Overview: Jason Statham stars in The Beekeeper, a heart-pounding action-thriller about a mysterious Beekeeper. Adam Clay (Statham), a former operative of a powerful organization known as Beekeepers, upends his covert life and embarks on a brutal revenge mission to dismantle corruption at the highest levels of our society.

The stellar cast also includes Emmy Raver-Lampman, Josh Hutcherson, Bobby Naderi, Minnie Driver, Phylicia Rashad and Jeremy Iron, amongst others.

4K UHD Blu-ray Verdict: Warner Bros. Entertainment is expanding their 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog offerings this month with the release of the highly-anticipated The Beekeeper (4K Ultra HD + Digital) in the expansive 4K Ultra HD video format this April 23rd, 2024.

For my money, this The Beekeeper (4K Ultra HD + Digital) sharpness takes a fairly large step forward from others in their 4K Ultra HD catalog and even comes with HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the complete 4K Ultra HD experience, of course.

So, what we have is The Beekeeper presented to us as a one-disc with a sheet for a Digital HD Copy. Other stand out points you should know are: Codec: HEVC / H.265 (69.78 Mbps), Resolution: Native 4K (2160p), HDR: HDR10, Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 and Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1.

Featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 for brighter, deeper, and way more lifelike colors, as with most all 4K UHDs, everything that we watch features these qualities - but somehow, this film gloriously shines within them all.

Noticeably crisp with the overall clarity receiving an obvious boost here on this release, what is more is that it is enjoyably noticeable. For as well as some new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision, we also get to witness sudden bright pops of color, which makes the eyes draw in, for sure.

As for the audio, well we get the choice of: English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 kbps).

Overall, this is a very strong 4K HDR Blu-ray presentation, and, for the most part, the audio track remains fairly similar to its DTS-HD counterpart; with much of the action occupying the surrounds with outstanding directionality and placement where effects flawlessly pan between the sides and rears.

For me, the script, by Kurt Wimmer (also partly responsible for Statham’s last film, the risible Expend4bles), never misses an opportunity to remind us that bees are the key theme. “You’ve been a busy bee,” notes one character. “You kicked the beehive and now we have to reap the whirlwind,” says another. “Who the fuck are you, Winnie-The-Pooh?” is one of the better lines. A valiant attempt at an old-fashioned action-movie one-liner, meanwhile, is catastrophically inept: “To be or not to be” earns the comeback, “To bee!”, an exchange which makes zero sense even in a film that has over-strenuously dedicated itself to bees.

As for the story to hand, well, this is actually one of Statham’s better films of the last few years. An original story about a mysterious agent seeking revenge on the despicable con men who indirectly caused the death of his friend and neighbor starts a chain of events that spiral out of control.

This is pretty standard stuff for Statham, but it’s very well directed by David Ayer and has a good solid cast. Statham was never particularly good at accents, but at least his weird hybrid is explained in the story. However as expected he excels at the well filmed action sequences, and although there is a certain preposterous nature to the fact that someone as distinctive looking as him can somehow keep evading capture without a disguise, his coolness in a gunfight is part of his charm. It’s just the Stath doing what he does best, beating people up who step in the way of his retribution for an evil act.

There’s blood, gore and violence as well as bad language (although he rarely swears here) and the film is a great popcorn movie providing you don’t mind that sort of thing. Statham may not be the worlds greatest actor but he’s not terrible either. He knows what he’s doing in films like this and does it very well, especially with a solid director like Ayer behind the camera.