'The Beekeeper' Is a Refreshingly Fun Throwback to 1980s Action Movie Classics

There was a time when John McClane of the "Die Hard" movies was just a regular New York City police detective. When terrorists took over Nakatomi Plaza, he was an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation. Almost 20 years later, McClane is single-handedly fighting an F-35 Lightning II on a freeway and taking down the Russian mafia with his CIA operative son. To say that things got out of hand would be an understatement.

Director and Navy veteran David Ayer ("Fury," "End of Watch") set out to make a tribute to the "realistic" action movies of yore, the kind that inspired him to become a filmmaker. His new film, "The Beekeeper," stars tried-and-true action star Jason Statham as the kind of hero who probably could fight an F-35, but doesn't have to.

"I think it's different from a lot of the work he's done," Ayer told Military.com, referencing Statham's roles in movies like "The Expendables" and "The Meg." "I really tried to build an elevated movie around him. I really wanted to do a classic action movie, a nod to the great '80s and '90s action films that I think we all love. To put Jason in that kind of movie is new for him, new for me and he knocks it out of the park."

While "The Beekeeper'' might have some 2020s-level action sequences and Statham's titular character is actually far from being a simple honeymaker, no one is sending a Pontiac Fiero into low earth orbit (looking at you, "F9"). Indeed, Ayer specifically cited "Die Hard," "Commando" and "Lethal Weapon" as some of his personal inspirations.

"There's so many of them," the director said. "We haven't been making movies like that for a while, and I think there's a huge appetite for it."

Statham plays Adam Clay, a literal beekeeper who mostly keeps to himself, living on a patch of land owned by retired schoolteacher Eloise Parker. When Parker takes her own life after a phishing scam empties her accounts, Clay vows revenge. But there's more to Adam Clay than flammable honey: it turns out he's a former member of an elite clandestine group of operatives known as "Beekeepers."

On the run from the FBI and hunting down an increasingly dangerous group of criminals, he exposes real corruption and greed as the stakes grow higher. Sure, he's not an everyman like McClane in "Die Hard"; he's more of a one-man army, like John Matrix in "Commando." He's reluctant to fight until you cross him, but once the bad guys come along, the sparks (and honey jars) will fly.

"Jason has this amazing quality where you love seeing him punch people," Ayer said. "I don't really know another actor who brings that. And when you make these movies, you test 'em, you learn about the film, you change the edit to make the best movie you can. In testing, everything we learn is that the audience loves watching Jason beating up bad guys."

Ayer served in the Navy as a submarine sonar technician during the Cold War. After leaving the silent service, he had trouble adapting to civilian life; he no longer had the extended family the military was for him. He tried being a painter and an electrician before moving into filmmaking, where he found that extended family he'd been missing.

"You go from an environment where you're part of a team; it's very clear who you are, your responsibilities and that sense of connection and family," Ayer said. "When you get out, it's crickets. ... Filmmaking started out as a way to process my experiences in the military and share a bit of the world as I had seen it. In that process, I discovered that I had some kind of talent. I kept getting hired, and here I am."

"The Beekeeper" also stars Emmy Raver-Lampman ("The Umbrella Academy"), Josh Hutcherson ("The Hunger Games"), Bobby Naderi ("Bright"), Minnie Driver ("Speechless"), Phylicia Rashad ("The Cosby Show") and Jeremy Irons ("Justice League"). It's in theaters everywhere starting Jan. 12, 2024.

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