Movie review: ‘The Beekeeper’

FloridaGator80

I’m no fan of “superhero” flicks and so I don’t make it to the theater very often these days because it just feels like no other kind of film is being released. Drama might not be dead, but its ventilator needs its plug put back in the socket. Given that note, “The Beekeeper” is a movie released in theaters and it’s not bad and had good dramatic potential, but it is an example of why you should wait for a film to stream. “The Beekeeper” has great action and Jason Statham is solid, but you’ll find that overall it is just a vast disappointment as the credits roll. Still, I’m gonna tell you to watch it because it isn’t that bad.

‘The Beekeeper’
(2024; 105 minutes; rated R; directed by David Ayer and starring Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi)

‘THE BEEKEEPER’ WASTES A TON OF CREATIVITY

Many of today’s films as of early 2025 lack the basics in drama and character development. Well, “The Beekeeper” had a chance to excel in drama as well as action because of a creative plot and a couple of chances the director took that work out, but the film ultimately falls flat because filmmakers today apparently don’t believe action and drama can be paired successfully.

In “The Beekeeper,” you get a creative plot: A woman takes her own life after being scammed out of all of her own money as well as a couple of million dollars she managed for a charity organization. Oh, a bad thing for the computer scammers (very, very bad; yes, very, very, very bad): The man who lives in her barn and keeps bees … also happens to be a retired assassin from a top-secret U.S. team called the “Beekeepers” with a mission to keep America safe. And the trigger for her death triggers the scammers’ worst nightmare.

Of course, our boy goes on a one-man rampage all the way down to cutting off a variety of fingers and the entire FBI and anti-terror squads can’t keep him at bay (nor can a psycho killer with a mini-gun in her vehicle!). All of this plays out well with the single exception that what should be the meat of the film is treated as a fast-food pickup.

Where the man, Jason Statham as “Adam Clay” and the woman, Felicia Rashad as “Elouise Parker,” had a chance for several excellent scenes, you don’t get one. It’s interesting how what could have been some movies’ climactic scene of destruction is served up first and just the beginning and not the end for “The Beekeeper.” It was a bold move and just promised that you’d see more of the same.

Further, the other interplays from among the FBI agents and assorted other governmental minions and the neatly done storyline that links computer phishing scammers to the president of the U.S. and a hinted-at dark relationship between the president and her son, just fall by the wayside in favor of brash ass-kickings by Statham of anyone who gets in his way.

Along the very violent road to the the climax at the president’s oceanfront compound, you get Statham dispatching a call center scumbag in a way that is very satisfying to the audience; a wild-looking CIA killer who is almost the match for him, but she comes up short; and an assortment of folks who wish Statham had stuck to keeping bees.

