REVIEW: ‘The Beekeeper’ Is Nothing To Buzz About

It’s easy to know what to expect from any Jason Statham enterprise: a (hopefully) cinematic experience that’s light on plot, themes, and character—and extremely heavy on action. David Ayer’s oddly titled The Beekeeper is no exception. Yet, unlike his other uber-serious action vehicles, Statham’s newest outing is amusingly self-referential and full of over-the-top one-liners aiming to poke fun at its cheapo action premise and bee theme. But just because the film knows what it is, doesn’t make it any good.

Statham stars as a retired operative of “The Beekeepers,” a super-secret government agency akin to Mission: Impossible’s IMF—the kind of extra-judicial organization that gets the job done when nobody else can. To make matters even more unsubtle, Statham’s Adam Clay is an actual beekeeper in his public life. When his caring neighbour (Phylicia Rashad in a performance more phoned in than Statham’s) is frauded out of her life savings, he goes on a rampage to rid the world of such indecency. We know Clay means business when he delivers such pearls of wisdom as “taking from an elderly person is as bad as stealing from a child” with the straightest of faces.

Kurt Wimmer’s script is mainly the sum of analogies and references to bees, drowning the film in endless scenes where Clay notes he must “face the hornets alone” or deadly combatants label him “a busy bee” or worse yet, “Winnie-The-Pooh.” The Beekeeper latches on to a single metaphor across the runtime, with its sights set on the lowest hanging fruit with each feigned line of dialogue. The result is a film that thinks we’re laughing with it when we’re really laughing at it.

Ayer’s attempts to divert attention away from the story’s distinct lack of momentum land with a noticeable thud. It’s especially bad during the downtime between the bloodshed, where the “drama” unfolds more like a bland network show than anything deserving of the silver screen. Everything is severely over-lit and overedited to the point of exhaustion. It’s as if Ayer is too afraid to have reckless fun with the script’s bonkers premise. Many frames are so flatly composed that one would be hard-pressed to find a pulse. By the time a character says, “to bee or not to bee,” The Beekeeper’s eye-rolling number of analogies becomes more walloping and grating than any of Statham’s brutal kills.

As an action film where the protagonist is virtually impervious to bullets, The Beekeeper predictably buzzes with a distinct lack of tension. Yet, despite having an unstoppable character at their disposal, Ayer and company only manage to create one badass, memorable sequence—a tight corridor duel that pulsates with a guttural, palpable edge the rest of the film sorely lacks. It also doesn’t help that Statham’s familiar, one-note performance gives us very little to latch onto and ultimately care about when the bullets eventually fly.

The ensemble does little to lift Statham’s lifeless turn. A memeable Josh Hutcherson chews some scenery but his schtick quickly runs dry. Even the great Jeremy Irons struggles to make any of the stakes feel tangible. Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi try their best to inject flavour into their FBI agents, but there’s little the banter can do. It’s only reminiscent of the worst cop shows. The Beekeeper tries to keep things exciting by lobbing some lively assassin types into the fray, but they come off as more obnoxious than interesting.

At best, The Beekeeper is total shlock. There is very little to buzz about, with action that lacks danger and dialogue that’s more wince-inducing than any gory act of violence. It’s an action movie only in name, with the only memorable brawl likely between moviegoers vying to leave the theatre first.

The Beekeeper is available now on VOD.