Tag: beekeeper

Wonka, The Beekeeper, and every new movie to watch at home this weekend

Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home. So quiet up and listen down; no, scratch that, reverse it!

This week, Wonka, the musical fantasy starring Timothée Chalamet as the irrepressibly whimsical chocolatier, is finally available to stream on VOD. There’s other exciting new releases available to rent as well, like David Ayer’s latest action thriller The Beekeeper starring Jason Statham and Makoto Shinkai’s fantasy romance anime Suzume. There are a ton of other new movies on streaming to watch as well, like Orion and the Dark on Netflix, Freelance on Hulu, Past Lives on Paramount Plus with Showtime, and more!

Here’s everything new to watch this weekend!

New on Netflix

Orion and the Dark

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: DreamWorks Animation

Genre: Fantasy comedy
Run time: 1h 30m
Director: Sean Charmatz
Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Angela Bassett

Written by cerebral screenwriter-director Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich) and based on the children’s book by Emma Yarlett, this animated fantasy adventure follows the story of a child with an overactive imagination and a constant fear of the future who is befriended by the anthropomorphic personification of darkness. Together, the pair embark on an adventure to conquer Orion’s fear of the unknown and embrace the many wonders the world has to offer.

From our review,

By the end, Orion and the Dark has boldly transformed into a delightfully eccentric story, taking on even more metatextual layers. But it never loses its heart: It’s still a bedtime story, a parent and child working together to assemble an ending that satisfies the both of them. Their voices combine in a convincing way, with zany, kid-fueled ideas on one hand, and the careful guiding hand of an adult on the other. But child and parent both learn something from the other, and that turns Orion and the Dark from a simple fairy tale into a beautifully bizarre ride, and finally into a movie with a message that hits deeply for both adults and kids.

The Greatest Night in Pop

Image: Netflix

Genre: Music documentary
Run time: 1h 36m
Director: Bao Nguyen
Cast: The biggest music stars of the 1980s

A behind-the-scenes doc of the making of one of the most popular singles of all-time, The Greatest Night in Pop takes you behind the scenes of the star-studded lineup that recorded “We Are the World.”

From our review out of Sundance:

It doesn’t quite reach the heights of documentary classics, falling short of the insight into the tortured circumstances and frustrated production of Original Cast Album: Company, or the pure musical excellence of Monterey Pop. But there’s something special about seeing these stars mingle that makes this movie a fascinating document on fame and the people behind it.

Shortcomings

Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Sony Picture Classics

Genre: Romance comedy
Run time: 1h 32m
Director: Randall Park
Cast: Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki

Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy) stars in this new comedy from actor-director Randall Park (WandaVision). Shortcomings follows the misadventures of Ben, a struggling filmmaker living in Los Angeles. When his girlfriend, Miko, moves to New York for an internship, Ben is forced to assess his lifestyle choices up to this point in order to learn to grow as both a romantic partner and a person.

New on Prime Video

Fist of the Condor

Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video

Image: Well Go USA Entertainment

Genre: Martial arts drama
Run time: 1h 20m
Director: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Cast: Marko Zaror, Eyal Meyer, Gina Aguad

One of my (Ed. note: PV) very favorite action movies of a stacked 2023, Fist of the Condor is at once a throwback to the Shaw Brothers era of old school Hong Kong martial arts filmmaking, and a new exciting step for Chilean martial arts cinema.

From our review:

At the end of the day, Fist of the Condor is the Marko Zaror show. And boy, does he deliver. The movie is at its best when it is a series of jaw-dropping fights, one after another, leaning on his incredible star power. As an actor, Zaror brings life and deep pain to the star-crossed brothers, and as a fighter and acrobat, he is unmatched. He seems to be able to alternate from raw animalistic movements to robotic, hypnotic defense (he calls it an “electrical impulse” in the movie) and balletic, gravity-defying spinning kicks that are simply poetry in motion.

