---
title: "The Beekeeper"
year: 2024
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-beekeeper"
fi1m_id: "the-beekeeper"
imdb_id: "tt15314262"
tmdb_id: 866398
wikidata_id: "Q115766625"
fi1m_score: 60
critics_score: 57
critics_reviews: 11
published: "2026-09-12"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:00.452390+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Beekeeper (2024)

Directed by David Ayer · 1h 46m · MPA R · Action, Adventure, Crime, Thriller

## Identity

The Beekeeper

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-beekeeper
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-beekeeper
- **IMDb ID:** tt15314262
- **TMDB ID:** 866398
- **Wikidata ID:** Q115766625
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15314262/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/866398, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q115766625

**Fi1m score: 60** · Critics 57 from 11 reviews

*In a sentence:* Fewer bees than you would hope, more speeches about bees than anyone could want

> David Ayer’s revenge thriller hands Jason Statham a cap, a jerry can and a grievance, and he is exactly as good as the job requires. The film around him is clean, brutal and dim, and it explains its one metaphor until it wears through.

## Synopsis

Adam Clay (Jason Statham) keeps bees in a barn on the land of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashād), a retired teacher and the nearest thing he has to a friend. A warning flashes up on her computer, she rings the number on it, and a friendly voice at a call centre talks her through emptying her accounts. Her daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman), an FBI agent, arrives too late to help. Clay, it turns out, was not always a beekeeper, and he goes looking for the people who made the call. Above them sit Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson) and his minder, Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons). David Ayer directs from a script by Kurt Wimmer.

## Review

Adam Clay keeps bees. He rents a barn from Eloise Parker, a retired teacher played by Phylicia Rashād. Then a warning pops up on her screen, a pleasant young man at a call centre walks her through emptying her accounts, and by the next morning she is dead and her daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman), an FBI agent, is standing in the kitchen. Clay, it emerges, was once something other than a beekeeper. *The Beekeeper* is a B film that knows exactly what it is, made with more care than it needed and less brain than it wanted. If you like Jason Statham it is one of his better recent evenings.

Statham plays Clay in a canvas jacket and a cap and hardly moves his face. He speaks in short sentences about hives, and David Ayer keeps him standing still for long enough that the stillness becomes the joke. When he does move, Geoffrey O’Brien cuts the fights so that we can see who is hitting whom and with what. A reckoning at a petrol station, a raid on a second call centre and a long one-against-many in a big house are all staged with clear geography and a fondness for the sound of bone. It earns its 15 certificate.

The best scene has no fighting in it. Rashād sits at her computer while the voice on the phone keeps her calm and her balance drains, and her face goes from embarrassment to fear to something worse. We were angrier than a Statham film has any right to make us. So when Clay walks into the call centre twenty minutes later carrying two jerry cans, we were pleased, and then a little ashamed of how pleased. Ben Munro’s call centre is an open floor of young people in headsets cheering as the money arrives, Gabriel Beristain lights it pink and purple like a nightclub, and their boss Mickey Garnett (David Witts) works them up like a compère.

The villains are cast with wit. Josh Hutcherson plays Derek Danforth, the rich boy who owns the call centres, as a jittery brat, and Kelli Jones puts him in shirts louder than his lines. Jeremy Irons is Wallace Westwyld, the old intelligence hand paid to keep the boy alive, and he delivers the briefing on what a Beekeeper is with the weary precision of a man who has read the file twice and wishes he had not. Jemma Redgrave is the President. Minnie Driver and Don Gilet, as the FBI’s Director Harward and Deputy Director Prigg, mostly frown at telephones.

Now the metaphor. Kurt Wimmer’s script has decided that society is a hive, that the Beekeepers are a secret order who protect it outside the law, and that all of this must be explained. Clay explains it. Irons explains it. There are speeches about the queen, the drones and what happens when a hive goes wrong, and the film treats each one as if it were the first. The actual bees get about four minutes near the start and are not seen again. The plot under the speeches is the usual ladder, one thug leading to a bigger thug, and nobody on any rung stops to ask a question a viewer would ask.

