Jonah Naplan   January 14, 2024

It could bee much worse. For what it is, “The Beekeeper” is close to perfect—a schlocky, masculine, dumb ol’ time at the movies (a “bee” movie, if you will)—with an intriguing performance at its center: Jason Statham, a man who always brings 110% to whatever project he’s starring in. That you may find yourself regarding the movie as nothing more than that description is just fine, and the film itself seems to agree. Unlike other cinematic vehicles that take themselves way too seriously—including “Night Swim” from literally last weekend, to provide a recent example—“The Beekeeper” knows exactly what kind of movie it is and doesn’t try to be anything more, which is a blessing from the heavens. The actors are all in on the gag too, which makes their performances all the more affecting, and way more memorable than they probably needed to be for this type of picture. The action itself is certainly nothing new, and constantly resorts to whatever you’d call that particular brand of shoot-‘em-up brawn where armies of human beings are given less value than one might apply to packing peanuts, but in the end, the film gives us what we want. Bee happy.

Statham plays Adam Clay, who is basically Jason Bourne, John Wick, and Robert McCall rolled into one. Clay is a beekeeper residing in the Massachusetts countryside, and rents out space in the secluded farmhouse of his only friend named Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), where he raises bees and sells their honey. When Mrs. Parker, an older woman who’s not great with technology, falls subject to a sadistic data mining company that drains out both her personal bank account and that of a nonprofit organization she helped to found—one that has amassed over $2 million in benefits—the situation escalates to tragedy, obligating Clay, who is NOT a typical beekeeper, to harness the set of special skills he acquired from his time in the military, and kill his way to the top of the crime organization that compromises the lives of those most technologically vulnerable in our society, including the one woman who ever took care of him.

Directed by David Ayer (“Fury,” “Suicide Squad”) and written by Kurt Wimmer, “The Beekeeper” emits brutal punishment to those who smugly manipulate exposed souls wandering through the depths of the online universe, by dispatching its protagonist to their various hideouts, beginning with a local call center. Once Clay burns it all down, the operation’s various faces of authority begin to take notice of this mysterious but dangerous man with seemingly no fingerprint or legal records; Garnett (David Witts), who personally scammed Eloise, is the first to realize this threat, soon followed by the company’s vice president Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), the petulant son of the U.S. president (Jemma Redgrave), whose own boss, former CIA director Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons), slowly develops his own fear of the deadly man-weapon soon after. Also tracking Clay’s trail is Eloise’s daughter Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman) and her partner Matt Wiley (Bobby Naderi), a crucial dynamic that probably sounded a lot funnier on paper, but doesn’t land as well on-screen.

Everyone in the cast knows exactly what kind of movie they’re acting in, which is all the better for the tone of the piece that thankfully never shifts from its goofy premise or tries to overexplain or add unnecessary backstory to whatever’s going on. Hutcherson in particular seems to be giving it everything he’s got, leaning all into the sleaziness of his grimy character that may give any teenage girls currently thirsting over his portrayal of Peeta in “The Hunger Games” an unexpected second thought. But the real spotlight here is never detained from Statham, who’s working with the absolute height of his mean charm to entertain. Having long been a fan of his work and indomitable screen presence, I’m always disappointed when one of his action vehicles fails to highlight his talent or act like it’s even of value. Especially amidst his most recent projects—“Meg 2: The Trench,” “Expend4bles”—that fail to prove why he’s a force to be reckoned with, “The Beekeeper” is finally a movie that takes everything we love to see him do on-screen, and uses them as pointillistic archetypes in what is certainly one of his most retrograde, straightforward, and traditional blockbusters; one that very clearly outlines the protagonist, antagonists, and the boundaries and limits of their chase.

Of course, that makes it automatically vulnerable to criticisms of originality, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that “The Beekeeper” draws upon the concepts of so many action films of the last decade—theatrical, straight to DVD, and even Statham’s own. Early on, the movie seems to be another reflection of the famed “unlikely guy’s got skills” plotline, but it’s undercut by a relevant message about the ways in which modern-day evildoers can take advantage of those who may not be that street smart in today’s world, which will make you think about some of the elderly people in your own life who could theoretically fall into a similar trap. Now, I riddle you this: how many action movies of this caliber have got a moral to them, too?

“The Beekeeper” does get a little bit tired after a while when it becomes apparent that Statham cannot be stopped by any kind of army and his body doesn’t adhere to the properties of a normal human being, ultimately deracinating any sort of stakes or tension about what will happen to his indestructible character. Statham punches and shoots his way through walls of bullets and knives and other weaponry, and emerges on the other end with maybe a couple scratches on his blazer; the only time the action seems to be of any consequence is an excellent hand-to-hand fight scene in a hallway of glass that pits Clay against a burly mercenary played by Taylor James, who seems to finally be an adversary of comparable skill. But other than that, there’s really no intrigue to be had with any of the action, when you really sit down and think about it, which, in turn, defeats the entire purpose of the movie anyway that otherwise works pretty well as long as you’re willing to turn your brain off for 105 minutes, no waiver required.

If you’ve surrendered yourself to the incompetent logic of these Statham outings long ago, you’ll have a good time with “The Beekeeper,” a movie that will not win over anyone who already didn’t like this kind of low-brow entertainment. In the film, Clay is asked the simple question: “To bee or not to bee?”—whichever one you choose won’t have long-term effects, but you might thank me later for a fun afternoon at the movies.

Now playing in theaters.