‘I’ ON CULTURE
New movie The Beekeeper is a wonderful treat for conspiracy theorists. Nasty, cheating corporations, who use armed guards, then lawyers, then political power to ruin the lives of good, decent people is a popular theme for many. Interestingly, the film’s plot could be part of both left-wing and right-wing conspiracies.
A widow (Phylicia Rashad) is bilked out of her life savings, as well as the million-dollar trust fund she has for educating poor children, by a vicious phishing operation. For those who don’t know, phishing is when hackers get into your system, get you to hit a few keys one way or another, and take over your financial accounts. Horrified, she kills herself while the vicious louts are high-fiving each other. But there are two wild cards. Her daughter, FBI Agent Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), and a quiet man who has rented out her barn to run an apiary. That means, a beekeeper. The man, Adam Clay (Jason Statham), was part of a secret program to police the government, to “protect the hive.” There are many bee references throughout the film. And Clay does raise bees.
Anyone who goes to a Jason Statham film knows there will be violence and, after a few touching scenes where Clay and Parker learn a bit about each other, Clay takes up the action. He uses his old connections to find the call center used, one of many it seems, and knocks a whole lot of people around as he blows the place up. The report about it leaks to the really weird leader of the scheme, Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), who skateboards around the office and is wonderfully well-treated by a group of beautiful pamperers. Derek, who might be considered the world’s most entitled lout and a classic sociopath, demands Clay be destroyed. Four hitmen come to see Clay; three die on the spot and one merely gets his fingers removed.
Things get crazier as the FBI gets involved, and Parker discovers she can’t get any information on Clay. Derek, on the other hand, has a mentor, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons), a former head of the CIA and good friend of his mother, who knows what the program is about and warns him of the danger he faces. The kid just sends more thugs; the older man gets a new beekeeper to do the work. And, since this is a Statham film, a lot of people get dead. Finally, there is a major battle at a fancy home, one belonging to Derek’s very powerful mother. With a huge number of police, federal agents, a rabid mercenary (Taylor James), and even Parker and her FBI partner, Derek has real protection. After all, what is government for if not to protect the corrupt and entitled? And, of course, the good guy wins. That part is clearly fictional.
Statham is an exceptional physical actor. The fight scenes, and they are many, are generally short and brutal. Our hero shows very little emotion, but that’s about par for this kind of film. Clearly, he is there to save the hive… as he says at least a half dozen times. The rest of the cast makes up for that. Raver-Lampman is perhaps the pivotal performer, trying to balance a desire for real justice with a need for vengeance. Bobby Naderi as her partner plays well against her. A family man, he provides a sense of decency. He is the first person who notes that Clay not only destroys bad people, but also some of the people whose job is to protect them. Director David Ayer did generally allow police and soldiers to just get beaten up, not shot — a nice touch.
This is a really good B movie. Lots and lots of action. Some of the fight scenes run long, as the hero wipes out a dozen or so bad guys, most of whom clearly have no chance. There is a great twist at the end that demonstrates the power behind the corruption.
Now, of course, we all know that conspiracy theories are just crazy. COVID-19 could not have come from a weapons lab owned by our good friends in China. It jumped from a pangolin to people, although that had never happened before. See, important people, I know how to fight disinformation. Please don’t hurt me.
This is a good movie if you like pure action without tricky emotions or shades of gray. If that is so, you will have a ball.