Bullet Points: The Beekeeper
Action fanatics have been buzzing about The Beekeeper since the trailer dropped late last year. And for good reason… the trailer featured revenge filled action and the man dishing it out, one of the last of dying breed of action heroes, Jason Statham!
Expect the buzz for The Beekeeper to get even louder as more action fanatics check out a movie that sets the bar high for all other 2024 action movies…
- The Premise: Jason Statham plays Adam Clay, a former operative for the clandestine Beekeepers, a powerful organization that works outside the law to reset the balance between right and wrong. Now retired, Clay spends his time doing actual beekeeping. Clay is leasing the barn on the property of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad, Jean-Claude Van Johnson) in rural Massachusetts where he jars and stores his honey. The widow Eloise has formed a friendship with Clay, so when Eloise becomes the target of some cybercriminals who hack into her laptop and wipe her out financially, Adam Clay takes it extremely personally.
- Instant Gratification: Once Clay gets to work (and trust me, the movie doesn’t make you wait too long) the action kicks in and it just continues to snowball for the duration of the movie… First Clay finds the call center where the call that destroyed Eloise’s life came form, he says he’s going to burn it to the ground AND he burns it to the ground… This does not come without retaliation and a “wrecking crew” tracks Clay down at Eloise’s property and the carnage continues… From there, Clay gets to have a not so pleasant phone call with the rotten apple/trust fund twenty-something that set up the call centers that are scamming the elderly out of their hard earned cash, Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson, Red Dawn), who we find out is connected to people in high places, including being protected by the former Director of the CIA, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons, Die Hard With a Vengeance). Irons is absolutely incredible as Wallace… especially when he finds out that a Beekeeper is after Derek . The nervous energy radiates off the screen as he calls in all his favors in hopes of keeping the fuck up that is Derek alive. From getting the current minigun shooting Beekeeper to go after the man she replaced and assembling a group of former SEAL Team Six and the Delta Force members to take Clay out before Clay can finish what he started.
- Didn’t See That Coming: I mentioned The Beekeeper trailer at the start of this review and it definitely got me hyped… but there was also part of me that worried that like many trailers, it gave the whole movie away…. However there were little details the trailer didn’t spoil (but I am about to) like the fact that one of the FBI Agents that are investigating Clay’s path of destruction is Eloise’s own daughter, Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman, Blacklight), which puts her in an interesting spot as she finds herself hunting down the man who is hunting down those responsible for her mother’s demise. But the big twist (which I will not spoil) comes in the third act and it was done exceptionally well… it had my mind racing with the possibilities of what was to come in the big action finale.
The Beekeeper is quite simply one of the best action movies released in the last twenty years. It is a movie that would have fit right in during the golden era of action movies in the 80s and 90s. The Adam Clay character was Statham at his best. Then there’s the supporting cast… I mentioned Emmy Raver-Lampman and her character’s internal conflict, I mentioned the off the charts performance from Jeremy Irons, but I also need to make note of Josh Hutcherson’ who’s Derek is so smarmy and slimy and unlikeable… a definite case of a villain having zero redeeming qualities and one that you can’t wait to see get his much needed comeuppance.
And last but certainly not least… the action! There’s brutal hand to hand combat, there’s deadly traps being set, there’s explosions galore! The action in The Beekeeper is absolutely glorious and I can’t recommend enough that my fellow action fanatics check this one out at the theater, it was well worth the price of admission.
These Bonus Bullet Points are worth the price of admission too…
- Familiar Face: Minnie Driver of Grosse Pointe Blank and Good Will Hunting fame played the current CIA Director Janet Harward, who is the first person Wallace reaches out to, to help him with his Beekeeper problem.
- Directed By: David Ayer of Fury and Suicide Squad fame was in the director’s chair for The Beekeeper.
- Missed Opportunity: The Beekeeper does not feature the Mariah Carey classic, “Honey”.
