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There was a time when Jason Statham was considered a bona fide action star. I don’t think his name ever reached the ranks of superstardom, like Arnold or Sly of JCVD, but for a time you could rely on him to crank out solid, enjoyable action flicks that did well at the Box Office. His run started with The Transporter, and then carried on through two more of those films, plus a duo of Crank movies, In the Name of the King, Death Race, and The Bank Job. And then he got wrapped up in the Expendables films and, while those were good, he did achieve parity with the likes of the classic, 1980s mega stars. But even then, people don’t talk about him breathlessly the same way they used to about Arnold or Sly.

Statham is great, and when he gets good material, or even just enjoyably dumb material, he can sell the hell out of it. He has presence, being both just a massive thug of a man as well as being a well trained martial artist. He can do his own stunts, he can carry his scenes, and he can sell the action. For a star of his caliber, that leads to some enjoyably great action films. When I see Statham’s name attached to an action film, at the very least I know he’ll be the best part of the movie, carrying it with his sarcastic, stoic charm that he can bring so well.

I wouldn’t put The Beekeeper among the ranks of his best films. I wouldn’t even qualify it as a good movie. There’s a dopey, cheesy charm to the film that works, in moments, but the film can never quite commit tonally to what it wants to be. Statham is, naturally, the best part of the film and every scene he’s in is great. But when it comes to the story, especially the weird, implausible leaps it takes to make Statham’s character into someone comparable to the likes of John WickStarted as a tale of redemption and then revenge (in that order), the John Wick series has grown to be a adynamic, reliable action series that doesn't skimp on the hard hits and gun-toting thrills, elevating Keanu Reeves as one of the greatest action stars ever. and Nobody, the film can’t quite get there. It wants to be an over-the-top, dumb as rocks, delightful actioner but then it tries too hard and fails at its goal.

Statham stars as Adam Clay, a beekeeper who rents land on the farm of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a former teacher operating a rather large charity in her retirement. When Eloise gets a weird popup on her computer, she calls the number on the popup, getting a scammer saying, “hey, yeah, this is just part of your virus software. Let’s help you out.” Instead, they get her to login to some of her accounts, and then drain all her funds, including the two million dollar charity.

Devastated, Eloise kills herself. Once Adam finds out, he goes on a rampage, destroying the building the scam group was working out of, and killing a few of their security guards in response. The group retaliates, coming for him (and killing all his beehives in the process). Awoken, and angered, Adam picks up his work, heading out to kill everyone associated with the scamming group all while being chased by Eloise’s FBI agent daughter, Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman). It’s a race to see if Adam can root the evil out before the FBI catches him and puts him down.

The Beekeeper has a very specific, stupid, and hilarious idea that, in the right context, would actually work so well for a movie like this. Adam is a former Beekeeper, and it’s important to capitalize that “B”, because while he does love bees, and works on a set of hives as his hobby, he is also one of a group of trained field agents set to protect the United States from agents working within and without. They are the Beekeepers, and their job, as they put it, is to protect the hive (the USA), even going so far as to kill “bees” within the hive that are working against the good of the collective.

Beekeepers, we’re told and shown (so bravo to the movie for that) are top of the top, best of the best. It compares the Beekeepers to Navy Seals and Green Berets, calling those trained agents, “pussies.” There’s the Beekeepers and then there’s everyone else. Moments where the film says, “wait, you angered a Beekeeper? Well, you’re really fucked,” are just so funny, so good, that honestly I wish the movie could have delved deeper into this fictional organization so we could have gone all in on the craziness. It should have been like in John Wick where every scene shows us more and more of the crazy, over-the-top world of the assassins. If The Beekeeper could have gone hard, like that, it would have absolutely been a crazy, whirlwind thrillride.

The issue with the film is that these moments, hinting at the bigger secret world of the Beekeepers, are few and far between. The movie is great when it buys into the stupidness of its scenario, letting it be a gonzo action adventure. But the rest of the time it’s a much more grounded, down-to-earth cop vs. killer scenario, and that’s a whole lot less fun. It feels like the script was written as a bog-standard action adventure, then at some point someone was like, “we really need a backstory for this,” and the writers threw in the most idiotic thing they could think of, only to realize it was fantastic.

I honestly wish the film had gotten a further rewrite to work more of the beekeeping world into it. I want to know more about the organization, which we’re only told about. I want to know about the handlers who keep the agents in check, who we basically never see. There’s apparently a ruling council of Beekeepers and I want to know if they’re called the “Court of the Hive” or something similar. I want them to have an elaborate economic system built around honey. I want this movie to go all in on the bees. That would make this movie amazing.

Instead this is a far more basic film that really only works because Jason Statham is in it. The action is erratic and, frankly, not great, and you can feel how everyone in the film is basically at a much lower caliber, action wise, than Statham. He absolutely carries this film, a hulking, shadowy presence moving from scene to scene, killing everyone that gets in his way. I like his moments because he’s clearly invested in this goofy film and the idiocy of its premise. It just would have been nice if everything around Statham could have been at the same level.

Well, okay, that’s not fair. Two other people were as good, they just didn’t get involved in the action. Phylicia Rashad gives a solid, understated performance as Eloise Parker. You get a sense of her as a warm, caring person and even though she’s only in a few early scenes in the movie, you feel for her as she gets scammed and then realizes just what happens. You care about her enough that you agree with Adam when he goes off to kill every motherfucker that led to her death. And then Jeremy Irons is also really great, playing the head of security for the guy at the top of it all, the one behind all the scam farms that steal billions from people every year. Iron’s character, Wallace Westwyld, is former CIA and he knows of the Beekeepers. His reaction to realizing a Beekeeper is on their tail, and wants to kill them, is what helps sell the lunacy of this world and make it feel real.

But once you get outside these performers, the movie just… feels flat. Raver-Lampman is miscast as Agent Verona Parker, lacking the presence to play a serious, tough-as-nails agent that really could catch and kill Clay. Josh Hutcherson is scummy enough to play Derek Danforth but he lacks the richness in his performance to actually make you care about him as a bad guy. You never invest in the main beats of the story, anything around Adam killing people, and since these are the characters that are actually meant to kill us the story and make us think about Adam’s actions, having people we don’t care about in the roles does the film no favors.

There’s a way that The Beekeeper could be a nasty, pulpy bit of lunacy, and I think the bones for that are here. If somehow this film got a sequel (please call it The Beekeeper: Legends of the Hive) I think it could work so long as they invest fully in building out this stupid world. This film doesn’t do it and it’s all the weaker for it. The Beekeeper is a bad film, sure, but it’s bad that’s almost campy good. The fact that I have to say “almost” lets you know just how much it misses the mark.