If you're a producer in Hollywood and you want an action-packed film, the current writer of choice is Kurt Wimmer, whose film The Beekeeper just hit the big screen. With previous hits like Law Abiding Citizen and Expen4bles, Wimmer knows how to keep his story tight and his fight scenes explosive.
And The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham, is no exception. Almost everyone in this film, male and female is a bad-ass.
Built around the premise that the only thing that might be worse than beating a puppy is scamming a senior, Statham wreaks almost 2 hours of havoc on those who have fatally wronged the people he cares about, all while almost never breaking a sweat. Though in that time he does break many noses, fingers, and ankles.
United Data Group are the big money-making scammers, overseen by Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons). What exactly does UDC do? Well, you know how you're always warned NOT to click on unknown links? They're the company that sends you the unknown weblinks and attachments, infecting and hijacking your computer and draining your bank accounts.
The Beekeepers is the code name for the secret elite force within a secret government agency who even the secret keepers know little about. But what they do know scares the crap out of them; Adam Clay (Statham) was the best of the Bees, one who never fails to protect the Hive. When those in goverment positions put out the word, for their own financial reasons, that Beekeeper Clay has gone rogue, they send a number of legit and illegitimate armies to take him down and, more importantly, shut him up quickly.
But they didn't realize that Clay, who only wanted to retire to his quiet life of beekeeping and honeycombs, is still the A-team Bee. In fact, he's the single member of this Bee team, dispatching multiple teams of nasty buzzing hornets left and right, smoking out the people who make their massive fortunes stealing other people's money.
There are times when the script gets a little bit "Wick-y" in that other Bees are sent to take out this particular Bee, for a fee. Think "High Table" but definitely not as classy. Agents Verona Parker and Matt Wiley (Emmy Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi) are cast as the duo who are determined to smoke out Clay, but will Parker do her job or do right by her mother?
Once Clay starts to follow the money trail, he's busy kicking the hornet's nest, one that has been skillfully hidden in the shadowy eaves of those at the highest level of power.
Lisa Blanck is the Associate Editor / Movie Reviewer for In Focus-Magazine.com and is a member of the Critics Association of Central Florida. Her background includes 30+ years of digital editing for NBC and CBS News affiliates. She also edits national promotional spots for Matter Of Fact, the #1 nationally syndicated news & information program. For 30+ years she has covered the Florida Film Festival & the World Peace Film Festival, and has additional award-winning experience in advertising, marketing, promotions and live special events with MTV Networks.
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