Is the new Jason Statham action movie The Beekeeper as sweet as honey, or just a sticky mess? The reality is, it’s somewhere in between. It’s got some things going for it, but it’s really just a ridiculous, mindless action film that fans of the genre will no doubt love.
In The Beekeeper Jason Statham plays Adam Clay, a former special forces agent known simply as a Beekeeper. After he retires from being a “fixer”, Clay decides to retire to a quieter life and actually keep bees on the property of a farm and watch over the older lady who lives there. After Eloise, the owner of the property is scammed by a cyber-terrorist network, she takes his life and he brushes off his skills as an assassin to avenge her and take down the network of scammers so it doesn’t happen again.
The movie isn’t very deep. The very surface-level plot means that they can fit in more action – and let’s face it, that’s what audiences are going for. They never really explain why his unit was called Beekeepers other than repeating “he’s a beekeeper, he’s protecting the hive” over and over again throughout the movie. It’s also filled with a lot of bee and beekeeping puns that aren’t all accurate.
Despite the name and the flashy opening credits filled with images of hives and a few-minute segment of Statham keeping hives, the connection to bee hives and actual beekeeping is just as surface-level as the plot. While we do give credit to Statham for actually learning how to keep bees, the name of the secret society he belongs to seems to just be a cool and catchy name to grab attention with a few facts that were quickly googled.
Other than repetitive dialog and a waste of honey (we really hope that was just colored syrup) – the movie seems to fight for it’s own survival at times.
The Beekeeper is nothing short of mindless action and crazy antics as the movie goes on. It’s a revenge story like we’ve seen over and over again in John Wick movies and others like Nobody. But it seems to be missing something – an actual plot or believable story that will keep audiences hooked. The movie, is, however, a typical Jason Statham movie – action, people getting killed constantly with no real consequences for his actions. But, that being said, if you’re a fan of his other action movies – you’ll love this movie. Sure, it doesn’t have a strong storyline. It’s ridiculous at times. But it delivers everything you’d expect – mindless action and continuous fight scenes.
The Beekeeper is in theaters everywhere this weekend.
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About THE BEEKEEPER
In The Beekeeper, one man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after his is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers.”
Starring Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, with Phylicia Rashad and Jeremy Irons
Directed by David Ayer
(MGM)
Rated R