Highlight #67 at 3:43 PM

Hey y'all, I'm back! I had a great time at Ryan's house ( Ryan is my older brother) we played Settlers of Catan with the Cities and Knights expansion pack on top. After that, We all sat down and watched "Bee Movie" here's my review:

BEE MOVIE

























Warning, Synopsis DOES contain Spoilers!

Staring Cast: Jerry Sienfeld (Barry B. Benson), Renée Zellweger (Vanessa Bloome)

Supporting Cast: Matthew Broderick (Adam Flayman), Patrick Warburton (Ken), John Goodman, of James P. Sullivan fame (Layton T. Montgomery)

Directed by: Steve Hickner, Simon J. Smith

Written by: Jerry Sienfeld, Spike Feresten

Whats it rated? PG (for some suggestive humor)

Synopsis: Barry B. Benson is a young bee, who, after spending 3 days in college (hey, he's a bee and bees don't live for very long) with his best friend Adam, goes on an orientation tour of the honey factory (run by Honex corp.) inside his hive. Here he learns that he has to pick what job he wants to have for his entire life. He isn't very happy about this and decides to go outside the hive with a squadron of "pollen Jocks" (they're the dudes who collect nectar and who preform the pollination the flowers need) but he gets lost in Manhattan meets a human named Vanessa who saves his life by stopping Ken from squashing him with a size 10 1/2 winter soled boot, in gratitude he thanks her (of course she's surprised that bees can talk, she drops a dishwasher load of plates when he says "Hi"). One day in the Grocery store Barry sees all the Honey jars that are for sale... and decides to sue the human race for stealing the bees' honey. Barry, Adam, and Vanessa fight in court against the slightly corrupt southern lawyer, Layton T. Montgomery. eventually they win and with all the Honey that the humans give back to the bees all over the country, the bees can now take the vacation they have never been allowed to have. But there's a catch, with all the bees inside their hives, the flowers can't get the pollen they desperately need to survive ( I guess the Producers think that flowers need pollen the same way they need water, so in the movie, all the plants go all brown and start to die) Barry realizes this and goes to the annual Flower festival to get the last live flowers in order to pollinate all the plants in the entire Nation. In the end, all is saved and Barry sets up a Lawyers office specializing in Animal rights. The End.

My take: Sure it's a funny movie, even more so than Shark tale, Over the Hedge, and Open season, but not quite as classic as Finding Nemo, or Monsters Inc. The film is LOADED with some great parodies, but in the mix, of course, is some crude humor as well- no where near as bad as say, Shrek (1 or 2) or Open Season, but still, it's quite annoying. As for story, it is lacking in the basic fundamentals of Screen-writing such as Climax, and character development, things are left unsaid that you really do need to hear. The one thing I didn't like about is was that you're never quite sure what world view it's coming from; At one point, Vanessa says to Ken: "Why does his [Barry's] life have any less value than yours?" but later she clarifies and says: "I'm just saying that his [Barry's] life is worth something too". Also there is that all-to-prevalent "humans are the bad guys" view that finds a place in almost every feature that revolves around animals. But through the film you eventually pick up the world-view as being evolutionary, Animals-are-just-as-good-as-humans, Humans-hurt-the-environment kind of thing. Now, again, this is a funny movie that I wouldn't mind seeing again, I just point out all it's faults so you can decide if you want to see it or not.

Story: 5 out of 10

Humor: 8 out of 10

Overall: 7 out of 10

I hope you liked my first review, Hopefully I can come up with more movies to review on "Movie Review Monday" perhaps I'll do National Treasure 2 next time... maybe :-)

-Graydon L

I hope everyone has started working on their story for the 100th post contest. You still have time, but you'd better get some ideas flowin'!

Please email your story, as well as your name to: GLhighlights100@yahoo.com