Directed by David Ayer (“Fury,” 2014) and written by Kurt Wimmer (“Salt,” 2010), “The Beekeeper” begins not with bees but with hornets, a nest of which unassuming beekeeper Adam Clay (Jason Statham; “Wrath of Man,” 2021) uses his skillset to dismantle. His neighbor—and landlady—Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad; “Creed,” 2015), is Clay’s only source of familial stability in his little world. Tragedy strikes when Eloise dies by suicide as a result of being scammed out of millions of dollars entrusted to her as an educator and founder of a charity. The beekeeper seeks retribution, tracks down the perpetrating multi-million-dollar operation, and burns it down. What he’s about to realize is that he’s only just reached the beginning of a long trail of dirty money that goes deep. And he’s in no mood to stop now.

Right from the stylish, almost-kaleidoscopic opening titles where the bylines of the crew have letters that twitch like the wings of a bee to whip-smart one-liners of “protecting the hive,” “The Beekeeper” is all-in not just on the iconography—the exterior of the Beekeeper hub looks a lot like a hive—but on the bee puns that help fully embrace its old fashioned action-hero-vehicle. Statham looks right at home for a role like this—and Ayer makes sure his skills as a martial artist are amply utilized for the world to see. While the gunfights in this film are spectacular, the brutal combat choreography shines here, with its eponymous protagonist’s raw physicality in full display. The set pieces feel brutally efficient and make for a thrill ride that works best on a cinema screen.

We’ve seen a movie like this before, but since when was that ever a problem for most other films? Journalist-author Christopher Booker’s book “The Seven Basic Plots,” a 34-year-long endeavor, makes for a similar interesting—if suffocating—thesis. Focusing on the notion that there are only ‘seven basic stories in the world,’ Booker claimed his more-than-three-decades-long findings led him to discover that “[several] basic themes or plots” continue to recur “in the storytelling of mankind,” adding that “the degree to detail to which these ‘basic plots’ [shape] the stories” was even more astonishing to find. The plot mostly never matters— the resulting filmgoing experience and an understanding of directorial or authorial intent do. 

The intent? According to Ayer on Twitter (now X), the film is “a love letter to the action movies that inspired me growing up.” Keeping this in mind, does it succeed? Absolutely. It’s a chunky thrill-a-minute slice of throwback action with the kind of one-liners you’d hear in action blockbusters released across the ‘80s or ‘90s. Like most of the titles in his filmography, however, he seems to gravitate toward stories that question the reconciliation of governmental authority in a moral binary. Films like “Training Day,” “Fury,” “Street Kings,” “Sabotage,” and even—for that matter—“Bright” bring into question the actual laws being enforced by law enforcement and who these laws benefit, and “The Beekeeper” is no different; just—in the way most vintage action movies can be—fashionably in-your-face.

Wimmer’s script balances delicious worldbuilding packed with a set of gleefully over-the-top lines explicitly designed to make you hoot and cheer at the screen when it’s time for a clapback. “To bee or not to bee; that’s the fucking question,” says an antagonist at an essential juncture in the movie’s narrative, giving its Shakespearean roots a thematic buzz (pun intended). While it is definitely among the film’s more inspired moments, the writing is packed with many such references that almost everyone in the cast—especially Emmy Raver-Lampman (“Untitled Horror Movie,” 2021)—seems to have a blast digging into. 

Raver-Lampman plays FBI agent Verona Parker, who’s assigned the case of bringing Clay to justice and, at one point, finds and reads a book on beekeeping, ending up low-key obsessed with the worker-bee to queen-slayer pipeline. (There’s a payoff neatly woven into the bee fact Verona gets stuck on, but we’ll leave that for after you’ve watched the film). She’s fantastic and often goes toe-to-toe with Statham, occasionally outshining him as a character actor. She’d be an excellent choice for a lead who kicks ass and takes names. Still, for now, we’ve got the ever-reliable Statham, whose unmistakably British charm marries the fluid action choreography he slips into, bringing back the action hero we’ve always come to know and love from the 2000s and 2010s. While Clay is still the wise-cracking, ass-kicking protagonist, it’s refreshing to see the man who plays him portray some moments of quiet, almost surprising vulnerability, especially in his opening exchange with Eloise.

Of the entire cast, the one who seems to be having the most fun is Josh Hutcherson (“The Disaster Artist,” 2017), who plays the slimy, spoilt rich-kid archetype Derek with such unrestrained glee it’s almost scary-good how that translates on the big screen. He sheds the clean-cut image for an overall care-a-damn narcissistic psychopath who charms his way through situations he can and bullies those he can’t. Rashad is devastating in her short role, while Jeremy Irons rightly plays his cursed-babysitter-of-a-ticking-time-bomb role to the gallery.

Despite its almost clinical brutality, “The Beekeeper” looks drop-dead gorgeous. Cinematographer Gabriel Beristain (“Black Widow,” 2021) uses dramatic lighting and color to ramp up its image system of a seedy, surrealistic setting, giving every set piece this almost three-dimensional pop. The soundtrack by Jared Michael Fry (“No One Will Save You,” 2023) and Ayer regular David Sardy (“End of Watch,” 2012) is suitably palpable and ups the grit factor a few notches. Film editor Geoffrey O’Brien (“The Tax Collector,” 2020), collaborating with the director for the third time, weaves in a solid structural edit that shines especially in its action sequences—every back and forth in combat has a clear line-of-sight and balances speed and visual clarity beautifully.

It’s wild how deliciously good “The Beekeeper” is as a throwback action blockbuster. David Ayer’s ninth film as a director is as assured as ever and shows a lot of sincerity and passion for the craft. It’s a bombastic thrill-a-minute ride, which fully and unashamedly commits to its own identity and delivers a giddyingly great time at the movies for those who watch it. Highly recommended and best served on IMAX.