Ayer’s own record shows what is missing. *End of Watch* (2012) put two men in a patrol car and made their talk the film. Here the talk belongs to Raver-Lampman and Bobby Naderi, as Agent Matt Wiley, trading jokes about hangovers, and it is the flattest writing in the picture. David Sardy and Jared Michael Fry’s score, a low electronic pulse that thickens whenever Statham stands up, carries those scenes better than the dialogue does. Statham’s *Wrath of Man* (2021) had the same stone face and rather more going on behind it.

It runs 106 minutes and arrived in cinemas on 12 January 2024, which is when films like this arrive to be enjoyed and forgotten. Watch it with someone who wants a fight and forgives a script. Do not watch it with a beekeeper.

*Fi1m score 60, published 12 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Beekeeper worth watching?**

*The Beekeeper* is worth watching if you like Jason Statham and can forgive a script, and we scored it 60. The fights are clearly staged and the villains are cast with wit, but Kurt Wimmer's screenplay explains its one metaphor about hives until it wears through. Watch it with someone who wants a fight, not with a beekeeper.

**How long is The Beekeeper, and what is it rated?**

*The Beekeeper* runs 1h 46m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is an action and adventure film.

**Where can I watch The Beekeeper in the US?**

*The Beekeeper* is not on any streaming or rental service in the US at the moment. Availability is checked daily.

**How violent or frightening is The Beekeeper, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Beekeeper* is a 15 in the UK and R in the US, and it earns that rating with fights that linger on the sound of breaking bone. It is brutal rather than frightening, though the early scene of a retired teacher being talked out of her savings is the most upsetting thing in it. Not for children; fine for most teenagers who can take screen violence.

**How does The Beekeeper compare to John Wick?**

*The Beekeeper* follows the [*John Wick*](https://film.one/film/john-wick) template of one man with one grievance, and the earlier film is the better of the two. *John Wick* has clearer rules for its world and better fights; *The Beekeeper* stages its violence cleanly but buries the plot under speeches about bees. Choose Statham's film for a dimmer, grimmer evening and Reeves's for the sharper one.

**What should I watch after The Beekeeper?**

After *The Beekeeper*, try [*John Wick*](https://film.one/film/john-wick) (2014, Fi1m 80): The template this follows; one man, one grievance, better rules and far better fights. Then [*The Raid*](https://film.one/film/the-raid) (2011, Fi1m 83): Indonesian tower-block siege, fights you can follow, no metaphors whatsoever; and [*Get Carter*](https://film.one/film/get-carter) (1971, Fi1m 86): Michael Caine in Newcastle, the British revenge film at its coldest and best.

