Since Bee Movie received mixed reviews when it first came out, I wasn’t in any kind of hurry to see it. My five-year-old son didn’t even express interest in renting it, which should have served as a big tipoff that the movie didn’t have much appeal to kids. Judging from the trailers, there wasn’t much about it that would appeal to adults either, but I recently decided to rent it anyway. After all, the running time is only 90 minutes, so even if it was terrible, I wouldn’t have to suffer very long!
As it turned out, Bee Movie was just average. It wasn’t a train wreck, but neither was it very funny or even very interesting. I like a few of the voice performances and thought Chris Rock was great; too bad he was only on screen for about five minutes.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): Barry B. Benson (voiced by Jerry Seinfeld) is not a typical bee. After graduating from college, he can’t bear the thought of picking out a single job that he will then have to perform every day for the rest of his life. His best friend Adam (Matthew Broderick) has no such qualms and doesn’t give much thought to anything else in life, but Barry wants to see the world beyond the hive before resigning himself to a lifetime of repetitive work.
So one day Barry flies out on a mission with the so-called “pollen jocks” who pollinate flowers. He gets separated from the swarm, gets caught in the rain, and since bees can’t fly in the rain, ends up taking refuge on in an apartment. There he’s almost swatted to death by a man named Ken (Patrick Warburton), but Ken’s girlfriend Vanessa (Renée Zellweger) intercedes and saves Barry. Barry is so overwhelmed by Vanessa’s kindness that he breaks the cardinal rule of never talking to humans.
Once Vanessa gets over her initial shock about Barry being able to talk, the two of them quickly become friends. Vanessa owns a flower shop and actually likes bees, so they have a lot in common. Barry clearly falls for Vanessa, and this leads to even more indecision about his future.
Soon after that, Barry learns that humans have been buying, selling, and consuming bee honey for who knows how long. He’s outraged that humans think they can simply steal what the bees work so hard to produce, so he decides to sue the human race.
The rest of the film then deals with the lawsuit and the unforeseen consequences that arise after the verdict is announced and enforced. Along the way, Barry learns a lot about himself, about what it means to be a bee, and most importantly, how every job — no matter how small and insignificant it seems — counts for something.
My Reaction: I was a big fan of the Seinfeld television series, so I wasn’t expecting to be bothered by Jerry’s voice — but I was! His voice simply didn’t fit the Barry B. Benson character very well. I mean, Seinfeld sounds like an older guy, as well he should since he’s 54 years old. Sorry, but he just couldn’t pass as a college age bee (I know how ridiculous that sentence sounds; I mean in the context of the movie, of course!) and his voice distracted me to no end.
The other performers were pretty good, especially Chris Rock. His mosquito character was the only funny part of the film, and he got the best line. When asked how he could be a lawyer, Mooseblood replied, “I was already a bloodsucking parasite. All I needed was a briefcase!” Yep, that was the one laugh-out-loud moment in the movie and it came like two minutes before the end.
I know a lot of people have complained about the “bad science” in this film, but I didn’t care about any of that stuff. If you want to know how honey is made or why bees are important, would you go see a Hollywood animated film about it? Come on! That’s just asking for trouble. There were just too many other things wrong with this movie to focus on the lack of scientific accuracy.
Overall, Bee Movie doesn’t have much going for it. It’s not particularly funny, the plot doesn’t make much sense, and the lead voice actor doesn’t fit the character, which is why I’m giving it just 4.0 stars out of 10.