Published 2025-01-04
tag(s): #reviews #film-tv
I am taking an unexpected trip to Buenos Aires. I always have a really hard time sleeping in planes. I think I slept around 30 minutes the whole night. I hate it. Specially because I've been sleep deprived for the last couple days. Whenever anything happens, sleep is the first thing that goes out the window for me.
Anyway, I got to watch the movie The Beekeeper, with Jason Statham. Perfect plane movie.
Gonna spoil the review by saying, I quite liked it, for what it is of course.
I am also gonna spoil story details in the last section, but if you are watching this for the
story, you are doing it wrong. Kicking butt and one liners is where this movie is at.
An organized crime hacker group (?) scams an old lady for a lot of money. She commits suicide in desperation. Turns out her neighbor was a retired agent, and he wants vengeance.
Think that summary is too terse? Giving away more is unnecessary. There are a couple slightly-interesting twists along the way, but that's basically it.
I have no idea how old Statham is (and plane's WiFi is down, so I can't check Wikipedia right
now) but the action scenes have a couple more cuts than I would like. Is he too old to play it
straight? Or was it a director's choice? Who knows.
It isn't Taken 3 levels of editing, but you know, quite a few camera changes. Still, the
action was enjoyable.
The movie carries an R rating, I think mostly because of how many times people say fuck and shit and fuck again, but that also means they don't skimp on blood and gore, which I appreciate.
It's interesting how many things this movie gets wrong and right in different areas, which to me made it all the more enjoyable.
The way the guy running the operation is depicted is almost childish, yet there was a tint of
truth to a lot of it. I am giving the scriptwriter(s) the benefit of doubt and assume they did
that on purpose.
Near the end of the movie though, the dude falls back on the old bad boy cliche, snorting
lines and being a prick. So the caricature falls apart a bit.
Special mention to the call center crews, those were completely bonkers. Not as clever though, just Saturday morning cartoon levels of "bad guys".
The way that scam scene plays out, had me screaming inside "old lady, don't!!!". It should be
shown as a PSA in retirement homes.
But how the money is stolen is just bizarre. I am again giving the benefit of doubt and assume
they depicted it very quickly just to get to the punchin'.
The plot point of how terrorist-catching software was misused to detect targets to scam gave
me pause. But I quickly remembered all the realty companies being sued right now, because they
use software to squeeze the maximum possible amount of rent in a given area.
I wish I couldn't think of a couple more cases of abuses like that....
This is a very John Wick plot device, and I am sure it was done before too. But the idea that
"beekeepers" are like legendary vigilantes, was very well executed. Including the little book
with bee details to tie into the story, and the reverence a lot of people had for them. It was
good. And proof, once again, that you don't need the most original idea, a good
execution is key.
Speaking of Beekeepers...
They better make a second movie where the daughter/FBI agent becomes a Beekeeper herself. And
for the life of me I can't remember where else I saw her, it is eating me alive.
I thought her interest in the little book with bee factoids was foreshadowing, but then
nothing really happened...
I shouldn't have tried to write a post with so little sleep, I corrected too many sentences
already.
But it seemed like a good idea after I watched the movie.
I shouldn't make decisions when I had so little sleep. And I definitely won't try to add the code to generate pages to navigate by tags right now, as I figure it's gonna be just really really crappy code.