The Beekeeper is the latest addition in a long line of movies starring Jason Statham as a man tasked with beating up and killing people in his way to accomplishing his goal. Here, Adam Clay (Statham) seeks revenge upon those responsible for the death of someone who was kind to him. The movie is a gritty, violent thriller that is almost as relentless as Adam.
Buy The Beekeeper (2024) Blu-rayElderly retiree Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) is, like many her age, a bit naive about the Internet and modern technology. Combined with her misplaced, trusting nature, she loses millions of dollars, from her life savings and from the charity she overseas, to a scammer pretending to help her with a software update. Distraught over what’s happened, she commits suicide.
Unfortunately for the scammer and those he works for, Adam rents a portion of Eloise’s barn to tend to bees. After learning what happened to her, Adam contacts his former employer, a secret U.S. government organization known as the Beekeepers (so there’s a link to his current hobby), and gets details about the United Data Group, part of a criminal enterprise that has been scamming people for two years. Adam tracks down the building where UDG works and blows it up.
The criminal enterprise is run by Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), the son of Jessica Danforth (Jemma Redgrave), a very successful, powerful businesswoman. She is able to get former CIA Director Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons) to protect Derek, which really means covering up his many misdeeds. Derek sends a team to kill Adam at the farm. Upon their arrival, Adam turns on a bandsaw. If the viewer hopes they don’t see Adam use it, they aren’t as familiar with the concept of Chekov’s gun as screenwriter Kurt Wimmer is because before the barn sequence ends, it’s made clear how graphic the movie’s violence will be.
As Adam works his way up the organization chart, more government agencies get involved to stop him, including the FBI, which coincidentally has Eloise’s daughter, Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman) as an agent. Unfortunately, her character is rather annoying. She tries be a good agent and attempts to stop Adam from taking the law into his own hands but it’s near-impossible to believe she wouldn’t turn a blind eye considering he is going after the people that harmed her mother. Also, hard to believe is her not being reassigned since the case is personal for her.
None of the characters have much depth to make them memorable. Heroes frequently get away with being a bit of a blank slate because their cause and the fan-attachment to the actor can fill in gaps to connect the viewer. The beekeeper analogy is talked about too much. Not sure if producers didn’t feel it was clear or if they presume viewers coming into the movie after it started. Derek is a villain because the story needs one. He acts like a jackass just about all the time, and while his motivation makes sense, it comes too late in the story, hidden for a good plot twist but it undercuts his character.
Director David Ayer and his crew deliver on the action scenes, a main hook for Statham movies. They are different enough to keep them separate. The geography and location of characters was clear. And when one ends, it isn’t too long before the next one begins.
The video was given a 1080p/MPEG-4 AVC encoded transfer presented at an aspect ratio of 2.40:1. Does a good job capturing the production’s natural color palette as well as extremes from the vibrant oranges, as seen in the fire explosion at the gas station, and neon colors, seen in the phone bank rooms of the scammers. Blacks are inky and whites look accurate. Texture detail is apparent.
The Dolby Atmos track defaults to an adequate Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track. Dialogue is always clear. The sound effects and score can be heard in the speakers. Solid subwoofer activity throughout with a little cabinet vibration as heavy vehicles appearing to close in on Adam bring big bass levels with them.
There are no extras.
The Beekeeper won’t generate a lot of buzz, but if you want to see Jason Statham in action, regardless of the reason why, this movie is a serviceable outing that will satisfy that itch. Like its star, it is lean and mean and moves at a good pace. It’s not the first Statham movie to pull off the shelf, but one shouldn’t mind when they eventually do. The same can be said for the Blu-ray in regards to the high-definition presentation.
