We’ve all seen action movies where the action is so unbelievable that any suspension of disbelief is impossible.  I had thought action star Jason Statham had moved past this kind of sloppiness.  Not so.  The Beekeeper is action as its silliest.  Surrounded by armed FBI guys, Statham’s character disarms and clobbers them all, dodging bullets and breaking bones all while looking cool and delivering justice.  While I applaud the actions his character takes in this story I wish they had been done in a much more realistic manner.

David Ayer’s film is wishful thinking at its grandest: to avenge the robbery of a dear friend of his, beekeeper Adam Clay (Jason Statham) learns how the online duplicity was done, finds the call center and burns it down.  Then he goes after the next level, and the one after that.  Criminals — even those working for the U. S. government — are brought to justice as Clay barrels his way through Massachusetts to downtown Boston.  Then the drama really escalates, and any sense of realism is kicked out the window with extreme prejudice.

At its crunchy center the drama works because every viewer wishes he or she could deliver justice to these online criminals as Clay does, but no matter how skilled he may be, there is just no way he ought to be able to do what he does.  Then there’s the FBI agent on his trail, the daughter of the latest scam victim, who in no way should be allowed to be on this case.  Then there’s the supposedly well-trained and heavily armed security forces that continually get fooled and clobbered by the Beekeeper.  Then there’s the whole Beekeeper ethos, which is over-explained and overused as a metaphor every ten minutes or so.  And then there’s the finale, which involves some very high level people against all common sense.

The film also misses an excellent opportunity.  The Beekeeper is, in actuality, a beekeeper.  At one point his hives are destroyed by merciless villainous bad guys.  The bees take to the air but they never find their revenge.  Now that’s a shame.  That would have been a good scene.  Instead, we bear witness to the Beekeeper’s replacement, an absolutely maniacal woman who destroys a gas station with a military rapid-fire weapon and is then honey-dipped for her trouble.  What a wacky, disappointing movie.  ☆ ☆.  24 January 2024.