Film Review: THE BEEKEEPER (directed by David Ayer)

The Beekeeper is a movie about a revenge mission that escalates to the White House. In the movie, Jason Statham plays Adam Clay, a calm guy who tends to some beehives and sells honey.

The old saying, “You wouldn’t want to mess around a beehive unless you want to get stung!” comes into mind as the story unfolds.

Trailer.

Cybercriminals and Bees?

The film goes from zero to a hundred in about 20 minutes, with some hand-waving masquerading as an intro. The action unfolds immediately when a bunch of tech bros launch a phishing scam on an old woman who lives in a remote farmhouse.

The victim, Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), commits suicide after realizing all her bank accounts have been emptied. Unfortunately for the scammers, the old lady has a connection with the beekeeper. Eloise cared for Adam Clay and offered him living space in her barn and somewhere to keep his hives.

Adam is forced to put his honey-selling business on pause and quickly unretires himself. We quickly learn he is a member of ‘Beekeepers’: one of those off-the-books super-spy government agencies you often see in these films, the kind that gets the job done when the law fails to.

Bees and cybercrime; what a weird mix!

The Usual Tough Guy

The masterminds behind the film are director David Ayer, known for his works on “Suicide Squad” and “Fury” and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer. They give our main character all the virtues required to administer revenge and make the world a better place for the elderly and innocent in society.

With an actor like Statham, it is not a roulette wheel spin; you know who will win the day and can’t wait to see how he manages to do it this time. He has the muscles and the martial arts skills for this mission. He showcases impressive gunplay and brings his signature “brief and to the point” dialogue.

On the flip side, we have the same old Jason Statham, and there is not so much new with his usual tough guy character in every movie. You notice the usual British accent in his snarl and efficiency in dodging the bullets, even in an outnumbered gunfire exchange.

His vengeful mission includes killing 50+ federal police officers and anyone who stands in his way. He aims to work his way up to the ringleader, the sleazy, spoilt son of the president who scampers to his mom’s safety when he realizes that nothing can stop the beekeeper from finishing what he started.

Hey, it’s About Bees, In Case You Forgot!

At some point, the film got its title first, and then the director decided to build it around the theme of bees. It’s a shame that the busy pollinating insects don’t get a single onscreen moment to punish the bad guys for a movie about bees.

Instead, the writing takes a different approach, featuring patches of random reminders that bees are the main agenda. From lines like “Who the fuck are you, Winnie-The-Pooh?” to “To be or not to be,” which gets “To bee” as the response, we can’t help but wonder how many more of these lines would be enough to drive the whole bee idea home.

Poor Plot and Character Building

The film tries to build some of the characters it introduces, but they still end up feeling a little flat, not unlike a template.

First, we are left in the dark about Eloise and Clay’s relationship. Secondly, Eloise has an FBI agent daughter, Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who shows up when tragedy strikes and surprisingly has no clue who Adam Clay is.

You’d also expect Verona to be as furious and focused about her mother’s untimely death as Adam is. The story takes her and buddy cop and partner Matt Wiley (Bobby Naderi) on a comedy-filled run, making it look like any other normal day at work for her. You do not feel her grief.

Ayer’s direction and the script see FBI special agents discussing pollination and an ex-CIA director talking about honey. The ending doesn’t have any particular interesting twist that makes it outstanding or even close to memorable. The 1-hour 46-minute runtime bows out just like any other vigilante action film.

In this one, Clay narrowly escapes after taking down the cyber criminals’ network and removing the bad apples that corrupt the system. Overall, the film could have done better with Jason Statham’s on-stage presence but failed to deliver anything special.

How Much More Bee Stuff Can You Take?

In summary, the film depends on its characters to breathe some life into the rather basic writing and a sequence of action scenes scattered along just to consume the runtime.

There isn’t any plot development to follow, and all the other characters are only present to get the movie going. The production team didn’t even try to add a layer of authenticity with a dreary backdrop typical in a serious action movie.

Instead, they chose a bright palette, making the scenes feel lighter than the sometimes gory action. We are not here to judge (aren’t we, though?), but if you walk away from The Beekeeper feeling unsatisfied, you might be expecting too much out of the premise.