THE BEEKEEPER (2024) - Movie Review

Director: David Ayer
Starring: Jason Statham, Jeremy Irons, Josh Hutcherson, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi, Phylicia Rashad, Jemma Redgrave
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Writer: Kurt Wimmer
Runtime: 105 min
Rated: Rated R for strong violence throughout, pervasive language, some sexual references and drug use.
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), 4K Ultra HD, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

Jason Statham stars in "The Beekeeper," a heart-pounding action-thriller about a mysterious Beekeeper. Adam Clay (Statham), a former operative of a powerful organization known as Beekeepers, upends his covert life and embarks on a brutal revenge mission to dismantle corruption at the highest levels of our society.

Review:

Jason Statham is back, and this time, he's a beekeeper. No, not a real beekeeper, although, he is an actual beekeeper too, sort of. It's complicated. In David Ayer's "The Beekeeper", Statham stars as Adam Clay, a man living a peaceful life raising bees. He's also the tenant of a retired school teacher, but when she falls prey to a phishing scam that leaves her bankrupt and commits suicide, Clay starts a one-man war in the name of justice. What the scumbags who defrauded the old woman don't know and don't expect is that Clay is actually a highly-skilled and very deadly former operative of a secret agency called "The Beekeepers", which operates outside government regulation to protect the country, or hive, if you will.

As Clay gleefully dispatches bad guys he discovers that the scamming operation runs much deeper, and is organized by Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), CEO of Danforth Enterprises. Also involved is a former CIA director, played by Jeremy Irons, who is now in charge of security for Danforth. Many more surprises are in store, but I'll leave those for the viewer to discover. The first 30 minutes of this movie are some of the most satisfying I've seen in recent action flicks. What follows is increasingly preposterous, but still very rewarding for fans of over-the-top action.

Writer Kurt Wimmer ("Equilibrium", "Ultraviolet") infuses the film with lofty lore for the beekeepers. It's utter nonsense, but lovely nonsense, nontheless. The movie is chock full of metaphorical references to bees and hives, so much so that a "beekeeper" drinking game could easily render you comatose, or even kill you. But, at least you get the sense that the writer is actually trying to make the movie stand out among the many "John Wick" wannabees out there.

There are, however, two incredibly pointless and annoying chracters, namely the FBI agents played by Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi. They stand out in all the wrong ways, proving utterly incompetent as they give chase to bring Clay to justice, and continously spew poorly written dialogue that is supposedly intended to be funny. It's like these two were written into the movie by a completely different writer with some dumb studio mandate to inject more humor.

There's plenty of action, and it's all competently put together, slick and well shot. Statham's still got it, kicking ass with convincing aplomb, while being inscrutinably intimidating. He's got that Bruce Willis superpower of elevating even the dumbest lines. Irons is his usual suave self, and Hutcherson is easy to hate as the slimy cryptobro villain, a scummy a-hole that you just can't wait to see Statham tear to shreds.

All in all, "The Beekeeper" is an old-school schlocky B-movie with a gritty ultra-violent edge that Ayer is well known for. It's equal parts stupid and entertaining, and it's a lot of fun as long as you don't take it too seriously.

SCORE: 7/10