For a certain type of action movie fan, it's the most wonderful time of the year: January pulp trashterpiece season. This year, it's the off-brand "John Wick" ripoff "The Beekeeper," starring Jason Statham and directed by David Ayer.
This profoundly silly and self-aware bit of blood-spurting nonsense is a bracing antidote to the awards season fare that jams up theaters in December.
The PSA-like premise centers around a highly organized phishing scam targeting lonely elderly folks. A warning message pops up on their computers, they call the number, and a sleazy dude in a call center walks them through handing over all of their passwords to their bank accounts. But the scammy schemers go up in flames when they target Eloise (Phylicia Rashad), who happens to have an FBI agent daughter, Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman), and a gruffly quiet tenant, Adam Clay (Jason Statham), who just wants to tend to his beehives.
The usually slick Statham embraces Carhartt-core as Adam, who is a literal beekeeper, delivering jars of honey to his warm landlady, but also a retired "Beekeeper," a highly classified assassin who exists outside the chain of government command, whose mission is to "protect the hive." When the phone scammers target Adam's queen, he moves into action to smoke out the predatory hornets.
And what insidious hornets they are. Ayer's filmmaking is a gleefully blunt instrument: While Adam's home is shot like a Ford commercial with natural sunlight pouring through the beams of his barn, the call centers are lit like hellish raves with pink and blue neon lighting casting a pall on the obnoxious emcees who rile up their minions like devilish game show hosts.
The film is rife with unsubtle and unexplained bits of flair, which makes it much more fun to watch. An assassin who attacks Adam at a gas station is outfitted in a cyberpunk ensemble; another is a feral Aussie with huge mutton chops. Do we need to know why? No.
In his revenge quest, Adam makes his way up the data-mining food chain, where he discovers the slimy Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) at the top. Derek is a parody of the monstrous crypto bro, and he has a very, very powerful mother (Jemma Redgrave) enabling his massive ego and shady shell companies. Adam sees things in right or wrong, black or white, and believes that justice and the law are not the same thing. This lack of moral ambiguity extends to the filmmaking: The bad guys are very bad and the good guys are Jason Statham.
Ayer brings a colorful tactility to "The Beekeeper" and surrounds Statham's stoic avenging angel with a big, interesting cast. But the character himself is a cipher and the lore isn't exactly deep, so without Ayer putting everything into the locations, sets, cinematography, casting and stunts, it seems that sequels would provide diminishing returns. But this wacky and self-aware bit of action fun is wildly entertaining and zips by with the good-natured buzz of a bumblebee. If this is your kind of dumb action movie honey, it's delectable.
'The Beekeeper'
2½ stars out of 4
Rated: R for strong violence, pervasive language, some sexual references and drug use.
Where: In theaters Friday.
