Film Review: Seinfeld buzzes humor into ‘Bee Movie’
Jerry Seinfeld’s hand in writing and starring in the computer-animated “Bee Movie” creates an enjoyable film for children and adults.
In “Bee Movie,” Barry B. Benson (Jerry Seinfeld, “The Thing About My Folks”), is a dissatisfied bee who refuses to accept his cradle-to-grave career as a honey maker. Barry leaves the hive to explore the outside world.
There, Barry meets New Yorker Vanessa Bloome (Renee Zellweger, “Miss Potter”), when she prevents a boot from smashing him, saving his life. Because of his near-death experience, Barry breaks the bee law of not talking to humans. A shocked Vanessa slowly accepts the concept of a talking bee and a strange relationship forms between the two species.
During an outing to the grocery store with Vanessa, Barry finds out that humans steal and eat the honey his kind produces. Mad and indignant, Barry takes this issue to court, suing the presidents of honey manufacturers.
“Bee Movie” has an impressive cast of celebrity cameos, including Chris Rock, Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, among others.
In addition to the celebrity voices, there are many pop-culture references in the movie. The artist Sting was brought into the lawsuit for not following a bee copyright. Roy Liotta, who starred in the mob movie, “Goodfellas” is introduced with the line, “So you think you’re a good fella, don’t you?”
Although this movie was meant for children, there’s enough adult content blended with childish humor to give the movie an entertaining balance. A grown man says, “Eww! Poop water” when toilet water touches him while a bee justifies sexual advances toward a spider by saying, “Just imagine what a spider can do with its eight legs.”
Like his earlier stand-up work and TV show, Seinfeld uses his voice to make observations about everyday experiences funny.
In one scene, Seinfeld makes fun of TiVo. Barry is astonished to learn about the human device and when Vanessa asks if they have something like it, Barry says bees have “Hive-o,” which is a deadly disease.
‘Bee Movie’
Release Date: Nov. 2
Directors:
Stephen Hickner, Simon J. Smith
Starring: Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ray Liotta, Oprah Winfrey, Sting, Larry King
Genre: Comedy animation
Rating: PG for mild suggestive humor
Grade: B
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on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 12:20 am and is filed under Arts & Entertainment, Film Reviews.
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