Here’s a look at the top of the cast …

  • Statham stays very busy once the film gets going. At first, he’s the stoic beekeeper just going about his business … but soon he’s on the vengeance trail and the business of violence is booming. Statham was the perfect choice to be “Adam Clay” and while his acting could be a little better if he more easily changed emotional gears at times, his physical work is impressive. The lantern-jawed Statham just oozes “here I come” to everyone involved and it’s a good effort from him. I liked him in the reboot of “The Italian Job” as well as “Spy” (click here to read my review) and Statham is probably best known for “The Transporter” franchise and has been in “Snatch,” “Crank” and “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.” What he needs to forget in his career is that he was part of the mess of a so-called shark movie titled “The Meg” (click here to read my review) and its equally pathetic sequel.
  • Emmy Raver-Lampman plays FBI Agent “Verona Parker” and she’s both the focal-point fed as well as the daughter of the scammed woman who took her own life. Raver-Lampman does a commendable job as she shoulders all of the film that doesn’t rest in the violence of Statham. Yet, while I cannot cite another actor to do better in the role, I’d say someone else might have been better suited. Her best work is with the quick interactions with Statham that totaled up better than other actors’ work among themselves. Raver-Lampman has a thin resume of 19 acting credits since the first in 2016 and she’s done films and voices, including 29 episodes of the animated series “Central Park.” The movies include “Gatlopp” and “Blacklight.”
  • Bobby Naderi plays FBI Agent “Matt Wiley” and plays second-fiddle to Raver-Lampman. He gets good screen time and acquits himself well as a sidekick, but something’s just a little off – and I’d say it’s a combination of a weakness in the screenplay and him just not being up to snuff for this one. Naderi grows into the role, but never excels. He’s been in films such as “Argo” and “I Blame Society” as well as tee-vee shows including “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Motive.”
  • Josh Hutcherson plays “Derek Danforth” and he’s the coke-sniffing nasty boy running his family’s business because … well, you’ll find that out. It is his life that Statham ultimately wants to take and he has the wealth and power to stage a good defense. Hutcherson does a somewhat solid job, but, like so many in this one, he’s not really given the chance to expand his character. He has the best chance in several scenes, but doesn’t manage to take it to the next level. Hutcherson is most recognizable as “Peeta Mellark” in “The Hunger Games” franchise. He’s also been in the reboot of “Red Dawn” and “The Kids Are All Right.”
  • An Oscar winner and Golden Globe winner and three-time nominee (not for this one), Jeremy Irons plays “Wallace Westwyld” and he’s the former CIA director who is now riding a cold and calculated herd on the Danforth family fortune. Irons does a good job of conveying the cold menace and general malice that is his life. Irons is the best actor in the cast and he won his Oscar and Globe for “Reversal of Fortune.” He was nominated for Globes for the TV series “The Borgias,” the tee-vee movie “Georgia O’Keefe,” the mini-series “Elizabeth I” and “The Mission.” Irons is also a three-time winner of Primetime Emmys and twice a nominee.
  • A six-time Primetime Emmy nominee, Phylicia Rashad plays “Eloise Parker” and is the decent, well-meaning woman who gets scammed by Hutcherson’s minions. I’d say taking her own life was a rather quick emotion given the circumstance, but it’s good that her emotion wasn’t more drawn out in the film. Rashad, who is best remembered from the iconic “The Cosby Show,” does a good job with a small role. She earned two of her nominations for “The Cosby Show” and three for “This is Us.” Rashad has also been in “Creed” and took a cruise on the ninth season of “The Love Boat” (click here to read my look at the kitschy series).
  • Megan Le plays “Anisette Landress” and she’s a rookie “Beekeeper” and pops up wonderfully wild to try to take out Statham at convenience store’s gas pumps. In addition to great karate moves, she also has a mini-gun mounted on her vehicle. Le doesn’t get much of a chance to show her acting chops, but whose character is a wonderful sideshow in the film. Le, who was billed as Megan Nguyen in the first half of a career that began in 2001, has done television shows as well as video shorts and was “Klepto Dancer” in the short “Close and Go: Spiritual Freedom Through Dance.”

Now, about a talented actor deserving of a better role and a person undeserving of being called an actor …

  • A totally wasted effort by an excellent actor is of CIA Director “Janet Harward” played by the wonderful Minnie Driver, who is an Oscar and Golden Globe nominee (not for this one). Again, you have a character given no chance for expansion by a real actor and so I’m not sure why they signed her or why she signed on. I liked Driver best opposite John Cusack in the quirky “Grosse Pointe Blank” (click here to read my review) and she was amusing in a very small part doing a bad job of karaoke as the girlfriend of a Russian in the “007” thriller “GoldenEye” (click here to read my review). However, I guess a check is a check and I hope she got a big one. Driver was nominated for an Oscar for “Good Will Hunting” and is also a two-time Primetime Emmy nominee.
  • The incredibly embarrassing part of “The Beekeeper” is when a mercenary named “Lazarus” is introduced. Taylor James plays “Lazarus” and he is stupendously overblown in both countenance and couture. This man could become an actor only in a different galaxy or parallel universe. He’s simply awful and the character he plays appears as if the writer dropped acid and created the vision of a clown on acid. “Lazarus” should be the second or third chapter in the primer on “How Not to Make a Movie.” I’m not going to write anything else about James’ career.

