Jason Statham is no stranger to action movies these days. He’s one of the de facto go-to action movie heroes of the current generation, so much so that he’s typecast into essentially the same type of role in every movie. Does that change with The Beekeeper? While the answer is no, The Beekeeper does have some merits of its own. Read on to find out.

Protect The Hive

Jason Statham stars as Clay in director David Ayer’s THE BEEKEEPER.
An Amazon MGM Studios film
Photo Credit: Daniel Smith
© 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

To describe The Beekeeper in the simplest terms possible or one simple sentence; it’s just another action movie in the style of John Wick and The Equalizer. It follows the same formula; featuring a retired elite agent/assassin who is suddenly thrust out of retirement due to “circumstances” and the movie that follows shows how badass this person is at killing anyone who stands in his way. Oh, and of course, the protagonist comes from a super hush-hush top-secret off-the-books organization. That’s pretty much all there is to The Beekeeper but director David Ayer does manage to spice things up and distinguish The Beekeeper from John Wick by featuring a rather surprising plot twist in the third act of the movie. That being said, the rest of the movie is still formulaic.

The movie is almost two hours long (at 1 hour 45 minutes) and it does drag a bit considering how predictable it is. The movie only grabbed my attention during the action scenes and after that aforementioned plot twist is revealed. If you’re planning to watch The Beekeeper for the action, you won’t be disappointed since the action feels thrilling enough and ‘intensely crunchy’ for lack of a better word. It’s still not on the level of John Wick, though. The movie lags the most when the scenes focus on the typical FBI/cops (the main one in this movie is played by Emmy Raver-Lampman) running after the protagonist and trying to investigate. It’s the same boring stuff; they’re always one step behind the protagonist and the movie’s pacing suffers as a result.

In addition, I expected the villains to be more exciting, considering that they’re played by Josh Hutcherson and Sir Jeremy Irons, but they were disappointing with their by-the-numbers performances. The script is also corny with bee puns trying to justify the bee theme they have going on. It will sometimes feel unintentionally funny even though the actors’ performances seem to be taking everything more seriously than they should. The movie would have been better if the script had more of a self-aware tone.

Josh Hutcherson stars as Derek Danforth in director David Ayer’s THE BEEKEEPER.
An Amazon MGM Studios film
Photo Credit: Daniel Smith
© 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Honey Honey

(L to R) Emmy Raver-Lampman as Agent Verona Parker and Bobby Naderi as Agent Matt Wiley in director David Ayer’s THE BEEKEEPER.
An Amazon MGM Studios film
Photo Credit: Daniel Smith
© 2024 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. All Rights Reserved.

So, yeah, there’s nothing much else to this movie besides Jason Statham kicking ass. If that sounds entertaining to you, then this movie is for you. There’s nothing wrong with some mindless action sometimes.

FINAL SCORE: 50/100

We attended an early screener of The Beekeeper courtesy of Encore Films Malaysia. The Beekeeper is slated to premiere in Malaysian cinemas on 18 January 2024.