The Beekeeper
Jason Statham smokes out a hornets’ nest in a by-the-numbers, nonsensical cartoon actioner.
“Honey, I’m home”: Jason Statham
It’s a shock at first to see Jason Statham tending to his bees. Has The Stath really turned apiarist? But then we realise it is all a metaphor and that Adam Clay (Jason Statham) has taken his responsibility literally. Here, the chain of corruption leads all the way to the top, but, as Clay says, “nobody’s untouchable. Sometimes when the hive is out of balance, you have to replace the queen.”
Amazingly, The Beekeeper starts quite promisingly, at worst a guilty pleasure. Clay is renting a barn from Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a retired teacher who manages a charity for deprived children. In return for Clay dealing with a troublesome hornets’ nest, she invites him over to dinner, an invitation he barely acknowledges. In the meantime, as he electrocutes the hornets, Eloise discovers that her laptop has been compromised. However, there is a useful telephone number that comes with the ominous red alert, “to avoid complete loss of data.” When she rings the number, the friendly man on the other end reassures her that with the right password, he can save her computer and protect all her data. Thank the Lord.
The man on the phone is just a small cog in a wheel that generates $29 million a month from fleecing old age pensioners of their life savings. Eloise not only loses all her money, but the entire account of the charity she has been running for years. She takes her own life, which is good news for the man on the telephone – if only her daughter weren’t an FBI operative and her beekeeper was played by Jason Statham. What were the chances?
The implausibility doesn’t stop there, as Adam Clay cuts a swathe through Massachusetts, leaving a dramatic trail of destruction in his wake – with Eloise’s daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman) hot on his scent. With the formulaic precision of a honeycomb, The Beekeeper trots out every cliché in the apiary with stinging abandon. There are simple pleasures, such as guessing whose American accent is worse: Statham’s or Jeremy Irons’. There’s also an unusual turn from Josh Hutcherson as the ignoble, coke-snorting larva of the US president who mishandles campaign funds. He answers only to Wallace Westwyld (Irons), former head of the CIA, who happens to know the true identity – and purpose – of the Beekeeper.
All this might seem horrifically probable but due to the cartoonish direction of David Ayer (Street Kings, Suicide Squad), it is turned into the monotony of a video game, complete with a colourful, apparently indestructible henchman. Jason Statham even gets to say, “it’s personal,” like it was an original line. The bee metaphors come thick and fast, as do the ecological prompts (Jeremy Irons: “No bees, no agriculture. No agriculture, no civilisation”). As the queen bee in the White House, Jemma Redgrave provides the most convincing American accent, making up for the fact that Meryl Streep once occupied No. 10. And it’s fun spotting the London locations standing in for Boston (including the old Plaza Cinema in Regent Street). It’s just a shame that such a serious premise is squandered so brazenly.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad, Jeremy Irons, Jemma Redgrave, Enzo Cilenti, Don Gilet, Megan Le, David Witts, Taylor James, Michael Epp.
Dir David Ayer, Pro Bill Block, Jason Statham, David Ayer, Chris Long and Kurt Wimmer, Screenplay Kurt Wimmer, Ph Gabriel Beristain, Pro Des Ben Munro, Ed Geoffrey O'Brien, Music Dave Sardy and Jared Michael Fry, Costumes Kelli Jones, Bee consultant James Hamill.
Miramax/Cedar Park/Punch Palace Productions-Amazon MGM Studios/Sky Entertainment.
105 mins. UK/USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 12 January 2024. Cert. 15.
