THE BEEKEEPER (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

The Beekeeper, Amazon MGM Studios

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Review by Mark Dujsik | January 11, 2024

It's always nice to see a schlocky movie embrace exactly what it is, with no attempts to falsely elevate itself and no apologies for what it wants to do. That's exactly what The Beekeeper is: a silly action thriller that promises the sight of Jason Statham beating up, severely injuring, and brutally killing a bunch of corrupt, nasty people. Director David Ayer delivers on that promise with style and self-aware humor, which makes it a bit more fun than even the basic concept would suggest.

Obviously, Statham is primarily to thank for the film's success. There are other action stars getting regular work these days, but something about the British actor puts him at or near the top of the list of the best to be doing it now. Like the film, he knows exactly what he's expected to do here—play the strong, silent type with a flair for physical punishment and a sense of moral righteousness that's completely unflappable.

Not too many actors could convincingly come across as a tough guy while sporting a flannel hooded jacket and an oversized baseball cap while talking about bees, and the first joke of the film, perhaps, is that Statham's Adam Clay never seems like the dull, ordinary man Kurt Wimmer's screenplay attempts to establish him as. A lot of people doubt his sincerity in and capacity for being morally upright and exacting grievous bodily harm against those who break his established code, and we just have to laugh.

Have you heard this guy talk about the importance of honeybees in any way? He might admire, appreciate, and respect the pollinating insects, but that droll cough of a voice and fatal stare are saying everything we need to know about Adam: Do not, under any circumstances and for whatever reason, mess with this man.

A lot of the humor, then, comes from the fact that, despite all evidence to the contrary, a lot of people continue to doubt, underestimate, and, for some reason, mess with this man. Some of them are workers at various call centers, where teams of slimy people convince elderly folks that a computer virus has infected their computers and betray their trust in order to digitally rob them of all their very real money.

A few of them are FBI agents, who wonder why this mysterious man is beating up and killing people associated with this kind of scam, and even they don't comprehend that Adam means business and his business has more to do with justice than the letter of the law. Several of them are members of private security forces, who have heard rumors of or encountered people like Adam, a retired member of a super-duper secret extra-governmental program called the Beekeepers.

They're all hunting him because one of those villainous scam offices just happened to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from the one person (played by Phylicia Rashad) who has treated him with kindness. Adam can't stomach it and, if—as he definitely does—he has anything to do about it, won't allow such a thing to happen again.

Up and up the chains of this shady enterprise and a more legitimate hierarchy of power Adam climbs in his search for revenge and justice. As with the case with Statham, the casting of those wicked people is just right, from smaller roles (A couple standouts in that category are David Witts' smarmy middle manager, whose pride leads to a pretty spectacular fall involving a pickup truck, and Taylor James' South African mercenary, whose character—according to the credits—is appropriately named Lazarus) to the more significant ones.

Josh Hutcherson plays the spoiled CEO of the company that runs the scam off-the-books, and Jeremy Irons plays the former CIA director who has been tasked with protecting the privileged young man, although he'd much rather not have to deal with a man like Adam. In the more upright category, Emmy Raver-Lampman plays the daughter of the scammers' target and the FBI agent in charge of trying to stop Adam, and Jemma Redgrave plays a character whose identity will remain a secret here. You'll see the revelation coming a mile away, of course, but the fact that Wimmer raises the stakes to such a ludicrous level is both a cackle-worthy development and further proof that the film has a sense of humor about itself.

With all of this established or waiting in the wings, the film quickly and continuously gets to business. Adam intimidates and threatens a bunch of awful people or their complicit associates with the cold gruff that is Statham's trademark. They don't listen, so he punches, kicks, and, again, punches and kicks them. At times, Adam uses whatever's at hand, such as the receiver of a phone when one of those call-center scammers keeps using it or the assorted power tools that are in the barn where he has been staying.

Yes, it's repetitious, but things keep escalating in order to distract us of that fact. Soon enough, Adam is dealing with federal agents, private mercenaries, and a whole bunch of other foes. Ayer ensures the action is cleanly staged, shot, and edited.

It's the main reason for the film's existence, after all, and one has to admire the filmmaker's pragmatic simplicity in doing precisely what needs to be done for the material to work. That pretty much sums up the philosophy of every element of The Beekeeper, and as a result, the film does work in doing precisely what it needs to do.

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