Hummingbird (2013)

You won't be disappointed!

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

'Hummingbird (2013)' is a humdrum hop into the type of weakly written, poorly acted and crudely choreographed bare-bones action-flick that Jason Statham has made more than his fair share of, except here even the action is muddy at best and most of the piece is pretty much entirely forgettable. There are a few odd plot strands which serve to bore more than bemuse, but it's the lack of engagement or even really excitement that kills any enjoyment that could be found in the relatively slow and dull picture. A poor attempt even by these standards. 4/10

This is one of those movies that has stuck with me for a couple of days after watching it. A very different role for Jason Statham, and not what I was expecting from him, more dramatic. Here the choreographed fight sequences, bone breaking, car chasing action and general carnage take a back seat while Statham shows us a deeper and more emotional character. He pulls it off for the most part even managing to shed a tear.The movie isn't without its flaws though it flip-flops, is vague at times and even draggy but I was still invested throughout.I liked the story, a sort of modern day twist on Robin Hood following a damaged (and AWOL) special forces war veteran who has shut himself down with the aid of the bottle and is now one of the homeless on the streets of London. After getting beat up by some local thugs Joey Jones finds himself on the run and accidentally breaking (falling through the roof) into an apartment where the wealthy owner is away for the summer. Joey cleans himself up, borrows the mans clothes, his credit card, his car and sets about getting sober and fit again, eventually finding a job in a Chinese kitchen that requires some muscle.Jones then becomes a sort of vigilante in a bid to atone for his sins and also to find the girl he was playing hobo with on the streets who's been taken into a prostitution ring.We also see the building of a relationship with a faltering nun named Cristina (Agata Buzek) -she is fantastic and while this quasi romance does take over the story to a certain degree I enjoyed them together, great dialogue and interplay and just unique. 4/18/16

Most of us watch Jason Statham movies because they are formulaic action flicks. REDEMPTION attempts to go beyond that, showcasing more of our protagonist's emotions than just calmness and stoicism, with the occasional outburst of physical violence. While there is nothing wrong with Statham's portrayal of a hard drinking, homeless ex-soldier with little to live for, the plot and script that surround him try to pull the audience in too many directions.First, Statham's character becomes a squatter in a posh London apartment, then he goes to work as muscle for Asian gangsters, then has a complicated and morally questionable relationship with a nun, all while trying to sober up, hunt down a man who is violent with prostitutes, and leave the daughter he never sees with a more favorable impression of him.The other peripheral parts of the movie add to the already long list of distractions - only lightly touching on human trafficking, and the occasional Orwellian drone shots from high above London. Statham needs a better script as an opportunity to showcase a greater range of emotions as an actor.

Not the first film to feature an unlikely relationship between a drifter tough guy, and a nun (Clint and Shirley been there and done that), Hummingbird is nevertheless, a far more worthy effort. Worthy? a Jason Statham movie? Yup, that's right, this is actually a pretty good movie, with some food for thought, and which is well worth a look.Tropic Thunder did a good job of poking fun at the thespian rivalries which exist between 'proper actors' and action stars who feel the sting of not being taken seriously at their chosen craft. But what is particularly interesting about Hummingbird and that notion, is that the film's storyline itself is one which has a character who is making a not dissimilar journey into a wider world; that of a traumatised man of action, who wishes to become a man of warmth and compassion, but can find no easy route to where he wants to be. Whether by accident or by design, this makes what we see on screen in Statham's portrayal, almost a film within a film, as we watch him break away from phoning in an easy and comfortable one dimensional tough guy performance, to someone who has to mine a much deeper seam of acting ability.I've never actually thought Jason Statham was a rotten actor, I suspected he might actually be not bad at it, but we've never really seen him have to do it, because he's never really had the kind of roles where it is necessary in order to get his movies in the can, until Hummingbird that is.Of course if movies were filmed in sequence from beginning to end, that would have given Jason Statham the gift of being able to evolve his craft as his character in the movie evolves, but since they are not, what we see is Statham demonstrating what I had suspected, that he can actually pull out a pretty convincing, measured, emotional performance, and there is more than one such moment when he is required to do so in Hummingbird. It's not one which will have the Academy and the BAFTAS lauding all over him, but in fairness to Statham, I've seen far worse films and performances get such plaudits regularly.Unlike a lot of Statham movies, this is not a one man show, with Agata Buzek providing more than the one dimensional love interest we'd typically see in a Statham movie, and in fact being as much a part of the tale as he is. Casting Buzek in the role was an inspired choice. Little known outside her native Poland, and in Germany where she has often worked, she is one of the well-liked and well known stars of European cinema. So we get someone with serious acting chops sharing screen time with Statham, and credit where it is due, he is not outshone by her acting abilities at all. Moreover, unlike most of his movies, where you'd get some carbon copy bimbo as the love interest, instead we have Buzek's frail and unconventional beauty, which suits the role of a slightly awkward young nun who has her own tragedy to deal with alongside that of Statham's character.This is where the storyline has a good deal of merit, in that the redemption which became the US release's somewhat telegraphed title, we learn, is not only that of Statham's hard man and his guilt over a wartime atrocity, but also that of Buzek's nun, although I won't spoil things by saying exactly what her trauma is.What emerges, is a gentle and convincing love story, but not a convenient one, nor exactly a conventional one either. This juxtaposes beautifully against the more familiar violent aspects which come as little surprise when we know the typical kind of film Statham makes. It's almost a new genre, an intelligent, emotional action movie.When we take into account other stylistic touches in the mix, such as contrasting the modern day surveillance in London with the flashbacks of surveillance from Statham's character's wartime experiences, and a colour palette which is often as dark as the two main character's problems, it's apparent that this is a movie which offers a lot more depth and storyline than we are used to seeing in your average Statham flick.That is not to say the movie is perfect, there are some contrivances and tropes which are occasionally a bit too convenient to make things truly convincing, but having said that, one can forgive these for the purposes of making the unfolding storyline hang together to create a watchable film. It also risks falling between two stools in being perhaps too violent for a girlfriend to cuddle up and watch it with her bloke, but possibly too emotive for many pure action genre fans. But if you like seeing a mental sweat unfold on screen as much as you like seeing a physical one, then it ticks both those boxes to be not only watchable, but one of only a few which does a lot more with the action genre than we are used to seeing, in providing a thoughtful reason for the violence, that thoughtfulness being far more than the typical brief nod it receives in most actioners.If you can find it on DVD for a fiver, then it will be a fiver well spent, because you will certainly watch it more than once.