The Beekeeper

The Beekeeper
Starring Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Jeremy Irons
Directed by David Ayer

There's something about revenge movies that really speak to the heart of its audience. Maybe it's due to the fact that pretty much everyone we know (including ourselves) have been wronged somehow by society, and we feel that justice isn't truly served with the overtly corrupt judicial system. We don't want to let the government take care of what happened to us, because more likely than not they'll get away with it if they have enough money or influence. The most notable group of people who get taken advantage of is the elderly, who find themselves under constant attack by phishing and data mining corporations who utilize their naivete when it comes to technology to swindle them out of their hard-earned life savings. It happens all the time, and more often than not those who are responsible are never caught - because, as "The Beekeeper" says so perfectly, the elderly are the forgotten group because they got no one who really cares for them. This is their retribution, and it comes in the form of the best action star of our generation.

Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a mild-mannered beekeeper who helps out his elderly friend Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) because she took care of him when no one else would. One day Eloise gets a notification on her computer that says if she doesn't get it fixed then she'll lose everything, so she calls the company and is unaware that it's a phishing corporation that bleeds her dry out of all of her savings, leading her desolate and despondent, and she takes her own life.

Adam and Eloise's daughter, FBI Agent Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), learn that Eloise was scammed and set out to bring them to justice, but by very different means. While Verona relies on the FBI, Adam comes out of retirement as an official Beekeeper - a group of people who can do things that the government can't. Adam learns the corporation is run by tech bro Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), who has former head of the CIA Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons) working for him, who informs the young Derek who Adam really is - an unstoppable killing machine who won't stop until he receives retribution in full. As Adam makes his way to Derek through a string of his henchmen, Verona tries to take it the legal way, which ultimately fails due to Adam's more effective - and ruthless - manner, as he gives Verona two options: work for justice, or work for the law.


The Good:
"The Beekeeper" is so inside Jason Statham's wheelhouse he might as well be the president of it, but even though he could do these films in his sleep, he doesn't sleepwalk through his performance (unlike Liam Neeson, who is pretty much a zombie when it comes to his "Taken"-style films). He puts his heart and soul into the production and, at the age of 56, proves that he's still got one deadly sting.

A film like this is only as good as its hero, but also only as good as its villain, and there's a couple standout villainous performances that really raise the bar. David Witts stars as Mickey Garnett, who's the one that talks Eloise out of her savings, and he excels as the swarmy, fish-oil selling con man who has an inflated ego that's brought down numerous pegs by Adam. His comeuppance is met with joyous applause, which can only be accomplished with a great actor at the helm - if David Witts was a terrible actor, you wouldn't care at all, but he plays the role so well you can't help but hate him.

Ditto for Josh Hutcherson, who plays a rare villain role as the main bad guy Derek Danforth, a stereotypical rich boy who thinks that he's above the law and better than everyone else. He doesn't get too many bad guy roles, and hopefully this will show Hollywood that he's more versatile than they gave him credit for, and after his return to form in last year's surprise hit "Five Nights at Freddy's" he'll hopefully get some more meatier roles like this one. You detest him, making him another character you can't wait to see get his just desserts.

"Suicide Squad" director David Ayer delivers another action-packed spectacle, this time reminiscent of the 80s action classics. There's no real need for an in-depth character study as to Adam's past or what makes him tick - it's all about vengeance and justice, and there's not much more needed than that. The action is fast-paced and often, not really giving the audience any moment to tune out. At only 105 minutes, it's a tight action film that doesn't skim on the exciting camera angles and spectacular fighting choreography.

The Bad:
Despite not needing a story necessarily, it would've been nice to get a firmer grasp on what The Beekeepers really are. Are they a mercenary group who strives to make things better, are they a shady government organization higher than the FBI or CIA? We don't really get a complete understanding as to what they do, especially when they dispatch a new Beekeeper to take care of Adam, which ends as you'd expect, and then claim they're remaining neutral in it all. What does that even mean?

Jeremy Irons is completely wasted in a thankless role as the former head of the CIA who serves as the film's exposition dump as he constantly warns Derek that he poked the sleeping bear with Adam and nothing will stop him from killing him, before trying to find a way to save him, again and again. He recycles his dialogue over and over and could've been a role given to a nobody instead of a man of Jeremy Irons' pedigree.

The side story of Eloise's daughter and her partner trying to stop Adam is also a bit thinly written, and something that wasn't really necessary for the film, apart from serving as the typical "we're the good government who does good things" against "the good guy doing good things through bad ways" struggle. It's an added conflict in that Verona is Eloise's daughter, and she should be more on Adam's side since they essentially killed her mother, but Emmy Raver-Lampman doesn't really rise to the occasion. If we didn't know through words that she was Eloise's daughter, we wouldn't know it at all - she doesn't mourn, doesn't cry, and doesn't seem to be phased at all with what happened to her. She just serves as the government agent that's always one step behind our titular hero, and who internally struggles with the thought that what he's doing might be the right thing to do after all.


The Summary:
Despite its flaws, "The Beekeeper" is a great modern throwback to the classic revenge action films loaded with intense action sequences and an emotional heart led by the unstoppable Jason Statham.


The Score: B+