Just Jason doing his Statham thing.

Adam Clay (Jason Statham) keeps to himself, renting space from Eloise (Phylicia Rashad) and tending to his honeybees in a serene countryside. When his landlord’s bank accounts fall prey to a coordinated phishing scam, Adam takes it personally and goes after the hacking group, a criminal cybergang who Eloise’s FBI agent daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman) has been trying to take down at work. After reports of a building being destroyed and a rising body count, it doesn’t take Verona long to figure out Clay is more than he appeared: a former independent operative who works for the good of “the hive”… even if that means tearing it down.

We’ve all seen this before: Death Wish, Commando, Under Siege, Die Hard, The Boondock Saints, John Wick, and Nobody all tap into the “who the hell is this guy?” thing, the more-than-he-appears action hero capable of tearing through above-the-law bad guys like a hellhound chewing through tissue paper. Better yet, these are usually lower budget set pieces featuring lots of stunt work, things exploding, and over-the-top bad guys chewing the scenery before inevitably going down. Oh, and don’t forget some kind of theme or style, this time around the idea of a beekeeper protecting their hive! It’s an action-adventure farce directed by David Ayer, written by Kurt Wimmer, and mostly brought to you by Amazon (aka the current owners of MGM for the moment), but when the honey hits the fan, will this Statham vehicle die like a butterfly or sting like a bee? Hey, we had to do at least one buzzkill joke…

Turn off your brain and enjoy the show! It’s a sign of the time the bad guys are affluenza-affected tech bros played by Josh Hutcherson and David Witts; who doesn’t want to see lawyered-up Teflon millionaires using the system as a bulletproof shield finally get some due throwback comeuppance? Toss in some seasoned pros like Jeremy Irons, Phylicia Rashad, and Minnie Driver for a little street cred, stir up a few LAN parties disguised as call centers with tricked-out neon-glow desktop computers, and be sure to victimize retirees by plastering their faces across wall-sized monitors like bounties in a shooting gallery, all setting the stage for some Charlie Bronson-style payback overkill. Toward the end, the pyrotechnics and fisticuffs inevitably fail to stay ahead of the ridiculousness, but the bar is set for popcorn flicks in 2024 to make cinematic vigilante hearts flutter.

Any subtext herein is glossed over, similar to all disaffected youth being mowed down by 1970s action heroes for being too young to care. Let’s see now: retirees who’ve worked hard their entire lives having their nest eggs stolen by too-smart people who clearly never work at all? Check. Leaders willing to look the other way as long as silver crosses their palms? Check. A failing system watched over by one individual to whom laws no longer apply because corruption is a fact of American life? And check. It all sounds like it could be true-ish for anyone who wants to believe it, maybe even a prequel to A24’s Civil War coming up later this year. Try not to think too hard about all the individuals in law enforcement hired to do a job with families to feed, serving and protecting until Statham arrives to blow them all up real good for the unforgivable sin of getting in his way.

Since 2002 starring in Luc Besson’s The Transporter and sticking to Frank’s three doing-crime rules, Statham has been a dependable action star for butts-in-seats fare, and The Beekeeper is no different other than being a little timely (and far less pretentious than Wrath of Man). Of course, it’s also a good setup for a few sequels, whether he’s jumping through the air firing two guns or driving at twice the legal limit in the wrong direction. As long as it takes itself only as seriously as it needs to and remains fully self-aware that the audience is in on the joke, it’s safe to crib Keanu Reeves with a put-on cockney accent: “Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.” Not that he ever went anywhere.

The Beekeeper is rated R for strong violence throughout, pervasive language, some sexual references, drug use, and nerds scandalously munching on Cheerios straight out of the cereal box.

Three skull recommendation out of four