The Beekeeper Review

Jason Statham has been a reliable action star for a long time and gained a devoted fanbase. The Beekeeper sees the Englishman in a story involving revenge, phishing scams, and a wider government conspiracy.

Adam Clay (Statham) is a beekeeper and former government agent who rents a barn from Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a retired educator. The pair form a friendship, but Eloise falls victim to a phishing scam and her bank accounts are cleared. After Mrs. Parker kills herself, Clay goes on a mission of vengeance to find the man responsible for the scam.

Statham has appeared in many entertaining films, from Guy Ritchie’s early gangster films to fun action fare like Killer Elite and Safe to franchises like Fast & Furious and The Expendables. He’s a performer with charisma, martial arts skills, and a good sense of humour. However, Statham had a rough 2023 because of the releases of Meg 2: The Trench and Expend4bles. With The Beekeeper, Statham teamed up with David Ayer and Kurt Wimmer, a pair with dubious filmographies.

Ayer has made some solid films like End of Watch and Fury and he’s someone who generally makes gritty thrillers. However, his career has nosedived after Suicide Squad which his follow-up films, Bright and The Tax Collector were racked over the coals by critics. Wimmer’s only film of note was Equilibrium which has earned a cult following, but his work has generally been poorly received by critics. What they created was a silly film that was incredibly po-faced. The Beekeeper was a film about a phishing scheme that ended up being linked to a major corporation and the US government.

The Beekeeper was aiming to be like Taken and John Wick with a bit of the Bourne films thrown in. Taken and John Wick were about former special operatives who go on a vengeance mission against criminal organisations, while the Bourne films were about former agents who needed to fight against their former agencies. The John Wick series has improved the action genre which had incredible action sequences and a level of self-awareness. However, The Beekeeper was more like Taken due to the grounded and gritty look and Clay being a no-nonsense badass. The serious tone and functional, unremarkable action sequences made The Beekeeper more like a straight-to-DVD film.

Wimmer has a reputation for liking his invincible heroes. The protagonists in Equilibrium, Ultraviolet, and Total Recall were unstoppable forces that no one can challenge. Clay was like that: he could take on goons, mercenaries, and SWAT teams with ease. Jeremy Irons’ character even told a group of ex-special forces that they were pussies compared to Cray. The villains even sent another Beekeeper to find and kill Cray and Cray was able to defeat them with ease. It was nothing compared to the John Wick films where the titular character had the crap beaten out of him. The only challenge came was in the third act where Clay had to infiltrate a highly secure building. Clay needed to be stealthy and disguise himself which resulted in this part of the film feeling like a Hitman game.

The Beekeeper wanted to be a serious, straight film. A lot of weight is placed on Rashad as her character gets swindled out of her life savings and shows the horrific consequences. Actors like Statham and Irons gave straight serious performances. However, it was hard to take Clay seriously when he was constantly talking about protecting the hive and using lots of bee metaphors. The story is farfetched since it goes from a money-making scheme to a deep-state conspiracy. The script had to do a lot of explaining to justify its plot. The villain’s scheme was a mix of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Q-Anon conspiracy theories.

The outlandish nature of the film extended to the villains. They were cartoonishly evil.  The characters of Mickey Garnett (David Witts) and Rico Anazalone (Enzo Cilenti) were made out to be people who relished taking money from the most vulnerable in society whilst trying to do their Jordan Belfort impressions. The call centres looked more like nightclubs instead of places of business. They were dark places with neon lighting and giant screens on the wall.

The main villain of the film was Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) and he was a cross between Logan Paul, Mark Zuckerberg, and every negative stereotype you can think of about millennials and Gen-Z. He was into obnoxious, cocky tech bro who was entitled and bratty. Derek felt like a character that Shia LaBeouf could have played and considering he had worked with Ayer in the past it wouldn’t be surprising if he was considered for the role.

The Beekeeper was the latest addition to an odd trend: American set films being made in the UK. Films like Morbius, Love Again, and The Flash were notable because of their poor location doubling and hiring British and Irish actors in supporting roles. It was noticeable that the film’s climax was filmed in the UK since it was filmed at Tyringham Hall, a stately home in Buckinghamshire. There were a lot of British actors, like Irons as the character actor who offered gravitas, Minnie Driver played the director of the CIA, Eastenders alumni David Witts and Don Gilet appeared, and Jemma Redgrave, best known as Kate Stewart in Doctor Who had a major role.

The Beekeeper is a film for Statham’s completists only. It’s a minor entry in his filmography due to the one-sided nature of the action, and the best thing that can be deemed from the film is mockery.