The Beekeeper Review: Very Angry and Extremely Lethal Jason Statham
Cast: Jason Statham, Josh Hutcherson, Jeremy Irons
Director: David Ayer
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
The Beekeeper is the 9th feature film directed by David Ayer, who distinguished himself over the years with The Night Waits, Fury, Suicide Squad, and Bright. The Beekeeper is an action film, perhaps the first chapter of a possible new film saga, and which features one of the most beloved stars of the action genre, Jason Statham, as the protagonist. In at the center of the plot is a scam against the weakest and an avenger ready to overthrow the system. The average audience of an action film starring the imposing English actor expects something specific, so predictable that there is not even the pretense of being surprised. Statham, his audience wants monolithicness: thematic, tonal, muscular, and perhaps even facial. Take all the brutal violence and military preparation of John Rambo, merge it with a revenge story with open and impetuous John Wick-style characteristics and you will have perfectly calibrated the language of The Beekeeper.
Directed by David Ayer and available in cinemas from 11 January 2024, Jason Statham’s new cinematic effort does everything it can to impress the audience in the cinema, presenting a rather simple narrative that makes use of the classic stylistic features of revenge films, imbuing it with an action that has only objective: to entertain and leave you speechless. Developing from a crystalline intent, The Beekeeper creates an experience on the big screen with dark, cruel but entertaining tones, channeling its entire potential into the purest action construction possible (which feeds on the physicality and expressiveness of a perfectly in part), to then shape its language through direction and photography derived, in some way, from contemporary and successful works of the same mold. Violence, anger, and a series of shadows with a pseudo-social attitude carry forward a story that is realized above all in its choreographic dynamism.
The Beekeeper Review: The Story Plot
The Beekeeper opens on the life of a retired old lady (played by Phylicia Rashad) who sees her savings and a series of money intended for charitable initiatives in her account inexplicably go up in smoke, after a call from a call center run by hackers and scammers. An event of this kind will push her to an extreme gesture that will not go unnoticed by her particular, silent, and solitary neighbor, Adam (Jason Statham), who seems to dedicate his existence exclusively to raising bees. Between them, there was a bond of mutual respect, and understanding the reasons behind the woman’s disappearance pushed this beekeeper to vent all his anger directly on those who lived by taking advantage of the weakness of others. Unbeknownst to the cyber scammers, Adam is a former member of a secret American government military group: The Beekeeper.
These are not simple soldiers, but real unstoppable war machines trained with the sole purpose of intervening when the “hive”, a metaphor for the current society, is not in good condition. The enormous preparation of man, fused with a fit of unstoppable anger, will be the main fuel of a narrative with explosive and impetuous tones, in which the concept of good and evil, of black and white, will be continuously put to the test by the actions on the big screen. Former agent of a super-secret organization, The Beekeepers, Adam Clay has retired and is now involved in beekeeping. Tied to his neighbor, the only form of human life he encounters, he also dedicates himself to odd jobs whenever the elderly woman needs it; she is kind to him, she adores his and her honey, and he himself reminds her that she has always been one of the dearest people to him, available and that she takes care of others as she can. But when the lady is scammed and all his savings, including the money set aside for a charity, are transferred to a company account, Adam doesn’t feel he can sit still.
He investigates and discovers that this famous company operates for the sole purpose of zeroing out the accounts of those poor victims it chooses with care: through a virus sent to their computer, a phone call to a fake support call center, and an unhealthy, terrible, form of coercion, manipulation, and cyber operations. The company has various offices and mainly targets elderly people, including Mrs. Parker who, realizing what has happened, bitten by guilt and by the clear evidence of being deceived, kills herself. Adam Clay understands and decides that only he can destroy this system, too powerful and now too popular. Society is ready to defend itself, but Adam Clay is neither an ordinary man nor a highly trained agent: he is a beekeeper, and no one has any idea what he is capable of. Adam Clay will reap countless victims and, from one piece of information to another, he will understand that the point of arrival is the body with the greatest power in the United States: the Government.
The Beekeeper Review and Analysis
Some sequences of The Beekeeper offer something more than others, present in every film of the genre and which we are now all too used to seeing. Worthy of note is the one at the petrol station between Statham’s character and another beekeeper, or rather, apparently his replacement. A crackling scene that lasts a few seconds, or rather that perhaps manages to last a minute, and which remains imprinted: The Beekeeper who replaced the inscrutable, silent, and square Adam is a classy, elegant figure, who with stiletto heels and machine guns fire relentlessly at anything that moves, and then also at anything in general, making the now former gas station a dilapidated structure made up of countless bullet holes. Her almost demonic laughter accompanies their fight, both with weapons and with what they find wherever they happen; between shocking pink, glittery clothes, and heavy makeup, The Beekeeper is so ruthless and crazy that she appears surreal, but still convincing.
It is then the only clash between equals, together with another epic bare-knuckle fight that takes place in the last part of the film. This being alone against all of the protagonists, always unbeatable, capable of knocking out trained soldiers and professional killers, and who often finds himself in ten while he is always and only one, is not functional. To add verisimilitude, which doesn’t hurt in cinema, even action cinema, now and then The Beekeeper par Excellence could at least show the signs of 2 days of massacres, cruelty, and b, and bloody murders. Leaving aside the suspension of disbelief, The Beekeeper is a film that, not so much for David Ayer, more but for action star Jason Statham focuses exclusively on action; not on the credibility or depth of the characters. What doesn’t make sense, and at times annoys, is the absence of a moral code. If it is true that someone is spared, it does not concern those who are just following orders, but those who, according to the protagonist’s liking, do not deserve to die, with killings always of an extremely brutal and violent nature.
