Killer Buzz [2001]

[Cross-posted on the Bad Movie Night Facebook page.]

As far as we could tell from the case it came in and the main menu screen this movie was called "Killer Buzz." However, while trying to find it on the internet, websites couldn't identify a movie by that name but there is a movie called "Flying Virus" that has the same cover, plot description, and cast so I guess that's the real name. Or the original name. Adam suggested, before I even tried to find this movie online, that "Killer Buzz" was a name they adopted for the film after they realized how bad it was and decided to market it as a comedy. Whatever it's called it's a B-movie bee movie that very well may have influenced "Snakes On A Plane."

A journalist in a failing marriage is attacked by bees in the Brazilian jungle and told she is lucky to be alive since the bees are genetically modified to kill (and weirdly, they all die after a week of life to tie up loose ends). While she wanders around the jungle with her cameraman, trying to figure out who's responsible, an evil rapey doctor takes the bees on a flight to New York that her husband happens to be on. The movie follows these two plots: the journalist's husband trying to contain the bees and land the plane and the journalist running from some evil guy who takes pride in being viewed as an asshole in an effort to find the natives who have the cure for the bee's poison. Of course, the boss of the evil guy is the giant-chinned love interest of the journalist who takes dinner very seriously and all three bad guys (chin man, asshole, and doctor) die from bee-related deaths. The plane is crash landed near the native tribe, the antidote is distributed, and the journalist's marriage is saved with some sex in the woods. Only what questions remains: What exactly was the motivation of the bad guys to make and transport these bees? Who cares? Maybe Sarah knows but no one even bothered to ask her.

This movie, like others of it's type, is just lazy. It uses the same reaction shots, stock footage, and explosion scenes over and over, including a scene where the bad guys inexplicably try to blow up a waterfall. This is just a forgettable movie that tried very hard to be serious and realized it's folly too late in the game to make it campy.

I posted the picture of the cover of the DVD as we know it at the top of this article but I also found an alternative cover in my searching the does in fact convey a different feeling and you can see it on the right there. Almost looks like a real horror film, huh?