Bee Movie

Comments (0) By Robert Wilonsky Tuesday, Oct 30 2007

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Bee Movie
Directed by Steve Hickner and Simon J. Smith
Paramount Pictures
Now playing

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After making a mint off a series about nothing, Jerry Seinfeld apparently decided that his first feature film ought to be about something—in the case of Bee Movie, the enslavement and torture of bees for the pleasure and profit of humans, which is, like, hilarious. Alas, there's only so much you can do with talking bugs that hasn't already been covered in A Bug's Life, Antz, and The Ant Bully. For all the muscle and money behind Bee Movie, it still feels unfocused and unfinished. For a while, it's cute family fun—a visually sumptuous and goofy hour during which Barry (Seinfeld) discovers he doesn't want to be just another worker bee, flies the hive to Manhattan, and meets an adorable florist (Renee Zellweger). But rather suddenly, the bee-a-man plot disappears, as Bee Movie turns into . . . a courtroom thriller? Sadly so, as Barry finds himself in a courtroom prosecuting the likes of, yes, Sting. The funniest moments in Bee Movie are the Seinfeld-esque throwaway lines—the bit about women and toe rings ("It's like putting a hat on your knee"), the gag about TiVo ("You mean you can just freeze live TV? That's insane"). And then there's Chris Rock as a mosquito. Rock has but two scenes in the film, but he needs a hundred more. Give the man his own movie, please, if only because it'd bee far better than this one.