However, there are moments and lines of dialogue that suggest that Adam is only interested in destroying those who deserve it, but in practice, this is not the case. This perhaps risks making the character lose a bit of empathy, especially for non-fans of the genre, but for those looking for fun, entertainment, and a bit of panache, The Beekeeper is the right film. Excellent Jush Hutcherson in the role of one of the worst criminals around, in line with the scene that starts it all: a conspiracy made up of very young people with designer clothes, thirsty for money, emptied of any emotion, remorse or concern, and who only want to see their bank balance increase relentlessly. A moment of great impact, unrelated to the rest of the film, but a situation from which Adam’s revenge plan starts. As inhumane and bestial in the total absence of empathy and lust for money, as dramatic towards the victim of this scam who knows no limits, and sees the helpless elderly Mrs. Parker, the face of Phylicia Rashād, driven to a single tragic solution.
Also in the cast is Jeremy Irons who, needless to say, does his best in any role. Everything is then interspersed with a series of nice interludes made up of sharp jokes between 2 detectives, respectively played by the star of The Umbrella Academy, Emmy Raver-Lampman, and the actor Bobby Naderi. In Adam’s journey as he fights against the system where everyone is guilty, between exciting ideas for the ingenuity of a man capable of infiltrating everywhere and a few strokes of luck, forgiveness is not an option. With some inattention and a certain implausibility, The Beekeeper is certainly compelling, and both the more expansive moments and the more action-packed ones manage to capture maximum attention. The Beekeeper is a product with which you can never really feel comfortable, even if most of the proceedings are predictable. This is why you certainly don’t watch it expecting big twists, along with those borderline absurd situations which, for a film like this, are certainly not a surprise.
However, the symbolism of the title and this name that returns are interesting: the “Beekeepers”, who are not just those infallible assassins, ghosts of a country and a secret special body. Because with Beekeeper we also mean The Beekeeper who is Adam, who takes care of a hive. One of the most hierarchical natural systems that exist, is a world that can collapse if you aim for the top, the Queen Bee. Here Adam reaches the Government, the President of the United States. But if all this wasn’t enough to demonstrate that the title couldn’t be more successful, bees are the basis of the ecosystem, of agriculture, of civilization, essential for the life of human beings. And just as in a beehive, everything proceeds according to plan, without flaws, for Adam too the world must go this way, eliminating corruption and crime. And it is up to him to ensure that the hive operates at its best again. Who knows if for Jason Statham it isn’t the beginning of a journey that will lead him to put things back in their place several times.
Adam Clay, therefore, is the classic assassin who has made death a specialization difficult to match, a real means created and conceived by militarist America itself, something secret and at the same time difficult to manage, a sort of human advantage over the rest of the planet. What happens, however, when an “instrument of this kind” completely loses control, continuing to follow the same working standards originally given to it but deviating from a completely personal reading of reality? The entire narrative of The Beekeeper, based on this, invents absolutely nothing, but rather, chooses to play it safe by using a series of models that will be extremely familiar and immediately impactful to lovers of the action genre. The entire fun of the film is supported by the interpretation of Jason Statham perfectly in part and capable of transmitting the profoundly negative emotions that fuel his journey, contrasted.
However, not by an iconic villain (the character built by Josh Hutcherson annoys but does not leave too much) or by an antagonist at the same level as him, but by the same system, by that tangle of hypocrisies and rules that tries in every way to stem a seemingly impossible problem, or in any case very difficult to solve. Developing from an event with current and technological references, The Beekeeper shapes its voice through extremely violent action sequences and choreographies committed to distracting us from the underlying narrative simplicity, now fueled by body-to-body clashes and blood, and subsequently by firearm and by a crisis systematically inspired and developed by a single, seemingly implacable man. To crown the narrative, the story of Verona aligns, also suffering from the recent death of her mother, offering us a further side of the question, and also attempting to reflect on a more bureaucratized approach to ongoing action, but still always multifaceted by the human and private of a woman torn about what to do.
The Beekeeper Review: The Last Words
In The Beekeeper we find a very angry and extremely lethal Jason Statham (nothing new actually). The revenge story, in this case, is fueled by the general dynamism in terms of action and violence on the screen, not to mention some excesses and exaggerations that affect the general credibility of a context that aims to amuse and entertain. The great value of this film remains firmly anchored in a handful of properly choreographed moments, in which the protagonist’s interpretation leaves you stunned in terms of cold and pure evil (much like great current and past films of the same genre), even if the overall development of events never allows us to go beyond Statham’s interpretation, with a plot that is not too in-depth in general.
The Beekeeper Review: Very Angry and Extremely Lethal Jason Statham - Filmyhype
Director: David Ayer
Date Created: 2024-01-11 19:42
3.5
Pros
- Thrilling and brutal: Action sequences are well-choreographed and Statham delivers his usual brand of bone-crunching badassery.
- Derivative of John Wick: Some critics find the action formula too familiar, lacking the originality of John Wick's world-building and mythology.
Cons
- Simple revenge story: The plot is straightforward, driven by Clint's quest for vengeance against those who wronged him.
- Lacks depth: Some critics find the plot predictable and underdeveloped, with characters lacking complexity.