### Reviews we read (16)

- **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (80/100, inferred): A ridiculous but wildly entertaining January pulp action film and John Wick ripoff with Statham as a stoic beekeeper vigilante; gleefully blunt filmmaking and colorful casting make it fun trash. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2024-01-11/beekeeper-review-jason-statham-josh-hutcherson-action)
- **The Telegraph**, Ed Power (4/5): The critic calls it an enjoyably idiotic, bone-crunchingly gory revenge caper that hits the guilty-pleasure zone like old straight-to-video action. It revels in its own ludicrousness, with dynamic direction from Ayer offsetting the stodginess. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/the-beekeeper-jason-statham-review/)
- **The New York Times**, Amy Nicholson (70/100, inferred): A delirious action thriller full of bee puns where Statham plays a literal beekeeper protecting society from scammers and corruption; entertaining but ultimately forgettable. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/10/movies/the-beekeeper-review.html)
- **Variety**, Peter Debruge (60/100, inferred): An unusually kooky, funny-terrible conspiracy thriller where Statham grimaces through a bonkers beekeeper-assassin premise; the best kind of bad movie with decent action direction. [Read](https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/the-beekeeper-review-jason-statham-1235867598/)
- **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (2/2/2): The critic finds the film an underwhelming revenge thriller that fails to capitalize on its bee motif. They single out the lack of actual bees or bee-related action as a major disappointment. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-beekeeper)
- **Radio Times**, James Mottram (2/5): The critic calls it a gratuitous and formulaic action film with inventive but stomach-churning fights, criticizing the one-note lead and senseless plot, while noting the strong villain cast. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-fltf2a/the-beekeeper/)
- **Empire**, John Nugent (20/100, inferred): The film is witless action trash that overuses bee puns and analogies to the point of absurdity. The action is inconsistent and the characters underdeveloped. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-beekeeper/)
- **RogerEbert.com**, Matt Zoller Seitz: Statham delivers a compelling minimal performance as a vigilante ex-commando beekeeper avenging a phishing scam that destroys his friend; the film is scattered and politically timid but shines in its action sequences and Statham's presence. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-beekeeper-movie-review-2024)
- **The Guardian**: The critic finds it a serviceable, enjoyably silly January action thriller full of bee puns and bone-crunching set pieces. Statham’s knowing, low-stakes performance and Ayer’s trashy energy make it a medium-reward time-waster for the right audience. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/jan/11/beekeeper-movie-review-jason-statham)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The critic finds the film just dumb enough to be diverting, thanks to Jason Statham's physicality in the action sequences. Ayer's self-serious direction and the literal bee metaphors are noted as limitations on what could have been more playful fun. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-beekeeper-review-jason-statham-david-ayer-1235780341/)
- **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★✩✩✩): The critic says Statham needs a decent action movie and wastes his talent and charisma in this vacuous B-list effort from David Ayer. There are flickers of greatness in the action scenes and ironic performance, but the dated premise and pulp execution disappoint. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/the-beekeeper-review-jason-statham-needs-a-decent-action-movie-wdbt5p8v0)
- **Collider**, Nate Richard (8/10): The critic praises Statham and Ayer for delivering a wild, entertaining B-movie action film that balances grittiness and silliness, with Statham's commitment making the action cinematic. [Read](https://collider.com/the-beekeeper-movie-review/)
- **Polygon**, Pete Volk (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film enjoyable for its fun, creative action, bee puns, and Statham's performance, though noting some plot issues; it grows on the viewer as breezy genre fare. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/24031441/beekeeper-review-jason-statham-movie/)
- **/Film**, Ben Pearson (6.5/10): It delivers enjoyable Jason Statham action sequences and some interesting world-building around a secret organization of assassins, but narrative stumbles and a failure to match the John Wick formula make it less than the sum of its parts. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1487935/the-beekeeper-review/)
- **Eye for Film**, Andrew Robertson (30/100, inferred): The critic views it as a standard B-movie action vehicle that will satisfy fans of Statham's mid-market output but criticizes the choppy editing, nonsensical plot elements, murky production design, and clumsy metaphors comparing society to a beehive. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-beekeeper-2024-film-review-by-andrew-robertson)
- **Digital Spy**, Ian Sandwell: The critic finds The Beekeeper delivers exactly the kind of undemanding, fun Jason Statham action vehicle audiences expect. They single out the well-pitched silliness, crunchy fight scenes, and over-the-top villain for praise while noting the script's weaknesses. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a46326110/the-beekeeper-review-jason-statham/)

## Details

- **Director:** David Ayer
- **Director:** David Ayer
- **Writer:** Kurt Wimmer
- **Cinematography:** Gabriel Beristain
- **Editor:** Geoffrey O'Brien
- **Music:** Jared Michael Fry, David Sardy
- **Production design:** Ben Munro
- **Costume design:** Kelli Jones
- **Producer:** Jason Statham, Kurt Wimmer, Bill Block
- **Cast:** Jason Statham as Adam Clay; Emmy Raver-Lampman as Agent Verona Parker; Josh Hutcherson as Derek Danforth; Jeremy Irons as Wallace Westwyld; Bobby Naderi as Agent Matt Wiley; David Witts as Mickey Garnett; Michael Epp as Pettis; Taylor James as Lazarus
- **Runtime:** 1h 46m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 12 January 2024
- **Genres:** Action, Adventure, Crime, Thriller
- **Budget:** $35 million
- **Box office:** $163 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE0KFHYiQ4s

## Where to watch in the US

Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check.

## If you liked this

- *John Wick* (2014), Fi1m 80: The template this follows; one man, one grievance, better rules and far better fights. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/john-wick.md)
- *Nobody* (2021): Bob Odenkirk as the quiet suburban dad who is not; the same joke, told with timing.
- *The Raid* (2011), Fi1m 83: Indonesian tower-block siege, fights you can follow, no metaphors whatsoever. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-raid.md)
- *Wrath of Man* (2021): Statham’s stone face put to grimmer use by Guy Ritchie, with patience this lacks.
- *Get Carter* (1971), Fi1m 86: Michael Caine in Newcastle, the British revenge film at its coldest and best. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/get-carter.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-beekeeper