---
title: "The Beekeeper (2024) review"
description: "A blatant John Wick rip-off with worse choreo and a somehow more incomprehensible plot - which is genuinely impressive, because I already hate the..."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/the-beekeeper-2024/
---

![A still from The Beekeeper (2024)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/the-beekeeper-2024/backdrop.webp)

# The Beekeeper (2024)

Dec 8, 2025 | 2 min read | Rated 2.5 out of 5 | Dir. David Ayer

A blatant John Wick rip-off with worse choreo and a somehow more incomprehensible plot - which is genuinely impressive, because I already hate the worldbuilding of the John Wick universe.

Jason Statham reunites here with director David Ayer, who previously gave us the mediocre Wrath of Man. Ayer’s been chasing a consistent vision since Fury, and this isn’t it. Statham, meanwhile, continues his reliable run of “guy with a specific job murders everyone” movies - a genre he’s practically cornered. The Beekeeper fits neatly into that canon, right alongside The Transporter, The Mechanic, and whatever else he’s done where the job title is the movie title.

The premise is genuinely insane: a beekeeper’s bees get attacked, so he goes on a killing spree. It’s so dumb. But there’s something almost admirable about the commitment to the bit. The bee metaphors never stop. They just keep coming, relentless, like Statham himself.

The action editing is rough. You can tell nine times out of ten it’s a stunt double wearing a hat, head shaved bald to approximate Statham. The cuts are so choppy it feels like they’re hiding the fact that nobody on screen knows what they’re doing. Compare this to John Wick’s clean, legible choreography and it’s night and day.

And god, this movie is way too long. There’s an entire FBI subplot that adds nothing and goes nowhere. Trim that, tighten the runtime, focus on the dumb revenge stuff - that’s all we’re here for. Nobody bought a ticket to The Beekeeper for procedural filler.

Don’t get me wrong - this was a fun movie to have on in the background. But it’s one of the stupidest films I’ve ever seen, and I genuinely think it made me dumber having watched it. Mostly fun though.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/the-beekeeper-2024/)

## Works on My Machine

Get the next post by email. My newsletter covers homelab builds, AI tools and open source, and it goes out when I have something to say.

It's free, and you can unsubscribe anytime. You'll get an email to confirm first.

![Joe Karlsson at his desk, chin on hand, with a microphone in front of him](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/about/collage/studio.webp)

Joe  
Karlsson

I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.

[More about me →](https://www.joekarlsson.com/about/)

[Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/joekarlsson.com) | [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joekarlsson/) | [GitHub](https://github.com/JoeKarlsson)