The Beekeeper

Dumb as a brick. I'm sorry but the story behind this is downright moronic, not helped by shallow or aimless characterisations, absurd action, empty dialogue and no real finale. In summary, a low IQ action flick that's stuffed full of empty exposition and little else.

I'm conflicted about <em>'The Beekeeper'</em>. On the one hand, it's fantastic entertainment as Jason Statham plays a brilliantly badass character - every scene with him is top, top notch. The editing, action and score are positives, though everything around those aforementioned elements is annoyingly very hit-and-miss... and I'm not sure how much the other bits affect my enjoyment. Away from the great Statham, the cast are also up-and-down. Josh Hutcherson and Jeremy Irons are decent, I think inferior actors would've done much worse so those two do do well in fairness. Sadly, for Emmy Raver-Lampman & Co. on the FBI side of the story... not the best. I mean, they're OK but kinda boring at the same time. Raver-Lampman's character is also quite lamely written, not the actress' fault of course but still. Without spoiling anything, I feel like her character should've been way more sympathetic to Clay's cause given the obvious - like, still 'do your job' absolutely but it's as if the character forgot what happened at the start of the movie. The scummy organizations are also portrayed a bit too cartoony, based on what I've seen in real life about those sorta people is that they're usually lousy losers who happen to know how to do what they do - rather than 'Gen Z' (please do forgive me for using that term *shudder*) smartasses who party 24/7 as this 2024 release shows. I'm happy with the rating I've settled on, Statham merited more though.