New on Hulu

Freelance

Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu

Image: Relativity Media

Genre: Action comedy
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Pierre Morel
Cast: John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba

Taken director Pierre Morel moves to a more comedic mode in this movie about a former Special Forces officer (John Cena) and a journalist (Alison Brie) who travel to a fictional country together to interview the nation’s dictator.

New on Max

Dicks: The Musical

Where to watch: Available to stream on Max

Image: A24

Genre: Musical comedy
Run time: 1h 26m
Director: Larry Charles
Cast: Josh Sharp, Aaron Jackson, Nathan Lane

This musical comedy follows two longtime business rivals who inadvertently discover they are identical twin brothers separated at birth. Concocting a scheme to get their divorced parents back together, they switch places in order to orchestrate a reunion. Think The Parent Trap, but with more musical numbers, dick jokes, and Megan Thee Stallion.

From our review:

Dicks takes shots at different kinds of modern movies early on, starting with other A24 movies. A24’s logo is accompanied by grandiose music, and its signature elevated horror threatens to become a tongue-in-cheek thematic inspiration when Trevor and Craig wonder whether their predicament meets the qualifications for abuse and trauma. The film’s New York-set, American Psycho-esque corporate saga is clearly filmed in Los Angeles, with the seams of several sets and stages showing in the margins, while the stock footage it uses of NYC is all distinctly anachronistic.

New on Paramount Plus

Past Lives

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime

Photo: Jon Pack/A24

Genre: Romantic drama
Run time: 1h 46m
Director: Celine Song
Cast: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro

Greta Lee (Sisters) and Teo Yoo (Decision to Leave) star in director Celine Song’s romantic drama debut as Nora and Hae-sung, two childhood friends who are seperated when the former emigrates from South Korea to Toronto with her family.

Reunited 12 years later, the pair find themselves unmistakably drawn together. As their respective lives and obligations pull them further and farther apart, Nora and Hae-sung must confront their feelings about the life they might have shared together had their past choices been different, and what to do with those feelings now in the present.

Song spoke with Polygon about how the film is all about “the way that life reflects upon itself,” as well as her brief foray into The Sims 4 theater production.

Kokomo City

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus w/ Showtime

Image: Magnolia Pictures

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 13m
Director: D. Smith
Cast: Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell

The first film from Grammy-nominated producer D. Smith follows the stories of four transgender sex workers living in New York and Georgia. Shot in black and white, the film offers insight into the embattled nature of not only their profession, but the cultural fault lines of gender and identity that intersect with their daily lives.

The Tiger’s Apprentice

Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus

Image: Paramount Pictures/Paramount Plus

Genre: Action adventure
Run time: 1h 24m
Directors: Raman Hui, Yong Duk Jhun, Paul Watling
Cast: Henry Golding, Brandon Soo Hoo, Lucy Liu

Based on Laurence Yep’s 2003 novel, this action fantasy movie follows the story of Tom (Brandon Soo Hoo), a Chinese American boy living in Los Angeles who inherits the responsibility of acting as the guardian of an ancient phoenix after the passing of his grandmother. Aided by a talking tiger named Mr. Hu (Henry Golding), Tom must learn to harness his new powers in order to prevent the phoenix from falling into the wrong hands.

New on Shudder

Dario Argento: Panico

Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder

Image: Shudder

Genre: Documentary
Run time: 1h 38m
Director: Simone Scafidi
Cast: Dario Argento, Fiore Argento, Vittorio Cecchi Gori

This documentary unpacks the storied 58-plus-year career of Dario Argento, one of the most prolific directors behind Italian “giallo” horror and the acclaimed mind behind such films as Suspiria and Tenebrae. Featuring guest appearances from the likes of Guillermo del Toro, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Gaspar Noé, Panico also follows Argento as he writes the script for a new horror film.

