'The Beekeeper' Is As Buzzingly Stupid-Fun as You Want It to Be(e)

By Seth Freilich | Film | January 16, 2024 |

By Seth Freilich | Film | January 16, 2024 |

If you’ve seen the trailer for The Beekeper you know exactly what this movie is and it’s exactly what you hope it is. If you haven’t, let me sum up the film and its trailer thusly: Jason Statham goes full Jason-Bourne-meets-John-Wick as a beekeeper out for revenge. That’s it, that’s the movie. Yes, it’s exactly as stupid as it sounds, but that’s what makes it the perfect “I want an under-two-hour dumb but fun flick.”

Is there a point in spending a paragraph giving you a high-level overview of the setup, the various characters, their relationships, etc.? I mean, not really. Similar to The Transporter or throw-a-dart-at-a-list-of-most-Statham-movies, Statham is a highly-trained, lone wolf assassin who lives by his own code and metes out a cocktail of retribution and revenge when pushed. Here, since he’s a beekeeper, that push comes in the form of someone disrupting the hive. Do I mean that literally or figuratively? Yes.

While this makes The Beekkeeper sound rote and formulaic … well, also yes. But it’s a good formula executed well. For example, the bad guys here are a mocking take on tech/crypto bros, played with perfect hateability by Josh Hutcherson (Peeta in The Hunger Games) and David Witts (Eastenders). The impetus for Statham’s Beekeeper to go all Wickian Baba Yaga is financial fraud being committed against the elderly. That’s somehow both touchingly real and stupidly funny. It’s also smart because it’s an easy way to get the audience to want to see these guys get their comeuppance without murdering a perfectly lovely puppy. So when a conversation like this happens:

Tech Bro: I’ve got NFTs.
The Beekeeper: I bet you don’t have estate planning.
Tech Bro: I’m twenty-eight, why would I need that?
The Beekeeper: I’m about to show you.

…you cheer with anticipation and delight.

In addition to Hutcherson and Witts, Jeremy Irons shows up in a role you’d fairly expect to be full of 2000 Dungeons & Dragons energy. But The Beekeeper tries to defy expectations here, instead having him give a surprisingly muted performance. This is probably tied to the same reason that Phylicia Rashad, Jemma Redgrave, and Minnie Driver* are given little to do (though they do it well). Because this is not their movie; The Beekeeper is Statham’s movie because it is a Statham movie.**

*I honestly forgot that Driver was even in this until I was reviewing the IMDb page in putting this review together, and, honestly, one should never forget about Driver. So my bad on that one, Minnie. Don’t hold it against me.

**In fact, the only other character/actor given anything remotely resembling a story arc and meaningful characterization is Emmy Raver-Lampan (The Umbrella Academy), who is solid as a cop trying to figure out whether The Beekeeper is a friend or foe.

As such, this movie needs to do a few things well to fulfill the promise of its trailer. First and foremost, Statham needs to Statham. There are three top-tier Statham modes — serious fighter with his own code (The Transporter), snarky fighter with his own code (The Fast movies and, with satirical perfection, Spy), and absolutely bat shit whatever (Crank). Here, he’s mostly in serious mode, which works for two reasons. First, while Statham amazingly does not look twenty-five years removed from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, this movie lets him wear his age. He doesn’t feel old or tired, but he does carry a weariness that has The Beekeeper doing what he’s doing more because he has to than because he wants to. Sure, there are moments that he appears to enjoy when he’s back in it but, much like Mr. Wick, he doesn’t want this. And that character element works as a nice change of pace from a lot of the Statham performances we’ve had of late.

The other reason this Statham mode works is because it allows the film itself to carry the load of being fun. The Beekeeper isn’t a comedy, but it does have a winking sense of humor. If Statham was in his funny mode, that might actually serve to undercut what works here about the film, which is that it takes itself very seriously but just under the line of too seriously. That’s a credit to writer Kurt Wimmer and director David Ayer for being comfortable that audiences will laugh with the movie rather than at it. And they were right to trust the audience. When Irons delivers this absolute gem of a line — “If a beekeeper says you’re gonna die … you’re gonna die” — because he plays it low-key and straight, he and the film allow the audience to find the humor with this preposterous line, and it wasn’t the only time I heard a few people clapping with glee.

Fun is great and all, but because The Beekeeper is an action film, the question is whether the action itself holds up, and it does. Taken as a whole, there is not much particularly ground-breaking here. But we know Statham can fight the good fight, and Ayer offers a few solid action pieces, including a spectacular gas station showdown and not one but two tech bro call centers. All the fights are shot and paced well, and one scene includes a bit of action that led to this note I took: “Holy shit, he just used an elevator as a weapon!”

If that doesn’t have you on board with this movie, it may not be the movie for you. Because all of this boils down to one simple statement - The Beekeeper knows exactly what it is. It’s the movie the trailer promised, i.e., it’s fun and it’s stupid and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Buzz buzz.