ray Liotta, and Sting as themselves. Actually, Larry King plays Bee Larry King, who has a talk show on a bee cable station. Barry even points out to him what a weird coincidence it is that there's a human Larry King, too, who also has a TV show and wears suspenders.
What a weird movie. Will kids appreciate its weirdness? I suspect they'll just find it funny. It's the adults who will think it's either a trainwreck or an amusing curiosity.
Grade: B-
Rated PG, a couple mildly naughty jokes
1 hr., 30 min.
Copyright © Eric D. Snider.
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This item has 12 comments
November 2, 2007 at 7:51 am
I remember seeing a "preview" for this movie on the Daily Show that had all the actors in foam suits acting out a scene of the movie, and I thought that would be something really interesting. A cartoon-style story, but done in live action for some reason. Now that it's just another animated movie about insects, I'm not interested.
November 2, 2007 at 12:40 pm
"...it's a minor film. It'll be amusing once and then forgotten"
I sure hope so, if only to end this never-ending marketing campaign it's been on for the last few months! I swear, Jerry Seinfeld wasn't on NBC this much when "Seinfeld" was on the air!!
November 2, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I don't want to be mean, but I kind of hope this movie bombs and Seinfeld goes back to his fortress of solitude for another 10 years.
November 2, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Amen! I'm beginning to think the sitcom was a fluke. Now he is just annoying.
November 2, 2007 at 5:37 pm
This movie gets a bee-minus*? Man, I thought it would be a lot worse than that. I still won't be seeing it, though, because bee movie officially crossed the line by bombarding me with so many bee movie promos that I start seeing Beeson B. McBee (or whatever)'s smug, animated face whenever I close my eyes.
*Many sincere apologies. It was hard to resist.
November 2, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Did you hear JS interviewed yesterday on NPR's Fresh Air? He's been busy producing this film for four years. Spielberg saw it and suggested he redo the last quarter because all the fun had disappeared. From everything I heard on that program, I got the idea that the film was worth seeing. Now, however, I ain't so sure. I'll probably arrive at the multi-plex early and grab ten-15 minutes, which is how I intend to check out Tyler Perry's new movie, i.e., just to educate myself and see whether all the praise (apart from EDS) is warranted.
November 5, 2007 at 7:54 am
The weekend's take is (unofficially) just below $40M. Certainly respectable, but about $5M less than American Gangster which opened on 900 fewer screens. I predict that it will drop dramatically next week and will quickly be in the smallest cinema of the multiplex by week 4. You have to wonder if Seinfeld's cred is not what he (and NBC and DreamWorks) thinks it is, particularly with the overwhelming advertising blitz this thing got. There have been ads for a year, and NBC aired those abysmally bad TV juniors (I think there's a Seinfeldian joke in that odd name, but I don't quite see it). I don't think Spiderman III, Shrek III or any other big movie this year has had half the ad budget that BM (haw haw) has, yet the releases were much bigger.
This will be just successful enough that Jerry can save face, but maybe his ego will get a due round of deflation, given that a gazillion Seinfeld fans didn't beat down the multiplex doors to see him make a bunch of lame bee jokes.
November 6, 2007 at 9:35 am
The movie just looks unentertaining. I haven't seen a single clip I found amusing, much less that made me laugh. I'm not sure why NBC and Dreamworks thought Seinfeld's name attached to it would automatically make it a gold mine. It seems to me that the target audience of an animated movie (with some exceptions--South Park, Simpsons, etc.) is people completely unfamiliar with Seinfeld (i.e. children). I'm sure I'm not the only fan of the TV show who saw Jerry Seinfeld doing a cartoon and didn't think Seinfeldesque humor would translate well in animation or who simply finds cartoons tedious. He sure is making a moron of himself with the obnoxious ad campaign and all the interviews. I saw clips of him on Larry King and Charlie Rose, and both times he just seemed pompous and arrogant. I don't hope the movie flops, but I definitely have no interest in seeing it. So he had a funny TV show ten years ago. Big deal. That doesn't mean everything he does is worth seeing.
November 10, 2007 at 3:07 am
Please, feel free to crucify me... but I sincerely enjoyed the film, as did my motley crew of friends and family. If you go in expecting the ride of a lifetime, of course you're going to be disappointed... but if you attend in hopes of taking part in a moderately entertaining and extremely strange way to spend a Thursday evening... you're going to leave the theater feeling very fulfilled.
November 12, 2007 at 3:25 pm
If you haven't figured out by now that Larry David was the genius behind Seinfeld, you obviously have never seen an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Too bad Jerry didn’t bring him in as a writer on this movie. He could have maintained the charade a little longer.
November 13, 2007 at 12:42 pm
I saw this movie for fun with my friends, and I thought it was cute and funny. Then my boyfriend and I went to go see it again ( because I wouldn't sneak into Saw IV) and I realized that you were absolutely correct in your opening statements: Its the kind of movie you can only see once before you see how harebrained and almost negligible it is.
November 21, 2007 at 4:25 am
I liked this movie. It was very similar to "Flushed Away" and "Ratatouille". In those 2 movies, rats are hated by humans and have a fine world of their own. Then there is always someone that dreams of getting out and having a friendship with humans. I feel like all 3 of the movies were clever and very good for adults, although kids might enjoy the visuals- while some of the jokes go over their heads.