New on Tubi

Sri Asih

Where to watch: Available to stream on Tubi

Image: Premiere Entertainment Group

Genre: Superhero action
Run time: 2h 15m
Director: Upi Avianto
Cast: Pevita Pearce, Ario Bayu, Christine Hakim

The second entry in Indonesia’s Bumilangit Cinematic Universe, adapting comic book stories, is finally more widely available to watch in the US. The first, Gundala, was a very fun time, and director Joko Anwar returns as co-writer on this entry, which follows a young woman who learns she is the reincarnation of a goddess.

New to rent

The Beekeeper

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Amazon MGM Studios

Genre: Action thriller
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: David Ayer
Cast: Jason Statham, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Bobby Naderi

Jason Statham stars in David Ayer’s latest action film as Adam Clay, a retired “Beekeeper” (see: black ops secret agent) working as an actual beekeeper in Massachusetts. When Adam’s kindly employer loses her entire life savings to a nefarious phishing operation, he embarks on a one-man mission to avenge her and bring justice to those who wronged her.

From our review:

Statham is his reliable self, mixing his effortless gruff charm with his comedy chops to help sell the ridiculous lines he has to deliver. And the movie looks great — Ayer and cinematographer Gabriel Beristain cleverly infuse the visuals with a yellow/amber color palette to match the title and the vibe, often making you feel like you’re watching the movie from inside a honeycomb.

Suzume

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: CoMix Wave Films/Crunchyroll

Genre: Coming-of-age fantasy adventure
Run time: 2h 2m
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Cast: Nanoka Hara, Hokuto Matsumura, Eri Fukatsu

Makoto Shinkai (Your Name, Weathering with You) is back with another animated fantasy romance adventure about young people struggling with supernatural forces and the general ennui of youth. When high school student Suzume crosses paths with Souta Munakata, a mysterious wanderer on a quest to seal a series of magical doors around Japan to avert disaster, she joins him on his quest in an effort to save her home.

Also, Souta is transformed into a sentient chair by a malevolent cat. It’s complicated.

From our review:

Suzume is about processing trauma and finally learning to live. Even after the movie’s turning point, Suzume is still recklessly throwing herself into danger to save others. Like Your Name and Weathering With You, Shinkai’s latest sees its young heroes racing against time to stop an impending disaster. But some key differences in Suzume make the final act cinch together in a way that soars above the previous two movies. Suzume has a personal connection to the looming catastrophe, one that snugly wraps around her entire character journey. The event itself feels vast and all-encompassing, but because the movie focuses on her instead of on the action, it gives the payoff more emotional impact. And when Suzume steps up to fight her battles, it’s less about making a dramatic choice or defying all odds. She simply reframes what she’s trying to do in a way that feels more personal than most action heroes’ journeys. She doesn’t want to give her life to save the world; she just wants to stay in it.

Wonka

Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

Genre: Musical fantasy
Run time: 1h 56m
Director: Paul King
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key

Timothée Chalamet (Dune: Part One) stars in this new musical prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as everyone’s soon-to-be-favorite chocolatier, now simply an aspiring magician looking to break into the candy business. He’ll have to find a way to overcome the nefarious chocolate cartel and build a factory of his own if he’ll any hope of achieving his dream, though.

From our review:

Normally, I consider it unfair to compare two movies like this, but as I said, I’m a huge fan. Yet more importantly, Wonka directly invokes the previous film in ways big and small, going so far as to have Chalamet’s version of the character speak in the same diction as Wilder’s, complete with a “Scratch that, reverse it” line. As this is a story about a young Willy Wonka, the film must leave a little room to get from here to there, so Chalamet is granted the space to make the character his own. But this is a version of Willy that’s too sanded-down, too approachable to be truly memorable.

Toussaint Egan

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February 2, 2024
David Ayer on his favorite Beekeeper bee joke and making ‘crypto bros’ the villain

The new Jason Statham January action movie The Beekeeper is what it suggests on the tin: a tongue-in-cheek, bee-themed action comedy where Staths doles out punishment to any bad guy who has the misfortune of buzzing his way.

