“When someone hurts an older person, they are often left to face the hornets alone.”

Confession time: I’ve never been a big fan of Jason Statham movies. In fact, up until his brilliant appearance in 2015’s Spy, I was operating under the impression that he was the sort of guy who took himself very seriously. However, after seeing the trailer for—and getting several hearty laughs out of it—his latest starring vehicle, The Beekeeper, I began to rethink this entire perception. Had Statham finally embraced the utter absurdity inherent in the premises of his leading man vehicles? I am thrilled beyond measure to report that, yes, indeed he has.

I would say that this is probably going to come as a disappointment to die hard fans of his previous output, but I truly believe that The Beekeeper is the kind of movie that will play equally well to both the brightest and dimmest audience members. Anyone coming to see an ass-kicking spectacular is going to walk away having enjoyed the film as much as anyone coming to view it as a guilty pleasure. Movies like that are few and far between, especially in this day and age, but like Robocop and Road House before it, The Beekeeper’s earnest belief in its nonsensical plot is its biggest asset.

Statham stars as Adam Clay, a quiet man who lives in the garage of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad) and keeps bees on her property. Shortly after establishing that she’s the only person that’s ever cared for him, she falls victim to an internet scam that finds her entire life savings and the accounts of a charity she manages emptied out by heartless scammers. After Eloise takes her own life, Clay goes on a revenge mission that sees him taking down the scam call centers while simultaneously figuring how far up the chain of command he can go to exact full revenge.

You see, Clay isn’t just a beekeeper, he’s also a (former) Beekeeper, a highly trained soldier who worked for an off-the-books program designed as a check and balance to governmental power. Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in, and this one man wrecking crew is now on a collision course with Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson), the spoiled rich brat behind the entire scamming operation, and his stepfather Wallace (Jeremy Irons), former head of the CIA.

Look, if you’re going to have the action grind to a halt for an exposition dump, you could do a lot worse than getting Jeremy Irons to do the job. The implausible sounds infinitely more credible coming out of his mouth. In fact, the more characters stop to explain things in this film, the more improbable it all sounds, like a teenager inventing a more and more elaborate story for how dad’s car ended up totaled. But again, this is good stuff, the exact kind of thing you want from a film like this.

I’ve always taken umbrage with the notion of checking your brain at the door in order to enjoy certain types of films. The Beekeeper gleefully welcomes your brain to tag along because it’s going to be properly stimulated by the increasingly preposterous plot developments. Director David Ayer and screenwriter Kurt Wimmer aren’t exactly known for cleverly subverting expectations with any of their previous films, but the level of po-faced sincerity they bring to this endeavor is like the proverbial rising tide. I’m not sure they know how ridiculous this all is, but I’m also not sure if that even matters.

If I have a nit to pick with the film, it’s the staging of most of the action scenes, which account for around half of the film’s running time. Rather than allowing the fight choreography to shine in long takes and wide shots, Ayer prefers lots of fast cuts and close-ups, punctuated by the omnipresent sounds of bones breaking, glass shattering, and various weapons piercing flesh. It’s a bit of a step backwards in the post-John Wick era, but it’s never boring and certainly isn’t a dealbreaker.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the previous two Jason Statham movies that seem to be of a piece with this one: 2006’s Crank and 2009’s Crank: High Voltage. While I got a lot of enjoyment out of those films, they’re a different kind of guilty pleasure. They’re a bit too knowing and think that they’re being clever when, in fact, they’re just playing a game of constant one-upmanship with their set pieces—and none of that is to mention the rampant racism, misogyny, and general bad taste found throughout. This is a much better brand of absurd Jason Statham vehicle.

The Beekeeper is a glorious throwback to the days of Cannon Films, in particular their multitude of interchangeable revenge films starring Charles Bronson in the 80s. The improbability of nearly every action scene is to the film’s benefit because, let’s be honest, none of the movies of this ilk traffic in realism. Why not defy physics and logic so long as makes the end result a more entertaining film? This is a film where an unarmed man in his mid-50s dispatches dozens upon dozens of armed men half his age, it has no business asking us to take it seriously, and it’s all the better for that.

Header image via IMDb