The Beekeeper (2024)

"Clay" (Jason Statham) has worked for an off-the-books US government programme designed to provide the ultimate security to the democratic process by providing unlimited training and resources to a group of people whose job it is is to objectively protect the system. These folks are called "beekeepers" which is lucky because our Jason has decided to spend his well earned retirement doing precisely that. He rents some space in the barn of "Eloise" (Phylicia Rashad) and one evening she invites him round for supper. He arrives to find that she has committed suicide and a cursory investigation from her FBI daughter "Verona" (Emmy Raver-Lampman) reveals she was the victim of a callous scam that wiped out not just her savings, but $2 million from a charity she chaired. Yep, you've guessed it. "Clay" decides it's time to reactivate his account and get on the trail of these people regardless of just how high up the food chain the trail of complicity and corruption leads. Statham adopts a rather curious accent throughout this totally unoriginal and derivative action thriller that gets gradually more preposterous as it goes on. Josh Hutcherson and Jeremy Irons add a little box-office to the thing, but their roles are undercooked and the former is actually pretty hopeless throughout. Some fun pyrotechnics and you wouldn't ever want to mess with "Clay" but these one-man assassination squad movies are ten a penny now and this is certainly not one of the best.