One man's brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after it's revealed he's a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as Beekeepers.
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, Jeremy Irons
Release Date: January 12, 2024
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rated R for strong violence throughout, pervasive language, some sexual references and drug use.
Runtime: 1h 45m
Review:
The Beekeeper is a lean, 80's style action film that's solely concerned with delivering mindless mayhem via a perfectly cast Jason Statham. David Ayer's film waste very little time with set up before he unleashes Statham on his rampage of revenge. The script doesn't concern itself much with too much backstory with the majority of the background of Statham's character being relayed via exposition dumps provided by a rather game Jeremy Irons. Statham is perfectly in his element with the film asking him to maintain a steely determined gaze while he plows through an endless barrage of adversaries while never breaking a sweat. Its all rather ridiculous but undeniably entertaining at the same time. What makes it work as well as it does is the fact that Ayer and his cast know exactly what kind of film they are making and they go all in with rather impressive gusto. The supporting cast is populated with a handful of familiar faces such Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad and Jeremy Irons with the latter getting the most substantial role. Josh Hutcherson gets the role of the main villain, a pampered trust fund tech baby, and he's clearly relishing the chance to play against type as he chews up scenery every time his character gets on screen. Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi have a fun buddy cop chemistry going as FBI agents on Statham's tail. These performance all come together to make The Beekeeper the kind of film that doesn't ask much of you but to sit back and enjoy.
B
