David Ayer Archives - Sean Kelly On Movies

A retired black-ops assassin seeks revenge against a predatory phishing ring in The Beekeeper. Adam Clay (Jason Statham) has been living a quiet life working as a beekeeper on the farm of Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad). However, Eloise falls victim to a computer phishing scam, which empties her accounts, including over $2 million in charity funds. Clay soon finds that Eloise has committed suicide as a result of being scammed and he becomes acquitted with her FBI agent daughter Verona (Emmy Raver-Lampman), who has already been on the trail of the scammers with her partner Matt Wiley (Bobby Naderi). However, it turns out that Adam Clay is a retired member of a secret government program called Beekeeper, tasked with protecting the hive when traditional law enforcement fails. Using his contacts, Clay traces the fishing scam to a technology company run by Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson). When Derek learns that he is being targeted, he seeks the protection of his security advisor Wallace Westwyld (Jeremy Irons), the former director of the CIA. The Beekeeper Synopsis The Beekeeper is an action-thriller directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad, Bright). The film takes a page out of the John Wick films as it stars Jason Statham (Fast X, Expend4bles) as a retired member of a clandestine organization called "Beekeepers," who finds himself called back into action to take vengeance against the members of a phishing ring. Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games, Five Nights at Freddy's) costars as Derek Danforth, the trust fund CEO of the tech company that uses its CIA-developed spy software to run the phishing scam. Adam Clay has to stay one step ahead of the FBI, as he fights his way to the very top of this phishing scam. My Thoughts on The Beekeeper They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as director David Ayer and writer Kurt Wimmer (Expend4bles) create a film that is essentially a carbon copy of the John Wick films, with the "Beekeeper" program shown as being quite similar to the secret society of assassins in John Wick. It is also quite obvious that Ayer is setting up The Beekeeper to launch a new franchise, planting seeds of possible recurring characters, such as an extended cameo by Minnie Driver as CIA Director Janet Harward. While The Beekeeper admittedly overdoes it with the metaphors, comparing society with the hierarchy of a beehive, the film still has many quite entertaining action scenes. The plot of The Beekeeper is almost akin to a video game, Adam Clay faces off against different boss characters, working his way up to Derek Danforth. Probably one of the more impressive, and violent, fights in the film sees Clay facing off against hulking South African mercenary Lazarus (Taylor James). While The Beekeeper is ultimately not that different than the other wisecracking action roles that Jason Statham plays, the film ends up being quite an entertaining romp.