The Beekeeper caps the run of five action movies Jason Statham made between January 3rd, 2023, and January 10th, 2024. Of those, one faded instantly from memory, two earned multiple Razzie nominations, and one became the fifth-highest-grossing movie of 2023. The Beekeeper has none of those accolades. It’s comparatively decent, but generally hilarious. It’s a film that consistently threatens to turn into a groundbreaking statement piece but settles for dull characters and forgettable action set pieces.
Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper Swarms Amazon, iTunes, and VUDU
David Ayer has been on an unfortunate streak lately. The man who wrote the script for Training Day seemed to slip on his way into the blockbuster scene. His last great film, by my estimation, is Fury. That World War II epic deserves attention ten years after its release. He followed it with Suicide Squad, an unmitigated disaster that deserves its place near the bottom of the superhero movie pile. Then came Bright, which was somehow even worse. His 2020 outing, The Tax Collector, is turgid garbage, but it’s an improvement over his previous two attempts. Here, with The Beekeeper, he rockets toward the dizzying heights of mild critical acceptance. It’s a perfectly acceptable action movie with a premise worthy of a better one. Ayer’s next film will bring him back together with Statham and frequent collaborator Michael Peña. I sincerely hope The Beekeeper is a sign of a renaissance.
The Beekeeper follows Jason Statham as yet another stoic killer. Statham’s characters distinguish themselves exclusively through their hobbies. His character from The Meg does shark stuff. His Fast Saga icon drives cars. This one keeps bees, but he’s also an agent of a secret organization called the Beekeepers. His mission is vague, but when a surprisingly accurate phone phishing scheme robs his elderly friend, he launches a campaign of vengeance. This movie is mostly about how bad it is to harm old people. Statham, at one point, barrels the camera to explain why it’s worse to hurt an old person than a child. He gets close to making a decent point about America’s scam economy, but he also veers into questionable conspiracy theory territory. Either way, the film doesn’t have much to say beyond setting up targets for Statham to shoot. It feels like a waste.
There’s a version of this film that aspires to be more than lazy cable-quality action schlock. For all of the garbage he appears in, Statham can do nuance. He could have attacked the systems that created the terrible world he rallies against. It’s a film about “protecting the hive” that lands on a lazy “a few bad bees” solution. Though The Beekeeper can’t live up to its bizarre premise, it’s exciting enough to keep your attention for 105 minutes. If all you’re looking for is some bee puns in Statham’s accent and three decent action scenes, The Beekeeper is perfect for you. Here’s hoping for a Beekeeper 2 that aims a bit higher.
