‘The Beekeeper’ Review: A B Movie With Lots of Bee Puns
‘The Beekeeper’ doesn’t rank high in the pantheon of Statham action flicks. It’s too dumb, too small, too silly.
“Jason Statham would not make a good Hamlet. He knows it, and his audiences know it, too. A Jason Statham film doesn’t promise grand soliloquies or deep examinations of the soul; just big, explosive and bloody fight scenes.
Directed by the inconsistent action auteur David Ayer, his latest movie, “The Beekeeper”, follows a familiar formula, with a fun central conceit and forgettable plot, but enough great action that you don’t mind. Mr. Statham plays a ‘Beekeeper’; a cap-wearing covert assassin operating outside the chain of command, tasked with maintaining order and justice when the law falls short.
It’s the third film released this week about ultra-secret agents named after humdrum professions — along with “The Painter” and “The Bricklayer”. The Beekeeper program is what you’d have if the CIA created a special division of bad-asses who specialize in dispensing Western-film vigilante justice, and Statham is our man with no name.
Or at least, no background; all we know about his character, “Adam Clay,” is that he, like his neighbor, tends to bees, has a funny accent and is exceptionally good at killing people.
Lots of people.”
Out now in The New York Sun: my review of Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper; a phenomenally silly, fun, dumb film. Read it now!