The Beekeeper - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Beekeeper



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Jason Statham has carved himself out a niche in the action film community that almost rivals the legends of old. While he branches out to punching sharks in the face in films like The Meg, or pulls in some decent fun roles in Guy Ritchie films, his bread and butter is the hardened tough guy who just wants to be left alone, only to be pulled into trouble wherein he must punch and kick people in the face for 90 to 120 minutes. Well, judging by the trailer of Amazon and MGM’s The Beekeeper, I was pretty sure we were going to be in for lots of Jason doing just that, and I wasn’t disappointed. To coin a phrase from multiple online critics who have already seen the movie “If you’re going to go in with the idea that this is a great movie, then back up. This is Jason Statham scowling and muttering out of the side of his mouth while he beats the ever living snot out of about roughly 100 people”.

I’m not even going to beleaguer you with any superfluous stuff like “plot” or “character development” here as there really is none. Jason Statham is Adam Clay, a beekeeper who takes care of the elderly Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad of The Cosby Show). That is until Eloise gets scammed by one of those “your computer is infected, please call us now” sort of data mining scams and gets taken for her entire net worth. Taking her own life out of desperation draws in not only Adam, but Eloise’s FBI agent daughter Veronica (Emmy Raver-Lampman) who mistakes Adam for the killer.

However, Adam is not just a beekeeper. He’s an ex black box government agency member known as “The Beekeepers”. Basically a super secret and group outside of the chain of command who corrects the system in case it’s leaders ever are corrupted (great job guys, have you seen the world out there!?) his job was to be an unstoppable killing machine that could take down anyone, up to and including Superman, Iron Man, and possibly John Wick as well. Adam had pretty much settled down in life as an ACTUAL beekeeper out in the country, but the scum bags who were responsible for Eloise’s death have to pay, and that means that NOTHING and NO ONE will stand in his way. And if they do, they’re gonna get punched or kicked in the face.

As I said, the plot is beyond ridiculous, and even the actors don’t really care if you know it either. Statham’s character basically is John Wick and Jackie Chan rolled into one, and every single person in the movie hypes up his invincibility the entire way. Jeremy Irons is the head of an intelligence agency (or really, ex head) who stutters and is scared spitless of him the entire film, while the “villain”, Derek Danforth (Josh Hutcherson of Hunger Games fame) is the idiot in charge that he’s aiming at killing. And if you came into the film expecting an action fest where our hero barely gets scratched, all the while racking up a body count that would make one of the girls on the “Whatever!” podcast be in awe of, then you’ve come to the right place.

Now, is The Beekeeper a good movie? Probably not. But it is a FUN movie and just what the doctor ordered for this reviewer who has been begging for a “fun” movie for quite some time. It’s Jason Statham punching people in the face while snarling out of the side of his mouth? His martial arts and physical prowess is on full display, and unlike The Expendables 4, He’s given center stage for his butt kickery. Everyone else is simply window dressing, or in Josh Hutcherson’s case, he’s the 1980s smart mouthed villain that everyone is cheering to get killed.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violence throughout, pervasive language, some sexual references and drug use.




4K Video: Video:

Sadly we don’t have the Blu-ray to compare against, but the 4K UHD disc looks really solid. There’s a honey colored (yes, I’m aware of the irony) color grading to the image that kind of softens and adds a gauzy effect to the whole image, but otherwise we have some fairly impressive detail levels in daylight shots (night time shots look the softest). Colors are a bit monochromatic with that yellowed color grading, but black levels are generally impressive and primary colors (such as a brightly colored shirt, or a spray of blood) all radiate quite nicely when they are present. Like Air, The Beekeeper isn’t given a massive bitrate, and even with the lack of extras on the disc isn’t close to Warner’s usual encodes (though this encode could have been done over at Amazon/MGM) and is what I would consider “pleasantly serviceable”.








Audio:

While the video is just good, the Dolby Atmos track found on the disc is utterly superb. Full octane action oriented audio bliss at its best. The track starts out pretty mild, with only a few sharp instances of surround activity (the scam artist scamming Eloise in his busy call center for example), but at roughly the 40 minute mark things get spicy really quickly. Gunshots, explosions and the like reverberate from every direction. The entire thing is one gigantic ball of fire that puts the listener in the center of the action, even though it DOES require a 5-6 DB boost to hit reference levels (once balanced with an AVR bump, it does NOT disappoint). Bass is gut wrenching, surrounds wildly active with everything from bullets hitting computers, to gas stations exploding) and dialog is perfectly locked up in the front of the room.













Extras:

•

Final Score: ​

To put it simply, The Beekeeper is just simple fun escapist action. The fight sequences are well done, the budget is solid, and Statham can MOVE for being almost 60 years old. The guy is in his element here and both my wife and I were grinning from ear to ear by the time the credits started to roll. MGM/Amazon’s 4K UHD is sadly devoid of extras and the picture quality is just “good”. However, the Atmos track is reference material and the movie itself is a barrel of dumb fun. Recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jason Statham, Jeremy Irons, Bobby Naderi, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Taylor James
Directed by: David Ayer
Written by: Kurt Wimmer
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), English DD 5.1, English DVS 2.0
Sugtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 105 minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: April 23rd, 2024

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Sonnie Parker]

He's made a LOT of movies. I got burnt out on him a while back. Just seemed like the same old thing over and over.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Interesting conclusion about having to bump volume to hit reference levels. I actually had to back things off 4 or 5 dB with the Kscape version.

Bizarre.

Agree with you Mike. Fun escape movie that has some warts.

 

[Michael Scott]

Interesting conclusion about having to bump volume to hit reference levels. I actually had to back things off 4 or 5 dB with the Kscape version.

Bizarre.

Agree with you Mike. Fun escape movie that has some warts.

yeah, I've noticed warner brothers Atmos tracks have that tendency the last few years. it wasn't massive, but it was noticeable.

 

[VJM]

He's made a LOT of movies. I got burnt out on him a while back. Just seemed like the same old thing over and over.

Agreed 100%!

 

[VJM]

It looks like it's about -3db from reference so Michael's right about needing to bump the volume up.

 

[VJM]

yeah, I've noticed warner brothers Atmos tracks have that tendency the last few years. it wasn't massive, but it was noticeable.

Speaking of Warner, wait until you review Dune Part 2 that's about +7db over reference

 

[Michael Scott]

Speaking of Warner, wait until you review Dune Part 2 that's about +7db over reference

if it's anything like the first film's Atmos track it should be reference quality