Saturday 20 January 2024

OUT NOW: The Beekeeper (David Ayer, 2024)

After a friend's life is destroyed by a network of cybercriminals, a mysterious beekeeper (Jason Statham) goes on the hunt to smoke out them out...


After years of supporting roles and ensembles, Jason Statham is back in a straight-ahead action vehicle where he scowls and kicks his way through every scene.

At first, Statham seems slightly miscast as the earnest stoic. The character reads as a slightly more zen sibling to Denzel Washington’s Equalizer, a hardened killer with a speck of empathy for the downtrodden.

As an unstoppable killing machine, there is always a slight deadpan edge to Statham that always feels slightly self-aware.

But in a movie where villains snort cocaine and carry out cybercrimes in neon-drenched open floors while bellowing at underlings, he works.

This is the first real Statham vehicle in a while. I cannot remember the last one I watched, but there is something satisfying in watching a star in a familiar mode.

One wishes the movie was a few notches sillier - the minigun-sprouting assassin and the scumbag posse of killers at the finale feel like teases for a more ridiculous movie. 

The cast are solid, with Josh Hutcherson a standout as the self-serving billionaire.

A third act reveal that his mum is POTUS is a fun touch, although - like the cannon fodder Statham works his way through - I wish the film was willing to take its cynicism about 'the system' to its logical conclusion.

A fun return for Statham, hopefully The Beekeeper is the entree to another run of action-centric vehicles (which do not involve sharks).

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