Bee Movie Review

While I have yet to see Bee Movie, the new animated Dreamworks film starring Jerry Seinfeld, who also wrote and produced the film, I have been checking up on reviews before heading to the theater. Regardless of the following, Bee Movie garnered $39.33 million on opening weekend.

Here is an excerpt from the LATimes review:

"Bee Movie" feels as if it was cut from a mold made in the '90s.A coming-of-age story about a kid from a conformist society whose individualism and nonconformity cause problems at first but eventually save the day, "Bee Movie" parrots the I-gotta-be-me standard without thinking it through.Barry Benson (Seinfeld), is a young bee fresh out of college about to forcibly enter the workforce.

While flying over Central Park, Barry is separated from the rest of the squadron and lost. He winds up inside the apartment of Vanessa (Renée Zellweger), a florist, who saves Barry from her meathead boyfriend, Ken (Patrick Warburton), when Ken tries to swat him. Grateful, Barry breaks the cardinal rule of bees and talks to Vanessa. Soon she and Barry become close friends, and Barry returns to the hive full of a newfound appreciation for the human way of life. (Cinnabon is high on his list of marvels.)

The jokes are the best thing about it ("I was already a bloodsucking parasite," says a mosquito turned lawyer, played by Chris Rock. "All I needed was the briefcase.") They're also the worst thing about it. ("I just hope she's bee-ish," sighs Barry's anxious mother, played by Kathy Bates, on learning that her son is interested in someone who may or may not be a wasp. Get it?)

This would be OK if "Bee Movie"-- a pun on B movie that goes no further than the title -- weren't also content to remain in the shallow part of the pool, story-wise. The stakes are low. It's a bee movie about nothing."

-Written By Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer