Jason Statham opens 2024 with a new action movie called The Beekeeper that sees him seeking revenge against a faceless and destructive organization. However, when the path of vengeance leads to the most important of people, he finds the odds stacked against him. However, as expected, it isn’t anything this action hero can’t handle.
Here is a look at our The Beekeeper review.
The Beekeeper Review
Jason Statham Fights For The Country’s Most Vulnerable
If The Beekeeper is anything, it is a mostly brainless action movie, and that is something that Jason Statham has mastered over his career. In this case, there is a small bit of setup to show why Statham wants to kill people, and then the movie just lets him loose to exact his vengeance. Statham is Adam Clay, who lives as a beekeeper, renting space in a barn from a retired school teacher named Eloise (Phylicia Rashad). After a small introduction of Clay as a beekeeper and Eloise as the “only person who ever took care of him,” the unthinkable happens.
A phishing scam hits Eloise as scammers get her to call in when her computer gets a “virus.” However, when she gives them her information, including passwords, they drain all the money from her bank accounts and credit cards and even steal over a million dollars from a charity she runs. Before Clay can get back to her house that night for dinner, she has died by suicide. Clay meets her daughter at the end of a gun. Agent Verona Parker is an FBI Agent and she learns soon that Clay didn’t kill her mother and then learns her mother took her own life after the phishing scam.
This leads to two things happening. Clay sets out to bring down the men who caused Eloise’s death, while Agent Parker sets out to stop him because she believes in doing things by the law and letting the courts handle it. Needless to say, Clay is who gets his way a lot more than Agent Parker.
After those scenes, the rest of the movie is a simple revenge action story. There is no need to think about what is happening; the fun comes in the action choreography. David Ayer (Suicide Squad, End of Watch) directed the movie, so fans of his should know what to expect. The action is gratuitous and fast-paced and Statham finds all sorts of creative ways to kill people. There are moments of cringe-worthy violence and the movie never holds back.
“The rest of the movie is a simple revenge action story.”
The plot itself is pretty thin. Clay is a retired member of a covert black ops organization called the Beekeepers, who have been set up to operate outside the law to keep the “balance” of the nation’s hive intact when things threaten to throw it off balance. By the last stretch of the movie, the revenge plot shows that Clay has a huge target – someone whose son used the most vulnerable in society to gain the country’s highest position.
The end plays out how anyone might have expected, and Clay will likely disappear until a sequel calls him back.
The Beekeeper: Final Analysis
In The Beekeeper Worth Your Time?
The biggest problem with The Beekeeper is that the story has high ideals that it wants to reach. However, it is nothing more than a mostly brainless action fest. The idea of Clay fighting for the disenfranchised – and especially the most vulnerable – is a good idea in today’s world. However, that is all mostly forgotten. The movie mostly cares just about breaking bones and killing both bad people and mercenaries sent to protect them.
There is some great acting on display here, though. Jason Statham is Jason Statham and people know what to expect. He has mostly perfected this role. Emmy Daver-Lampman does mostly fine in her role as Agent Parker. However, she isn’t given much time to show who she is other than an FBI Agent who is angry. Josh Hutcherson has proven here that he can be a smarmy Millennial villain. He has come a long way from his time as Peeta in The Hunger Games. Finally, Jeremy Irons, Phylicia Rashad, and Minnie Driver are all here in mostly throwaway roles.
The truth is that if you love Jason Statham’s action movies, you will love this movie. Don’t expect a good story, but stay to enjoy the broken bones and bloody aftermath of his rampage. The Beekeeper delivers what it promises.
