“The Beekeeper” stars Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, and Jeremy Irons. Releasing on January 12, 2024, the film has an operative exacting revenge on the company responsible for scamming his neighbor. The film is directed by David Ayer, who also directed films such as “Street Kings,” “Fury,” “Suicide Squad,” and “The Tax Collector.” There’s nothing more frustrating and heartbreaking than getting scammed by a bunch of ingrates with nothing better to do than to make their unsuspecting victims miserable. Something like this makes you want to find the scammers responsible and pound their faces until their noses bleed. But, of course, that would get us into trouble, more so than the scammers themselves. It sucks, but that’s just the world we live in now. Fortunately, we got Jason Statham to do the job for us while tending to the bees. After having a rocky 2023 with “Meg 2” and “Expend4bles”, Statham looks to provide a fresh start for the new year with, you guessed it, another action movie. Don’t worry, though. It’s an original movie despite having the elements we’ve seen multiple times before. But is it enough to deliver popcorn entertainment, or is it another scam that deserves to be avoided like the others? Let’s find out. The story follows Adam Clay (Statham), an ordinary beekeeper. He tends to the bees while caring for his friend and neighbor, Eloise Parker (Rashad). One day, Eloise unsuspectedly falls for a phishing scam by a mysterious company, resulting in her losing everything and committing suicide. The tragedy forced Adam to reveal his true identity: a retired operative of a clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers”. The Beekeepers are secretive operators striving to enforce justice and “expose the hive” in ways no other authorities can. With his secret revealed, Adam embarks on a revenge quest to take down the phishing scam company responsible for his friend's death, leading him to confront its leader, Derek Danforth (Hutcherson). Out of the new movies this month, “The Beekeeper” is one of the two that immediately caught my interest. The other film is “The Book of Clarence,” but that’s for another time. One reason is Jason Statham, who never fails to entertain his audience (including me) regardless of the movie he’s in. He’s mainly the only reason I found “Meg 2” and “Expend4bles” tolerable despite their mediocrity. The other is its director, David Ayer, who hasn’t had a critical hit since 2014’s “Fury”. While far from a perfect filmmaker, I appreciate his approach to envisioning the grittiness and violence in his films’ crime-related themes and action. Both “End of Watch” and “Fury” are my personal favorites from Ayer, while everything else didn’t come close to matching those qualities, including “Bright”. However, the marketing for “The Beekeeper” looked like it could be an improvement over his previous three misfires regarding the action scenes. I attended an early screening of the movie last weekend, which is why and how I got this review up before it hit theaters this weekend. Don’t worry. I won’t ruin the experience for you with any spoilers. However, I can tell you that if you like Statham regardless of the film’s quality, you’ll likely find plenty to enjoy in “The Beekeeper”. Was it groundbreaking? Absolutely not. Did I enjoy watching Statham unleash hell upon the heartless scammers? Of course, I did. I would even say it’s the first “fun time at the cinema” of 2024 despite its noticeable flaws. Regarding its story, “The Beekeeper” is what I would call “John Wick” if his part-time job were tending to the bees. No bees were harmed in the making of this movie, but that hasn’t stopped Statham from stinging those who wronged the person close to him. It does offer some interesting world-building regarding the “Beekeepers” and its themes of corruption amid the justice system. However, it lacks the sweet desire to explore them further. This is mainly due to Kurt Wimmer’s screenplay, which unsurprisingly favors formulaic revenge-action tropes over combining them with a strong narrative and complex characters. Wimmer is no stranger to writing an action movie starring Statham, as he was one of the writers for last year’s “Expend4bles”. Regarding his filmography, Wimmer wasn’t the best guy to pen something like this. Fortunately for him, his script has a couple of dialogue that actually gave me a chuckle. So, at the very least, Wimmer did his job at making this straightforward action movie tolerable. I was also not the biggest fan of how rushed the ending was. I can tell they didn’t know how to conclude the characters’ arcs satisfyingly after the ride was finished. It’s like, “Boom. Ride’s over, now leave.” The movie is under two hours long, so I think they can spend an extra minute or two expanding its conclusion, but that’s just me. But of course, even with those flaws, “The Beekeeper” still aims to deliver popcorn entertainment out of its simplistic killing spree. For the most part, the film managed to accomplish this task, even if it didn’t maintain the creative and bloody spark it was going for. One of the elements that made it work for me was its cast, particularly Jason Statham as Adam Clay. It’s no surprise that Statham plays the usual ordinary guy who’s secretly a badass, but man. Does he know how to play the part well? He’s no Keanu Reeves, but Statham retains the likable charm he’s known for, along with his solid stunt work. Emmy Raver-Lampman also delivered a decent performance as the FBI agent Verona Parker, Eloise’s daughter, who’s following the trail of blood led by Clay. Josh Hutcherson went from battling haunted animatronics to running a phishing scam organization in his villainous role as Derek. The result is serviceable at best, although I am happy that Hutcherson continues to expand into more roles like this. Another element I enjoyed was the movie’s action sequences. As mentioned before, David Ayer is known for delivering grittiness and hard-hitting violence in his crime-related films. “The Beekeeper” is no different, with Ayer's stylistic vision being applied to the brutal beekeeper protecting the system from the evil forces of corruption. As expected from the marketing, Ayer delivered the brutality and thrilling action that stings as hard as a bee. The only difference between a bee and the film’s action is that one of them survives the longest after its first sting. While some close-up shots were present, the film managed to make the stunts easier to see regarding the editing, making the violence a total blast to watch without getting a massive headache. It’s not as memorable as the “John Wick” movies, but Ayer did a solid job making the action highly compelling and fun despite its dark tone. Overall, “The Beekeeper” doesn’t make the biggest buzz in the action genre, but it does provide popcorn entertainment that’s as sweet as a jar of honey. If you’re going into this film expecting it to be Jason Statham’s “John Wick” regarding the quality, there’s a good chance you’ll get scammed by what it offers. The screenplay and rushed ending aren’t enough to bypass the formulaic elements it emphasized. However, it does its job of delivering the fun violence out of its simplistic yet tolerable plot and does it reasonably well. With its serviceable cast, Ayer’s presentation, and entertaining action scenes, “The Beekeeper” kept itself from being stunned or worse…most of the time. If you’re a fan of Jason Statham and are looking for some straightforward R-rated action this winter, the film’s worth watching when it hits theaters this weekend. C+
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Home of the most friendly movie reviews on the planet.
Categories
All
Follow Me |