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The Beekeeper - Review

Writer's picture: JamieJamie

Nothing solves the world’s problems quite like a vapid Jason Statham action film that ramps up the stakes like a ten year old boy is writing the script. The Beekeeper comes to us from 2016’s Suicide Squad director David Ayer. He is staying in his lane for this film, with an all out action flick, with all the over the top villany, evil corporations, government involvement and vital gratuitous violence. The concept for the film is a John Wick-esque plot, with Statham being a retired spy / hitman that is forced back into the game for a personal vendetta. He must use any force necessary to avenge the injustice in the world, even if that comes at a cost to angering the ones that are trying to do good. 


The plot is nonsense anyway, but here’s the lowdown. Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a beekeeper, with a hardworking five hives to his name, producing honey to seemingly store it in a barn, and give one jar away to Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) who he rents a barn from, in order to make the honey. When he goes to the house, he finds her dead, after being scammed for all her money from a company that looks like it was plucked out of The Wolf of Wall Street. We watch a sequence of this scam call going down, in the least effective way possible, a team of twenty people work on one woman’s account, while a braggadocious man with a microphone quips to the room, and plays up the scam call sympathy card with Eloise on the phone. Once Adam works this out, he takes two jerry cans of fuel to the offices where the scam operation is located and sets it alight. This sequence gives us a taste for the first bit of action in the film, with Adam effortlessly beating everyone around him up, in order to get what he wants.

With this revenge mission accomplished, Adam finds out more and more about the organisation and how far up the corruption goes, leading him on a gun shooting, throat stabbing and finger amputation mission to rid the world of this injustice. 

This story is played in tandem with an investigation from the FBI into the same lead, all while tracking Adam and his violent tendencies as he goes, making a little bit of an enemy of the Bureau. 



Jason Statham is inexplicably given an American accent for this film, which he mostly forgets about, defaulting to his well known cockney drawl. His accent work is so abysmal that they added a line about how he sounds like he is from the “British Isles”. Even so, we’re not there to listen to his voice, and he does a good job for the most part, kicking and beating his way through the crowds of adversaries like its second nature. The action is well choreographed and interesting for each fight sequence. It is coupled with really slick cinematography in those sections too, giving it a modern action movie sheen, reminiscent of Mission Impossible or John Wick. 

The other cast in the film leave a lot to be desired, with only Josh Hutchinson in the main villain role bringing anything of interest. He is comedic in his characterisation without being whacky. I think the rest of the cast are pretty dull, meaning that whenever we step away from the action, we’re left with some pretty boring sequences of talking and strategising. I would have hoped for a bit more of a well rounded cast here, giving you more to care about, or anything to care about really. The story is a mostly fun watch but has absolutely nothing riding on it. Statham gets his revenge within the first thirty minutes and we then watch him kill his way to the top for a seemingly altruistic motivation that seems out of nowhere and nonsensical.  



The camera work is only really notable in the action scenes, making some strange stylistic choices in the moments in between. While the film takes itself seriously for the most part, there is an understanding of what they are making, however, the camera work is laughable at times, crash zooming in on characters like an episode of the office. 

The music is paint by numbers here, action scenes are quick paced and we get lulling music around that. Nothing too notable from my perspective.


The film relies on its action to sell the story, and it just barely scrapes by doing that. I think it falls down the most in that department, making it seem like the action was choreographed and shot first, for a story to be wedged in around it as an afterthought. 

Even with the negatives, I have built up a trusting relationship with Jason Statham that he not going to let me down when it comes to entertainment, never appearing for anything remotely believable or emotionally taxing. I can sit down, switch off and forget. The Beekeeper sits right in that mind numbing world distractor for me, and for that I’m grateful. 

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