Last year, Hollywood provided a certain brand of degenerate moviegoer with a gift that they hadn't received in quite some time: A proper January movie. This film boasted the succinct, perfectly-apt title of Plane and it told the story of a pilot (Gerard Butler) who crash lands on an island off the coast of the Philippines that's been overrun by a violent militia and is soon forced to team up with the convict he was transporting (Mike Colter) to defend the crew and passengers and find a way off the island by any means necessary. Seeing a modern theatrical release harken back to the glory days of workman-like action flicks being released at the top of the calendar year was an oddly heartwarming event that reinforced the belief that Hollywood was indeed back in business after COVID wreaked havoc on the start of the 2020's. Well, it turns out that Plane was ushering in a full-on revival of this old Hollywood practice and this year's entry The Beekeeper delivers even more of the glorious B-movie hijinks that just hit different in January.
As you can probably deduce from the title, The Beekeeper tells the story of a beekeeper named Adam Clay (Jason Statham) who spends his days tending to a large swarm of bees and producing honey on a desolate Western Massachusetts farm. He also happens to be a retired member of a clandestine organization of elite killers called The Beekeepers who operate independently from the United States government and step in whenever "the hive" (aka the people of the United States) needs to be protected from nefarious forces. Clay's quiet retirement suddenly comes to an end when the nice woman (Phylicia Rashad) he rents a barn from commits suicide after falling victim to a phishing scam that drained all of her bank accounts and decides to hunt down the people responsible. What starts off as a simple act of revenge turns into something much bigger than Clay bargained for and soon, the reinstated Beekeeper is tasked with taking down one of the biggest threats to the hive that he's ever faced.
The Beekeeper is one of those sadly all too rare examples of a movie being exactly what it was advertised to be. Anybody who wants to see a movie where Statham pretty much effortlessly dispatches legions of faceless goons, about a quarter of the dialogue consists of terrible bee puns and the plot seemingly gets dumber and more convoluted by the minute will be delighted by it. Everyone else should steer clear because there is nothing for them here. Comparisons to John Wick are inevitable given the "elite killer comes out of retirement to extract revenge on shitbags who caused the death of a loved one" plot, but I don't believe they really apply as this is a far sillier, sleazier affair that doesn't share the Wick films interest in character and noirish style.
Regardless of what films it may or may not share DNA with, The Beekeeper gets the job done by delivering a lot of solid, crisply edited action sequences that are primarily driven by hand-to-hand fighting, getting self-aware, scenery-chewing performances from Statham, Jeremy Irons and Josh Hutcherson-who manages to steal the movie as the douchey techbro antagonist and boasting the kind of polished production values that studios don't always give to mid-budget action movies these days (look no further than Statham's last movie Expend4bles-which was a strong sound mix away from being indecipherable from a straight-to-VOD project). It's probably the best solo Statham pure action flick to come out since Homefront as well as a rousing return to form from David Ayer after a poorly received string of films (Suicide Squad, Bright, The Tax Collector) cratered his stock in the industry. I wouldn't be mad at all if every few Januarys we saw Statham go on a ludicrous mission to break up some elaborate crime ring that was stealing money from the pockets of America's working class.
Grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment