The best sheer action flick to hit theaters since "John Wick 4", THE BEEKEEPER is an absolute swarm of fun, violence and mayhem. Can we just officially award Jason Statham the trophy as THE action star of the 2020's?
He's at his deadly serious and lethal best as mild mannered Adam Clay, a former top secret operative living a peaceful, solitary life. He's managing a hive in the barn of retired schoolteacher Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad). Their rapport is genuine, with a quiet gratitude shared between them.
When the absolute lowest human life form, those who prey on senior citizens, manages to take everything from Eloise, she sees now way out.
The stolen funds include over $2 million from a charity that she is a signer on, leaving her reputation and life's work destroyed. She takes her own life.
Eloise's daughter Verona is one of the first on site. An FBI agent distraught over her mother's death, she and her partner Matt Wiley (Bobby Naderi) tell Clay that her mother had been duped by a massive scam operation.
Clay fires up a satellite phone to a dark room within a secret organization he used to be a part of, called The BeeKeepers. Ahhh....so there's more than making honey to this title, eh? His intel leads him to the headquarters of the scammers and Clay's fire and brimstone (primed by a lot of gasoline) rain down.
Is there anything more satisfying than watching an action star bring down damnation on really bad guys?
Writer Kurt Wimmer has crafted some of the worst movies of the past ten years, including that horrible "Point Break" remake and "Expendables 4", but he has written two great films, "Salt" with Angelina Jolie and "The Thomas Crown Affair" in 1999 with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.
He's back to form here, giving Statham one of his best starring vehicles and a conspiracy theory that goes all the way to the top. Many of his one liners right before Statham goes into action are great too, giving the entire affair an 80's action feel.
Watching Statham beat the living daylights out of hundreds of dirtbags is satisfying in an old-school, Charles Bronson sort of way that still plays bloody well.
As Clay follows the money up the ladder, the assassins sent after him get more and more eccentric. By the time one jumps into the back of a truck at a gas station and unveils a modern day gattling gun, tearing through the entire station with firepower Schwarzenegger only dreamed of back in the day, I was officially loving this movie.
Jeremy Irons is a perfectly oily lawyer type and former government chief you'll love to hate. At the top of the scammer pyramid is Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy's, The Hunger Games) as Derek Danforth, a young screw-up connected to the very peak of American politics.
Watching Statham beat the living daylights out of hundreds of dirtbags is satisfying in an old-school, Charles Bronson sort of way that still plays bloody well.
Director David Ayer (Fury, Suicide Squad) tees up the drama very well before cutting loose with a relentless barrage of invincible revenge.
Verona (a terrific Emmy Raver-Lampman from "The Umbrella Academy") is the FBI agent committed to her oath, but torn because she knows Clay is on the proper quest. I enjoyed her scenes with Statham as their relationship morphs quicker than the gunfire.
Statham is a bad ass.
Rambo and Conan got beat up but rarely bled. Clay bleeds.
At one point in the enjoyably over-the-top finale, a hulking killer tells Clay, "You're only human!" Clay, torn and broken, delivers a Han Solo, "I know" and then summons the whoop ass to finish the job.
The most fun I've had in an action thriller since Keanu's last tour in the Kevlar suit, THE BEEKEEPER serves up sweet revenge in droves, dripping violence and intentional laughs alongside the hellfire. It earns its R rating in both profanity and graphic action.
Check your brains and buckle up, this is the fastest hour and forty five minutes I've spent in a theater in a long time. We'll sting it with an A.
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