The Beekeeper
Director: David Ayer
Year Released: 2024
Rating: 1.5
A data farm tricks retired schoolteacher Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) into surrendering her personal information in order to steal her life's savings so she takes her own life; "Adam Clay" (Jason Statham), the beekeeper renting a barn from her, becomes the prime suspect but when he's cleared he reverts back into being an assassin and goes after those responsible, leading him all the way to trust fund kid Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) ... whose mother (Jemma Redgrave) is the President of the United States. Even if you can look past the absolutely lazy setup (for starters, if your daughter was a Federal agent why not simply explain the situation to her?) the rest is just as implausible, as Clay starts off by bullying tech nerds and then wipes out not only SWAT teams but the Secret Service and private military groups while delivering groan-worthy lines like, "I protect the hive. Sometimes I use fire to smoke out hornets." It seems to be a mindless crowd-pleaser - who doesn't appreciate Statham as some indestructible "moral" force - but I spent a good deal of the time wondering which Presidential son Derek is supposed to represent: is it Hunter or Eric? Depending on your political affiliation, he really could be either.