The Meg star, 56, appears at the titular beekeeper Mr Clay, which is in cinemas on January 12 before launching on Sky Cinema later this year.
The flick follows Clay, a retired member of the Beekeepers – a top-secret government strike force – turned actual beekeeper, who wants revenge on the evil corporation that scammed his neighbour.
He’ll stop at nothing to bring down Derek Danforth (John Hutcherson) and Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons) in his quest for justice, while we get to sit through heart-pumping, vaguely insect-related quips and puns for the better part of two hours.
And it’s utterly wild, with explosions, vaguely insect-based quips, and one bizarre scene where Clay’s beloved bees are taken out by the bad guys in a shotgun massacre.
Film fans have been quick to share their early reactions to the frankly un-bee-lievable tale on X, creating quite the buzz (we’ll stop now).
Indie Wire’s David Ehrlich wrote: ‘The Beekeeper is one of the most January movies of all time. a John Wick ripoff that starts with someone making the fatal mistake of killing Jason Statham’s bees (with a shotgun) and only gets sillier from there. kinda fun with franchise potential!’
Matt Bledsoe added: ‘Oh my God you guys, the Beekeeper ruled so hard. The guy next to me and I bonded over just losing our minds at Statham just wrecking people left and right, and at one point he turned to his wife and said “This is my long-lost cousin right here!” 😂.’
Others branded it Statham’s ‘best film yet’ and commended the film for knowing exactly how “silly” and “dumb” it is.
‘The Beekeeper is a throwback action movie that is completely aware how dumb it is. It’s 100% a silly nonsensical vehicle to get Jason Statham to break bones for 90 minutes. You know if you’re the audience for this…and I absolutely am!’ Cody Leach posted.
Epic Film Guys said: ‘[The Beekeeper] is a massive explosion of fun. Jam-packed with wall-to-wall action from start to finish, Statham is in top form as a brutal, revenge-fueled killing machine. If a Cannon movie was made today with a good budget. See it!’
Unpacking our favourite film of 2024, director David Ayer revealed that the action icon went slightly method for the role, and ‘embraced’ a spot of beekeeping himself.
Side note: The bee maintenance, not the wild hunt for justice against terrifying bad guys.
Discussing the flick with Entertainment Weekly, he said: ‘In the opening, Jason’s pulling out the comb, and smoking the hive, and doing all the processes. That’s real. The bees are real. He learned how to do all of that.
‘It’s interesting, because we see him as this rough punch-up guy, and yet he got the zen of it – he really embraced the zen of beekeeping.’
We’re going to need a Jason Statham bee-keeping demonstration immediately.
The Expendables star managed to stay unharmed during filming with the insects but, unfortunately, the same can’t be said for David.
‘Jason did not get stung,’ he added. ‘I got stung a bunch of times because I was operating camera, getting all these tight shots of bees, the hero bee-shots, and I was wearing black socks.
‘I learned that bees will attack black cloth because they think that it’s a bear. And so that’s why the beekeepers wear these white suits.’
Noted.
The Beekeeper will hit the big screen on Friday, and is the latest in animal-themed movies for Jason, after he battled huge sharks in the recent Meg sequel, Meg 2: The Trench.
He led a star-studded cast including Josh, Jeremy, Minnie Driver, Amm Raver-Lampman, Michael Epp and EastEnders star David Witts.
The official synopsis reads: ‘In The Beekeeper, one man’s brutal campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as “Beekeepers”.’
Bring it on.