R 2024 Action 1h 45m
Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a quiet keeps-to-himself beekeeper who rents a little space from a vulnerable elder, Mrs. Parker (played by Phylicia Rashad). While he is out in the fields taking care of the bees, she is cyberattacked and scammed by a call center that preys on the elderly. The call center manages to trick Mrs. Parker out of all of her savings and millions of dollars from a charity that she manages. In despair and embarrassment, she kills herself. This call center is just one in a larger operation; how widespread is this corruption?
By taking Mrs. Parker’s money and pushing her to commit suicide, the bad guys have drawn “first blood.” By the rules of Rambo, our hero must leave the quiet life he has built for himself and avenge the wrong-doers at any cost. It’s important to remember that in a quest to protect the innocent, it is okay to commit a killing spree.1 As a protagonist in an action/revenge movie, Mr. Clay has a particular set of skills that make him particularly effective in being able to conduct his business. Before being a beekeeper, he was a Beekeeper, a government agent trained to operate outside of the law to keep the society “hive” healthy. Once he gets on the trail of the bad guys, he will not let up.
Statham’s British accent is explained away as Clay having been born in the U.K. I would question whether that might disqualify him from being a top U.S. agent, but that concern disappeared when Jeremy Irons (in full British accent) is introduced as the former head of the C.I.A. Irish actress Minnie Driver is also a director so nationality is not a barrier to rising to the top of the U.S. intelligence community.
Honestly, you’re not going to see this movie because you “loved the book.” (No, I don’t think there is one.) You’re maybe going to see this movie because you like shoot-em-up action movies when they are done right. This one is. It’s not going to make you any smarter, but it’s a fun time at the theater and makes good use of Statham. He’s kind of a British Bruce Willis in the way he makes a lot of action movies — some are great and some are trash so it’s hard to know which ones to see. If you are a fan of Statham's good movies, you'll want to catch this one. It could very well be the start of a franchise.
1. McCall, Robert. “The Equalizer”
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