When looking for a new movie to watch, I ran across The Beekeeper. Starring Jason Statham, this one seemed to zip in and out of theaters. From what I could tell, it looked like one of his typical action pics, and while those usually seem to be some mindless fun, I figured I’d check it out. But, would it just be another in his long line of decent yet forgettable action flicks, or would there be something that would make this one stand out.
Statham, as usual, leads the cast in The Beekeeper, and by this point, he probably could do this type of film in his sleep. Unlike his other roles though, he is much more serious here, as he kicks and punches his way through the obstacles in his way. Gone is the simple comedy and the quirky grin from films like The Expendables or Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. He’s a focused man on a mission, and there’s no time for levity.
The rest of the cast is an eclectic mix. Josh Hutcherson (who seems to be on a resurgence tour lately, with his roles in this and Five Nights at Freddy’s) does a pretty good job as a bad guy, playing a rich kid with no morals and a huge ego. Jeremy Irons is subdued as an ex-CIA head in charging of making Josh’s problems disappear, while Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi are pretty good as FBI partners on the case. Even Phylicia Rashad (of The Cosby Show (TV)) puts in an endearing performance that kicks everything off.
The Beekeeper is set up as a revenge pic. Statham’s character is friendly with a woman whose money is stolen from here, leaving her penniless and desolate, and he sets out to hunt down the company responsible for robbing her blind. Turns out, he’s a retired member of an autonomous super secret government program called Beekeepers that is responsible for course correcting the United States when it starts to go astray. While this seems fantastical at first, while the movie progresses, the idea that such a program might exist seems more and more plausible. After all, with people believing things like the Illuminati and other shadowy cabals really controlling the government, is it such a stretch to think that there may be a government program with no oversight that’s designed to stay the course? Not at all.
With that idea kicking things off, the viewer is more likely to forgive some obvious errors in The Beekeeper – like how the daughter of someone affected by these criminals would be given basically free reign to how she wants to run the investigation, with her partner doing nothing more than token protesting when she throws the two of them into some rather precarious positions. Things like that abound throughout the film, and viewers – who have come to expect things like this in action movies – will probably barely even contemplate these errors.
With a motive that viewers can get behind, it really makes the fight scenes in The Beekeeper that much more entertaining. Watching Statham quickly take down his opponents in larger and larger groups is exciting, and there are some tricks that are thrown in to make them vary from situation to situation, but it just doesn’t seem to have the same appeal as watching the sequences in some other films. That’s not really a knock on the fight sequences, but rather with the way the film is directed.
With Statham’s usual witty banter muted, and the motivation seeming to be lighter than usual (this isn’t his family – it’s a woman who was nice to him), The Beekeeper is a solid mid-range action pic. While the cast contains some nice surprises, the film itself doesn’t. It’s a basic fight-to-the-top revenge pic, and the viewer can almost hear the “level complete” from numerous video games after each different obstacle is overcome. Under another director, it might have the potential to be a bit more, but David Ayer who’s known for making middling pics, it’s just okay.
While The Beekeeper may be a feather in the cap for a re-emerging Josh Hutcherson, it’s just another in a long line of decent-but-not-spectacular action flicks from Jason Statham. And that’s ok. Just go in wanting to see Statham kicking some butt, grab some popcorn, and enjoy. Will you remember it much after it’s over? Probably not, but at least it was good while it lasted.