It’s classic Statham stuff, but it’s a different kind of project for director David Ayer, best known for gritty crime dramas like Street Kings and End of Watch, and for 2016’s Suicide Squad. Ayer spoke with Polygon about working with Statham, his excitement around taking on a different kind of genre project, and his favorite bee joke from a movie that has a veritable hive of them.

Polygon: What first drew you to the project?

David Ayer: I got the script, Jason was attached. And the script had amazing character, this really interesting plot structure that just kept crescendoing. I read a lot of scripts, and I already know what’s going to happen before I turn the page. And this one got ahead of me. So I knew there was something there. And it was an opportunity to work with Jason, who I’ve always esteemed as an actor. Great performer, great physical action guy, I think he’s the best. So the opportunity to build a fun, soulful movie around him was a no-brainer.

What was your collaboration with him like?

What I really had to understand is, he almost has this unspoken contract with the audience about how he plays and what he’s going to do, and what he doesn’t do, and how he’s going to deliver for them. I had to learn his language as an actor, and then do my best as a director to showcase that and elevate it. He’s really normal and humble off-duty. He’s just a regular guy, and he’s kind of quiet. But then on set, he’s A-plus-game all the way, and demands everybody else brings their A-game.

I actually ended up learning a lot about action. I’ve shot a lot of action, but I’ve learned more about action from working with Jason Statham than all my other films combined.

Like what?

He has an encyclopedic knowledge of cinematic action. So you can do a piece of fight choreo, and he can tell you where he’s seen that in another movie 20 years ago. He knows body kinetics, in how it plays on camera, better than anybody I’ve ever met. And so he already knows if a punch is going to sell — he knows it instinctively.

So we’ll be on set. He’ll do his thing, and he’ll know it’s not to his standard. And he’ll [say], “We’re going again, we’re going again,” and [I’m like], Yes, sir. And then you go and look at the monitor, and he knows when it’s right without looking at the monitor, which is a really rare gift.

Photo: Daniel Smith/Amazon MGM Studios

Second unit director Jeremy Marinas is one of the absolute best. What was working with him like? What did he bring to the table?

Jeremy is a great guy. Bay Area kid, just a total martial arts, karate geek. From the 87eleven school of hard knocks of stunt performance, he has this visual understanding of how to get the look and the choreography needed on camera.

It’s a tough game now, because the bar on action is so high these days. You go watch a movie 20 years ago, and it’s like, Wow, I remember that differently. The audience is so sophisticated, and has such a sophisticated eye. You’re always trying to exceed that. And with Jeremy, you can see it. There’s a lot of action. There’s a lot of fights, there’s a lot of stunts, and it’s progressive, it just keeps getting bigger and better as we go.

Which was the hardest action sequence to execute?

I’d have to say the gas station scene. We did it early in the schedule. And in any film, you’re kind of finding your sea legs, and you get better every day as you work together. I didn’t have much time to shoot it at all. So it was, OK, how do I creatively compress this much work into that much time? And I didn’t know if I had pulled it off. I was actually really worried about it until I finally saw the scene cut together and it played beyond my expectations.

It’s scary sometimes. Sometimes, you just suck it up and plow forward and hope for the best. That’s what I think people don’t understand about movies, is they become their own thing. They unfold the way they’re going to unfold, and you can’t always control that.

One of my favorite things about the action in the movie is how prop-based it gets. You have an old-school, almost Jackie Chan vibe, especially when Statham is using the beekeeping equipment as weapons, or in the call center sequence, with the monitors and keyboards. What did the prop-based action bring to those sequences?

That’s everything right there. Jason Statham is playing the Beekeeper. He’s not [playing] a tactical action guy, with the pistol shooting. He’s more about using the environment and always knowing where to put his hands and what to grab next, and how to use the tools that are available to him immediately.

