Film Reviews

Bee Movie

• Rating:
• Director: Steve Hickner
• Starring: Chris Rock
• Details: USA / 90mins (G)

"Don't you get bored doing the same job every day?" With the hundreds (okay not hundreds, but it feels like it) of animated micro-universe adventures that have slithered out of Hollywood of late, what does Bee Movie have that the others don't? Well, for one it's slightly funnier than its contemporaries - but it wasn't always shaping up that way, as the first half-hour is full of obvious and predictable jokes. Bee Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld) has just graduated from college and is dismayed to find that the job he picks will be the job he'll have for the rest of his life. He escapes the hive and lands in human florist Vanessa's (Zellwegger) plants. Barry falls head-over-heels for Vanessa but when he discovers that us humans eat honey, he decides to sue us. The story is thin on the ground and takes so long to get going there's no way to write a synopsis without touching on the legal case, which happens way over the halfway mark. Written by Seinfeld, who employed two sitcom writers to help, it's easy to see why Bee Movie's plot is the way it is – instead of a full story, it a series of set-ups and punchlines punctuated by small episodic adventures: the intro to the hive, the escape, the love story, the discovery of the artificial hives, the court case. The decent jokes, too, take time to come to fruition, but once it hits a groove the gags are pretty consistent there after. With Sting, Ray Liotta and Larry King making funny cameos that send themselves up, Bee Movie will entertain kids and adults alike. Just don't expect it to be vastly different from Antz, The Ant Bully, A Bug's Life et al.

Review by Gavin Burke