Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Mystery un-loched? New 'Loch Ness Monster' photo draws interest

New 'Loch Ness Monster' photo draws interest

Like the "Bigfoot" phenomenom I've always been on the proverbial fence as to whether a prehistoric, aquatic dinosaur exists in Loch Ness, a body of water in Scotland(UK) twenty three miles along and in some places eight hundred feet deep. Loch Ness, millions of years ago, was connected to the Atlantic Ocean so there are those who believe "plesiosaurs" or "elasmosaurs"(long necked marine dinos with oblate shaped bodies and flippers for water transit) may have been trapped in Loch Ness as the waters receded over time and consequently survived. Skeptics point out the obvious: there has been no hard evidence(carcasses for example of the dead creature or creatures). Sightings of the alleged creature have occurred for hundreds of years. Click the above link and check out the latest story about the Loch Ness "monster" for yourself or click on the below video.

Sunday, April 5, 2015

A buzz in the air: THE SWARM(1978)

I admit to being a sucker for disaster movies and among those in my Blu Ray collection are: The Poseidon Adventure(1972) , The Towering Inferno(1974) and Earthquake(1974). I also own several disaster films on DVD including Gorath(1962)(a Toho produced film in which a celestial body is on a collision course with Earth), Crack In The World(1965) and When Worlds Collide(1951). 

One disaster film I watched last month is The Swarm, a 1978 film directed by Irwin Allen. It's gets a low rating at IMDB and at "Rotten Tomatoes" and while I think the movie itself takes itself a little too seriously at times I also find it quite entertaining. The Swarm is "nature gone amok" fare: in the movie "Africanized" bees are on the move and transit into the southwestern United States including Texas where the movie's primary action takes place. The bees are aggressive and attack anyone who disturbs them and also those who don't. The marauding bees in The Swarm have an unusually toxic sting which rivals the bite of a cobra so the body count from the bee attacks is of course very high.

While I wouldn't rate the special effects overall as grand they are suitable and the slow motion shots of the bees swarming and attacking their human victims is well rendered. The all star cast includes Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Bradford Dillman, Slim Pickens and Henry Fonda.

This is a long movie and the film itself drags a bit for me. Fans of action and disaster movies should check this film out on Netflix. It may be hit or miss as a DVD buy. I own the 2002 Warner Home Video DVD of The Swarm(1978)

A trailer:

To see the '02 Warner Home Video DVD on sale at Amazon click the link: THE SWARM DVD