And it’s also pretty fun. It’s like, Oh, well, we can use a stapler, or we can use the phone, we can use the chair. And Jeremy was great at building that out. It was also represented in Kurt [Wimmer]’s script, the idea that a gun is a temporary weapon for the Beekeeper, and he’s gonna find something to hurt you.

Photo: Daniel Smith/Amazon MGM Studios

You have this tragic revenge story, but it’s called The Beekeeper, and there are a lot of silly bee references and jokes throughout the movie. How would you describe the movie’s tone, and how did you balance those two disparate elements?

That was the hardest thing for me. I knew that was going to be my big challenge going into it, because I come from a lot of straight, intense, gritty drama. I wanted to make a broad-playing movie. I wanted to make a movie grandma would watch, I wanted to make a movie young people would watch, and everyone in between. I really studied a lot of ’80s movies: [Richard] Donner, Walter Hill, [John] McTiernan. You see it in Die Hard, you see it in Lethal Weapon, there’s a place for the gravitas. There’s a place for a human truth that’s grounded. And there’s a place for absolutely just going nuts.

I think that’s another element where having Statham really helps, because he’s such a funny performer. A lot of people learned that with Spy, but for those of us who have been watching his action movies forever, he’s a really funny guy. And he’s able to deliver a lot of those bee-centric one-liners in a way that few other leads really could.

That’s the thing. He can say anything and you’re gonna buy it, you know? And he has that voice. That voice is so distinctive, and that on-camera presence. He has that movie star magic. And I feel like so much of that is just missing from cinema right now. You know, that sense of fun and adventure and Hey, let’s eat popcorn and escape from the problems of the world for two hours.

And it’s not just being quip-based, right? Because there are a lot of quippy action movies, but this movie better integrates it into the action, which makes it a lot more fun.

That’s the thing, it’s getting everything to work together. And, you know, I had a lot of fun making a genre movie. I’m not gonna say I wasn’t scared going into it.

Do you have a favorite bee joke or reference in the movie?

Oh, man. I kind of like Anisette’s [Megan Le] line “You’ve been a busy bee” in the gas station fight, because you immediately know who she is, what she’s about, and that there’s a relationship there.

The movie has a heavily yellow-and-black color palette. Was that something you thought of when you saw the script? Oh, we want to make it feel like a bee thing?

Yeah, I mean, you gotta have the warm honey tones, and the golden light is part of it. And with this one — a lot of times, my color palette’s a little more naturalistic. I had a new camera system, the Arri [Alexa] 35, which is just gorgeous, the most beautiful digital camera I’ve worked with. And I wanted to take advantage of it. Because that polychromatic, colorful feel of the movie is definitely a function of the camera. And again, just, as a filmmaker, exploring a new look, exploring a new style.

Photo: Daniel Smith/Amazon MGM Studios

I’m glad you brought up McTiernan, because I think there’s certainly some of Hart Bochner’s Ellis from Die Hard in the call center villain aesthetics, and a lot of Wolf of Wall Street, too. What did you want to evoke with that group of people?

[Big sigh] Crypto bros. People with too much money, too much going on, too much of a sense of self. It feels good to be a winner, but it’s not good to win at other people’s expense.

Action movies with short, almost silly titles have been landing well recently, like Gerard Butler’s Plane in 2023. What do you think a title like this brings to a movie?

I think it’s important. It gives you a container to put the world in. It’s so competitive these days, and there’s so many movies. The more you can have a little fun with the audience, be clever with it, but have it make sense for the project itself, have it be part of the reality of the film, it’s crucial. And I’m honestly thrilled how much people have connected with that concept and run with it. And now it’s like, Catch the buzz!

To what you were saying earlier, I think people want to have fun at the movies again, right? And something like this promises you that right from the jump.

That’s it, man. It’s like, Just have fun. I want to go to a movie. I don’t want to be lectured right now. The world’s tough. I want to forget my problems and just eat popcorn and watch people get their butts kicked who deserve it.

The Beekeeper is now playing in theaters.

Pete Volk

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January 13, 2024