Other actors include Jemma Redgrave as “President Jessica Danforth” and Don Gilet as “Jackson Prigg,” but I’m not going to take time to discuss their work, although Gilet would be my nomination as “needing a better character and more screen time.”

It’s difficult to gauge director David Ayer through “The Beekeeper” other than to say he fumbled any potential for real drama … and he had the cast to accomplish such a feat. The film moves quickly and doesn’t get caught up in tedious details, but what could have been the best is nothing more in Ayer’s hands as any real drama was jettisoned to get through to the next action scene. Sadly, that’s an indictment of the director, whose performance trails the effort of the martial arts choreographer and special effects team.

Ayer has directed “Suicide Squad” and the World War II tank film “Fury” with Brad Pitt (click here to read my review). I’m totally fearing his upcoming remake of “The Dirty Dozen,” a classic WWII film that earned an Oscar and three nominations – and is another film that didn’t need to be “rebooted” and they even dropped “The” in the title. It’s almost a given that it will be crap. Sigh.

“The Beekeeper” was the 34th ranked film at the U.S. box office with $66.2 million in ticket sales, according to Box Office Mojo. “Inside Out 2” was the No. 1 film with $652.9 million; “Deadpool & Wolverine” was second with $636.7 million; and at No. 3 was “Wicked” with $432.9 million. Worldwide, “The Beekeeper” earned $162.6 million, while worldwide, “Inside Out 2” earned $1.69 billion! The only other film released in 2024 that I’ve reviewed is the Amazon production “Jackpot!” with Awkwafina and Jon Cena (click here to read my review)

Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com):

  • A native of Iran, Naderi’s full name is Babak Bobby Naderi; Rashad’s birth name is Phylicia Ayers-Allen; Driver’s birth name is Amelia Fiona J. Driver;
  • Hutcherson is the mini-actor in the cast as he measures 5-fee-5 (just like Johnny “The Big Bang Theory” Galecki) as compared to Naderi’s 6-foot-1½, Irons’ 6-foot-1½, James’ 6-foot-3, Raver-Lampman’s 5-foot-8, Driver’s 5-foot-9¾ or Statham’s 5-foot-10.
  • The birth date of Statham’s character that is seen in an FBI file is the same as Statham’s in real life: July 26, 1967.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “When Wallace Westwyld idly plays the piano at the Danforth mansion, he plays the same notes that Venkman plays in Dana Barrett’s apartment in Ghostbusters (1984).”
  • With not a very healthy $38 million production budget, “The Beekeeper” was shot almost in its entirety in the United Kingdom for tax purposes.
  • Yet, hypocrisy flows freely for those whose fortunate enough to get an executive payday! The film has three production companies involved (Miramax, Cedar Park Entertainment and Punch Palace Productions) as well as five producers, three executive producers, two co-producers, a UK line producer and an associate producer. Wow! That’s a lot of folks (11) with their hands out to cash in on a movie! Oh, the No. 1 film of 1965 (the classic “The Sound of Music”) had a single producer and a lone associate producer.
  • The distribution company didn’t have confidence in “The Beekeeper” for its release in Australia and more heavily promoted “Ferrari.” However, B took off and “Ferrari” stalled and that prompted angry emails about the number of theaters showing the former and so “The Beekeeper” was then more released to additional theaters.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: At the end, Statham swims away with an unusual-looking device on his chest. It is a rebreather and not a SCUBA tank that’s sometimes called a diving cylinder. Here’s IMDb.com’s explanation: “The SCUBA diver uses a rebreather on his chest instead of a SCUBA tank on his back which releases bubbles to the surface which can give the divers location away. Usually rebreathers are used for clandestine operations when they don’t want bubbles to show. However, rebreathers are generally only good to about 30 feet deep.”

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