BEE MOVIE tells the story of Barry Bee. As is fairly common in these type of computer-animation movies, an anthropomorphic animal wants to be an individual, and not just another generic member of the hive/anthill/herd/robot assembly-line.

He’s slotted to be a worker-bee in the hive, but he wants to join the bees that gather pollen outside the hive.

There he meets a human florist, a disturbingly hot animated Renee Zellweger. They strike up a friendship which borders on romance, which fortunately the film never follows to its logical conclusion.

Barry learns in a trip to the grocery store that humans steal honey from hives, and he brings a lawsuit, Bees vs. The Human Race.

This is one of those movies that’s somewhere between kid’s movie and one where the jokes are as much aimed at adults. It’s made by the makers of SHREK, and the best thing about it is, it’s not another Shrek movie.

Is it funny? Mildly; Seinfeld’s brand of observational humor lends itself to Barry’s pointing out of quirks in bee and human society.

The animation is cool; the interior of the beehive is a strange cross between a factory floor and an amusement park. Biomechanical, but in a fun way, not a creepy Giger way.

And when Barry gets out into the man-made canyons of New York skyscrapers, and Central Park, bee flight is exhilarating, and hazardous.

The first half of this movie is a lot better than the second half. The movie slows down during courtroom scenes, and it leads to a muddled ecological message and a bit of a dead-end as far as storytelling. And a finale with some action thrown in that doesn’t make a lot of sense. And curiously, something of a backpeddling on the “non-conformity is good!” message.

The young kids who were in the theater when I saw it seemed to like it throughout. I’d suspect older kids (and some adults) may get a little restless during the second half.

If you are a fan of Kevin Smith and his View Askewniverse, this DVD is an absolute must-have. This is supposedly the fifth and final film in the trilogy. You’ll have to watch this one at least 3 times, listen to the commentary and watch all of the extras to even begin to notice all of the inside jokes and references to other films.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is the latest offering from Kevin Smith, who once again writes, directs and stars in the movie. If you recognize any of the previous names and are a fan of Smith’s previous work on such films as Clerks and Dogma, then this is probably a movie you’ve been anxiously awaiting. We here at Movies for Guys are big fans and were quite anxious to see if these two could carry an entire movie.

A bit of background is perhaps necessary to understand who Jay and Silent Bob are exactly. You see in all of the movies Kevin Smith has made, these two stoners show up as recurring characters. In fact, Smith’s movies all seem to be set in the same little fictional world as you get frequent crossovers between his movies, some logical, some not. For instance you’ll see Ben Affleck as his character from Chasing Amy, Holden McNeil, and then later see him playing himself playing another character (that is a joke I wont spoil). Affleck has also played two other characters in other Kevin Smith movies. Confused yet? Don’t think about it too much, just understand that Jay and Silent Bob kind of tie all of these worlds together. Kevin Smith plays Silent Bob himself. Bob is well, silent, at least most of the time. On the rare occasions he does speak, it’s usually very profound. But mostly he serves as the straightman for Jay just with facial expressions alone. Jay, played by Jason Mewes, on the other hand never stops talking, and it is usually much more profane than profound!

The storyline for the film is that a movie is being made about characters based upon Jay and Silent Bob. Are our heros ticked because they didn’t give their permission to use their likeness and consequently get paid? Nope! They’re annoyed because people on the internet movie boards are saying they suck. Feeling besmirched, they set out for Hollywood to stop the film. Along the way we are treated to a ton of cameos including most of your favorite characters from previous Kevin Smith films. He also does spoofs on everything from Star Wars to Scooby Doo.

This movie is classic Kevin Smith. It is not a movie for everyone, the best bits are subtle or require a little previous knowledge. I’ll use Scooby Doo as an example, without spoiling the bit. Let’s just say if you grew up on Scooby Doo on Saturday mornings or at least have caught it on Cartoon Network, you just might wet your pants. On the other hand, if you’re not a Scooby Doo fan, that whole bit is gonna go right over your head and you’re going to be very confused about why everyone else is laughing. Smith doesn’t setup, telegraph or otherwise dumb down his jokes for the masses in any way. He just puts it out there, you either get it or you don’t.

We give this movie 5 stars. It is an instant classic, I’d love to see it again right now. However, if you’re not a Kevin Smith fan, you may not “get it”. And if you don’t chances are you’re going to see this movie as one long series of totally crude jokes about flatulence, the penis and homosexuality featuring two total dimwits. Actually, even that dosn’t sound bad if it’s funny, and this is.

Down to Earth isn’t an original movie by any means, in fact, its a remake of a remake, with some characters and situations changed, but the story left pretty much the same. Hollywood must really be running out of ideas.

Anyway, Chris Rock plays Lance Barton, a comic in New York who gets booed off the stage so often his nickname is “booey”. One evening while riding his bike he gets hit by a truck, here’s where Heaven get involved. Seems that he wasn’t actually supposed to die in the accident, and that Heaven made a mistake. To make up for the error, he’s allowed to return to earth by claiming a body of someone else who has recently died. After checking out various bodies without any luck, he decides to take up temporary residence in Charles Wellington, one of the richest men in America.

Charles happens to be white, which makes for some pretty amusing situations. You have to use your imagination most of the time though, as we very rarely see Wellington in the various situations. But the idea of a fat white guy doing stand up comedy in a black comedy club is mildly amusing.

The real reason Lance picked Wellington has nothing to do with the money, he did it to try and score with a woman named Sontee played by Regina King. Now you know the romance is gonna work out, so I’m not ruining anything here for you, but the very idea of a good looking young black woman falling for a 50-something fat white guy in just a few days is kinda stupid, unless of course you consider that he’s the 15th richest man in America. The story line says its true love, I think it must have been the bank account.

It’s not a great movie, but it’s also not as bad as the 2 star rating makes it seem. If you’re looking for something to take a girl to, this is the best pick in theaters right now. She’ll love it, and you won’t really mind. Otherwise, just wait for video.