The Beekeeper
MGM + SKY
Last year, January gave audiences the pleasure of seeing Gerard Butler and Mike Colter kick major ass in Jean-François Richet’s Plane, a movie that made the case of resurrecting the spirits of Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus to bring back The Cannon Group from the dead. If Hollywood gave new life to Orion Pictures, American International Pictures, and, more recently, Republic Pictures, then they absolutely can – and should – bring back the greatest action movie studio of the 1980s.
This year, David Ayer makes the case through The Beekeeper, a movie with a B-grade plot that sees Jason Statham deliver his particular set of skills to a group of scammers who maxed out the accounts of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), which led her to commit suicide. Statham plays Adam Clay, a former agent working for a clandestine operation known as “Beekeepers,” whose sole goal is to protect the Hive. After Eloise, his only friend, kills herself as a result of having lost all of her money, Clay tracks down the people responsible and vows to bring down the criminal organization led by Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), whose tech company oversees different phishing centers all over the United States.
Clay begins to take down the top centers to lead them to the mastermind behind it all, while the former head of the CIA, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons), attempts to protect Danforth from the incoming swarm (heh). Clay is also tracked by the FBI, specifically by agent Verona Parker (Emily Raver-Lampman), daughter of Eloise, who thinks The Beekeeper is going too far in bringing the people responsible for her mother’s suicide to justice.
It’s a simple enough plot, and for the most part, The Beekeeper sticks to a revenge-fueled tale that directly recalls John Wick, specifically scenes where Wallace tells Derek that the last thing he will see before he dies is Clay’s face, who will stop at nothing to kill him after what his organization did to Eloise, while Derek isn’t much concerned about this until everyone around him starts to die. But nothing can protect him from The Beekeeper, who has now made his sworn mission to take down his empire before more people are personally hurt by his scamming operation.
And just as it gets too comfortable, screenwriter Kurt Wimmer gives the film one heck of a left turn with a plot twist so bonkers it begs to be seen to be believed. The reveal itself is predictable, but the immediate dramatic BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM that comes with the scene is so out-there that it strangely works and pulls the audience further into the film’s rabbit storytelling hole, attempting to blend a blunt action/revenge thriller with a political conspiracy intrigue that would’ve completely fallen flat had the wrong hands touched it.
But Ayer seems to understand the tone Wimmer wants to go with here, a hyper self-aware actioner that, while rough around the edges, is thoroughly enjoyable thanks to an ass-kicking lead performance from Jason Statham and a real knack for bee puns. The twist works because the characters know how to sell the material. A seasoned veteran like Jeremy Irons can make anything sound tantalizing, and when he arrives in a room full of unnamed mercenaries to explain why Clay should be brought down, it works despite the overt silliness of the scene.
Even Minnie Driver, who plays the current head of the CIA and shows up for a few scenes, can make the audience understand the gravity of the situation when she says, “A Beekeeper Beekeeper?” – knowing what it means. Yes, this is all very kooky, and the movie doesn’t give much insight into who the Beekeepers are and why they are so covert. However, it’s enough to make the CIA, the FBI, and even the President of the United States pee their pants that it immediately becomes believable through the eyes of the viewer, even if Ayer and Wimmer don’t spend much time expanding on who the Beekeepers are, other than “they’re bad news for the government.”
However, it doesn’t necessarily matter since the film's core is nothing but a mindless actioner that sees Statham take down highly skilled mercenaries, FBI agents, and Beekeepers. Each action setpiece has a fast-paced rhythm that they’re never dull to watch, particularly on IMAX, but Ayer’s action staging, unfortunately, leaves little to be desired. Perhaps it’s just an editing hack, but the film frequently cuts from low-angle to eye-level shots in a dizzying fashion, never cohesively racing from point A to B. But Gabriel Beristain’s cinematography is also a visual mess – never giving the action any room to breathe or seeing the stuntwork on display through effective high, low-angle shots. He films most of it via low-angle and medium shots without much thought on composing his action, which is strange because his work on Black Widow, specifically through its IMAX sequences, proved he had the chops to do this.
But none of the shots make sense, making its action scenes feel head-scratching instead of excitingly kinetic. Only one setpiece in a gas station is enthralling enough to hold attention, particularly when a Beekeeper uses a minigun at Clay, creating sparks that recall fireworks. The scene comes from nowhere, but the cinematography and stuntwork make it engaging. It also makes the case for Hollywood to resurrect The Cannon Group brand because a scene like this can’t be envisioned if Wimmer (and Ayer) didn’t view the work of Joseph Zito, Michael Winner, J. Lee Thompson, and Sam Firstenberg, filmmakers who blossomed while working with Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Luckily, Ayer and Wimmer get it.
Because of this, one hopes The Beekeeper gets a sequel with much tighter camerawork to make its action more impressive than in the first installment and that it paves the way for a resurrection of gonzo action movies whose sole purpose is to be as brainless and as mind-numbing as possible, with a plot so lackadaisical it begins to shift as its bonkers twist gets revealed to the public. It may not be as refined as last year’s Plane, but it’s certainly made with that vision in mind. Now, can someone reach out to Jeff Bezos about bringing back The Cannon Group?