Bee Movie Review
by Homer Yen (homer_yen AT yahoo DOT com)November 4th, 2007
"Bee" Musing
by Homer Yen
(c) 2007
"Bee Movie" gets a recommendation from me. Why? Bee-cause it's very creative as we get a close-up
look inside a thriving beehive where our hero,
Barry B. Benson (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) lives.
It's not a labyrinth of honeycombs. Instead,
it's an industrialized society whose only product
is honey. I found it droll how honey is the
BEE-ALL in terms of consumer products from
toothpaste to shampoo to hair gel to after shave cologne.
Ok, I've got to get off of these bee puns.
Anyway, inspired by Jimmy Neutron-esque genius,
all of the various steps of the honey-producing process are intricately laid out from the
collection to the processing to the distribution.
And the worker bees are there to ensure that everything moves assuredly along. Some of the
jobs include not-so-glamorous positions like Crud Picker. Some are just so-so like being a
Stirrer. The most thrilling is as an Ace
Pollinator who soars out of the hive, endures the randomness of the city, and returns with pollen.
But then there is Barry who is skeptical about
the tightly wound mechanics of the bee system.
He knows that once he selects his job, it'll be
his forever until he dies. On a dare, he tags
along with the Ace Pollinators and is amazed at
what he sees.
On paper, this seems like a relatively easy story
to tell. But the structure of the film is broken
up into three distinct parts, all with different textures. The first third involves Barry's
budding realization that there has to be more to
life than picking crud or stirring. Once he
ventures outside, he BEE-friends the somewhat
daffy florist, Vanessa (Renee Zellweger). Dang,
I couldn't resist that last one. The second
chapter focuses on his quest to right what he
feels to be a tremendous wrong once he witnesses
that all of the bees' lifetime-of-hard-work is commercially sold to the masses. The final
chapter features an evolving cataclysmic event
that Barry must reverse.
Each chapter felt like they were operating at different speeds. And, the first chapter (up
until he investigates a bee farm) is the
funniest. This is in part thanks to the always-caffeinated Chris Rock who plays one of
many friends/acquaintances that Barry encounters outside the hive. And, the general Seinfeld mannerisms and ironic wit is more prevalent in
the first part. Well, as a writer of the film, perhaps the Seinfeldism of the script ran
throughout the movie, but it kind of got tiring
and/or went unnoticed after the first 30 or 40
minutes.
"Bee Movie" is the kind of film where adults will
have some fun trying to identify some of the
celebrity voices. Perhaps if you're not paying attention, you'll miss Oprah Winfrey and John
Goodman. And, you'll find the dialogue amusing
as Barry continues on his road of self-discovery.
Also, I certainly have a newfound respect for
bees.
Yet, I bemoan the fact that the overall
experience never felt especially riveting or
magical. Many of the supporting characters were
much more interesting than Barry. His platonic friendship with Vanessa is merely ho-hum. At
times, watching this felt less like a feature
film and more like a revved up movie that you
would see in a junior high school biology class. Overall I liked it. I just wished that I had
liked it more.
Grade: B (of course)
S: 0 out of 3
L: 0 out of 3
V: 0 out of 3
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
