MOVIE REVIEW! - 'The Beekeeper'

'The Beekeeper' (2024)

I’m taking time to visit some films that came out earlier in the year that I didn’t get to go out and review. These will probably be smaller "catch-up" reviews. The first of these catch-up reviews is “The Beekeeper” from director David Ayer.

There is a part of me that would have liked to have recommended this movie. There is good action and Jason Statham proves once again that he is a bonafide action star. The problem is the script just goes in a direction that I could not join and the second half of the movie killed the whole thing for me.

In this movie, Statham plays Adam Clay, a beekeeper that is staying in a barn owned by Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a kind old lady who manages a charity with a lot of money in it and she has money in other investments as well. One day, Eloise gets a warning on her computer telling her to call a number.

Jason Statham plays Adam Clay in 'The Beekeeper'.

When she does, it turns out to be a huge phising scam and she gets every penny taken away from her. In her despair, she kills herself and after Adam discovers what happened, he goes and destroys the building holding the hackers that took advantage of Eloise. As it turns out, though, this was only one arm of a much larger criminal enterprise.

Of course, Statham wasn’t always a beekeeper. As it turns out, there is a secret government operation where Statham was literally known as a Beekeeper, an assassin that protects “the hive”, with the hive supposedly being America. It’s the old “he was once the most deadly man around” routine. However, this part of the tried-and-true action formula isn’t what breaks the movie.

What breaks the movie is that it takes one step too far in trying to up the ante and make things more thrilling, but the movie’s big twist had me going, “Wait, what?” instead of gasping with surprise. I won’t spoil that twist, but it was when the movie lost me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love big high-concept action movies. I always have, but the films that I love can take the absurdity to the line, but not ever cross that line. For me, this movie crossed said line. Now, I will say I can see how Statham fans or fans of Ayer’s movies may enjoy this story.

Again, I didn’t completely hate the movie, but at the end of the day, I just couldn’t bring myself to recommend it and I have to say skip it.