The Beekeeper Dir: David Ayer (Film Review)

Jason Statham is on a roll with The Beekeeper clocking in as his fifth film in a year. The Beekeeper finds Jason in one of his most preposterous and entertaining films yet.

Starring: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Minnie Driver, Jeremy Irons.

Ok, here’s the plot…An elderly woman, played by Phylicia Rashad, is scammed out of her retirement savings and millions more. Distraught, she kills herself and is discovered by her friend and resident beekeeper Adam Clay (Jason Statham).

It turns out Adam is more than a benign beekeeper, he is a retired member of… wait for it…a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers”.

Never heard of them…neither had I, but apparently their missive is to “protect the hive” when all else fails, ensuring the safety of the good ol’ US of A.

It also turns out that the late victim of the phishing scam is an F.B.I. agent named Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman) who is, suspicious of Mr Clay but eventually convinced he’s OK…or is she?

Clay now reverts back to his old Beekeeper self for some good old fashioned revenge…this time its personal…so let the body count begin!

After burning down the building that housed the scammers, everyone’s after Clay and so our hero takes on the police, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Secret Service…and then there’s the bad guys!

Chief among the baddies is a scene-chewing Jeremy Irons as the corporate greedmeister and the snivelling Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) who, in his mid-20s, has taken over the family business now that his mother has moved on to become the leader of the free world.

Ridiculous?

Yes!

But a helluva lot of fun as we watch Statham find new and exciting ways to kick ass.

With the Golden Globes just in the headlines, of course we are all contemplating what a high art form modern cinema has become.

But as Statham and director David Ayer and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer would also remind us, sometimes going to the movies can just be good, dumb fun.

And that’s what The Beekeeper is.

Marty Duda

The Beekeeper opens in cinemas Thursday, January 11th. Click here for showtimes and tickets.