355: The Beekeeper

[00:00:00] Hey everybody, please make sure to go ahead and rate, review, and subscribe. Thanks.

[00:00:06] 63. Let's get to The Beatkeeper, which came out in January of this year. Now on demand.

[00:00:14] Directed by David Ayer, stars Jason Statham, Emmy Ravver Lampman, Bobby Nadeiri, Josh

[00:00:22] Hutcherson, Jeremy Irons, and a few others. The synopsis is one man's brutal campaign for

[00:00:30] vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful

[00:00:35] and clandestine organization known as Beatkeepers. I did do a David Ayer bonus show a while back,

[00:00:43] covering most of his movies up until this point which is now on Bandcamp at FilmBuds.Bandcamp.com.

[00:00:49] Check that out and our other bonus shows. One thing I've talked about a lot on that show,

[00:00:55] and then just in general is he, David Ayer, is quite inconsistent. I think there are great movies

[00:01:03] under his belt like End of Watch, Fury, I think even Suicide Squad is alright, but then he has

[00:01:10] atrociously bad movies like Tax Collector which is his most recent one or Bright.

[00:01:15] So I don't know what or Sabotage is another one, so I don't know exactly what goes wrong with why

[00:01:21] his quality varies so much, but I'm still curious to see what he does because he is an auteur of

[00:01:27] sorts. I like the stories he picks, they're at least different most of the time. And when I

[00:01:33] heard about this one I wasn't like oh my god I have to see that day one, I wasn't anything

[00:01:38] like that, but I was curious. I think the concept and title sort of intrigued me. I think Jason Statham,

[00:01:46] he's, I don't know if he's hit and miss, there are just times where I'm not really interested in what

[00:01:51] he's doing project-wise. I think he's given some really enjoyable performances over the years and

[00:01:57] a variety of roles. I wish he would really steer more away from action and do more dramatic or

[00:02:03] comedic stuff because I think he does have some chops like he's not amazing, but I think he

[00:02:07] has a good presence, a good confidence and charisma that I feel like he can do a lot more than he

[00:02:14] lets on or that maybe his celebrity persona really allows in terms of what people want to see I guess.

[00:02:22] I don't know if that's true or not, but I think he's pretty decent and I was

[00:02:26] more curious about this one as opposed to some of his other recent ones which are more franchise

[00:02:31] ones like Fast and Furious or other things like when they're the more one-off movies I

[00:02:36] think he does a little bit better and overall I liked it more than I think I thought I would.

[00:02:40] I don't think it's amazing and it's not my favorite David Ayer movie, but one of the more enjoyable

[00:02:47] movies I've seen this year. I think the concept does feel very John Wicky at times so I cannot

[00:02:55] excuse that necessarily. Definitely is inspired by things like John Wick where there's this

[00:03:00] person coming out of retirement something happens and then he just takes on the world and

[00:03:05] there are these weird clandestine organizations following the different hitmen and all that stuff so

[00:03:11] there are things that are a little tired, but nevertheless I think it's short and sweet it's

[00:03:17] maybe an hour 45 minutes. I think Jason Statham is excellent in it. Josh Hutcherson, I don't love

[00:03:22] him in general but I think he's good in this and I do like the very steady rise in terms of

[00:03:29] the escalation of who all is involved. I won't spoil it, but who all is involved in this kind of

[00:03:35] conspiracy cover-up organization that Jason Statham is trying to overthrow, but the call center

[00:03:44] like scam thing at the beginning very well done and kind of scary really because it shows you

[00:03:48] I think a fairly realistic portrayal of how someone can get scammed through internet or on

[00:03:54] the phone and so that part is very well done and it's a good setup and a decent emotional weight in

[00:04:01] terms of the motivation for Statham. And when it comes to movies like this there's a lot of

[00:04:08] kills, a really high body count a lot of brawling you know and lots of times it can be

[00:04:14] very repetitive kind of bland and so I was a little worried about how they would pull this

[00:04:21] off in terms of trying to be different and I don't think movie is really that different action-wise

[00:04:27] but what it sets out to do it does quite well I think. I think the action is very well choreographed

[00:04:33] the camera work, the direction, the editing, cinematography I think it is very fluid very fun

[00:04:39] pretty brutal at times and so I was really always surprisingly engaged while the action

[00:04:44] was going on. There's a sequence on the bridge which is excellent the everything with the bees

[00:04:50] is fun and there are a few bee puns in there which is pretty funny I think and so it really glided along

[00:04:59] and hooked me way more than I was thinking originally and I feel like when it comes to

[00:05:06] action man versus the world movies you could do a lot worse. I think this is one that

[00:05:11] of a lot of the ones I've come out over the last few years aside from the John Wick films

[00:05:15] is probably one of the better ones which not a high bar but still I liked it a lot and good score

[00:05:22] the final sequence at the estate I don't say anything more than that is very good so there's a lot of

[00:05:30] very well executed sleight of hand misdirection where you're suddenly thrown into this action

[00:05:36] sequence and it's really gruesome but it's effective and one thing I can at least appreciate

[00:05:42] as opposed to other franchises or action films like this is he is taking on people who are not good

[00:05:49] people he's not just going out and killing random innocents like these people are scamming the world

[00:05:54] scamming people out of their retirement plans out of charities and so like at least

[00:05:59] his motivations his drive is against bad people which I and I'm guessing most would find that

[00:06:05] much more compelling than similar characters or motivations in other movies so that's another

[00:06:11] strong point I'm glad David Ayers back on track a little bit not a masterpiece but I think he's at

[00:06:18] least going in the right direction after the tax collector so check it out that is a three and a half

[00:06:26] out of five