'The Beekeeper' review: A buzz of silly action goes to your head

For a certain type of action movie fan, it's the most wonderful time of the year: January pulp trash season. Last year, that spot was taken by the lean, mean flying machine “Plane,” starring Gerard Butler. This time, it's the off-brand “John Wick” rip-off, “The Beekeeper,” starring Jason Statham and directed by David Ayer.

This deeply silly, self-aware nonsense is a bracing antidote to the awards season that packed theaters in December, and Ayer's overwrought approach to filmmaking elevates Kurt Wimmer's entertaining but fairly thin script.

The PSA-like premise centers on a highly organized phishing scam targeting lonely seniors. A warning message appears on their computers, they dial the number, and a sleazy guy at a call center guides them in handing over all the passwords to their bank accounts. But the scammers catch fire when they target Eloise (Phylicia Rashad), who has an FBI agent daughter, Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman), and a gruff, quiet tenant, Adam Clay (Jason Statham), who just wants to take care of them. their hives.

The usually dapper Statham adopts typical Carhartt work clothes as Adam, who is literally a beekeeper and delivers jars of honey to his warm landlady. He is also a retired “beekeeper,” a highly classified assassin who exists outside the government chain of command and whose mission is to “protect the hive.” When phone scammers attack Adam's queen, she springs into action to scare away the predatory hornets.

And what insidious hornets they are. Ayer's filmmaking is a joyously blunt instrument: while Adam's house is filmed like a Ford commercial with natural sunlight streaming through the rafters of his barn, the call centers are lit like hellish raves with floodlights. neon pink and blue shadowing obnoxious emcees who irritate their minions like diabolical game show hosts. One of them wears a suit with the word “GOAT” printed all over it. Each of these con artists wears a thick gold chain and a satin shirt as a “Saturday Night Fever” extra, so it's easy to spot the bad guys.

The film is riddled with these unsubtle and inexplicable flashes, which makes it much more fun to watch. A killer who attacks Adam at a gas station is dressed in a cyberpunk outfit; another is a wild Australian with huge lamb chops. Do we need to know why? No. It's more fun to watch Statham fight one of these cartoonish thugs than a bland henchman.

In his quest for revenge, Adam follows the money and Agent Verona follows Adam. As he works his way to the top of the data mining food chain, he discovers the slimy Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), a parody of the monstrous crypto brother with a powerful mother (Jemma Redgrave) who enables his enormous ego and shady shell companies. . . Adam sees things right or wrong, black or white, and believes that justice and law are not the same. This lack of moral ambiguity extends to filmmaking: the bad guys are very bad and the good guys are Jason Statham.

“The Beekeeper” might share strands of plot DNA with “John Wick,” but it doesn't have the poetry and sentiment of those films; Where “John Wick” is disturbing, this is brutal. Statham doesn't express the grief that Keanu Reeves does, and he doesn't have to do much more than grunt, put on a baseball cap, and creatively kill people. Adam does not carry a firearm; weapons would be too vulgar for this beekeeper, who eliminates his enemies with fists, feet and the ingenious use of ropes, cords and gasoline bombs. He also really likes explosives.

Ayer brings a colorful touch to “The Beekeeper” and surrounds Statham's stoic avenging angel with a large, interesting cast. (Any movie in which Minnie Driver plays a honey-accented CIA director for two minutes deserves at least an appreciative laugh.) But the main character himself is a cipher, and the story isn't exactly deep, so without Yesterday putting everything in as far as locations, sets, cinematography, casting and stunts go, it seems like sequels would provide diminishing returns. . But this fun, crazy action is wildly entertaining and passes quickly with the good-natured buzz of a bumblebee. If this is your kind of silly movie honey, it's delicious.

Walsh is a film critic for the Tribune News Service.