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Don't Believe the Hype

Best movie ever!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Joey (Jason Statham) is a vet with severe PTSD. He lives as a street urchin and knows the nun Cristina (Agata Buzek) from the soup kitchen. After getting beat up pretty bad, he stumbles upon some "luck." He cleans up his act and gets a job at a Chinese kitchen, where the owner discovers Joey can hurt people (never mind the two broken ribs he is nursing). Joey becomes their muscle. His character is a confused mess of being altruistic, vigilante, and bad man.He feels he must avenge the death of another street urchin, although her character and their relationship had about zero development. The action scenes are quick while there are long scenes of him having conversation with a nun, which seriously is not Statham's long suit. If you want to just watch the beat 'em up Statham, you can fast forward through 95% of the film.I am not sure why Statham decided to take on such a complex character, he doesn't pull it off too well. 3 stars is a stretch.Parental Guide: F-bomb, brief aural sex and nude pictures of men.

Similar to many Jason Statham action thrillers, Redemption/Hummingbird is more loosely a typical action film but nonetheless a solid attention seeking slowly paced drama, with several action fight scenes. Statham is able to showcase his acting skills as he plays a tough homeless man seeking a fresh new start from a messy past. What the audience witnesses and what makes the film work is the character development, as we slowly get attached to his character. Along the way, he finds a few close friends such as a helpful nun whom helps him, as we are also suggested that he finds further proof and much needed information from her. Redemption is not a typical action film, as if those watching it simply based on the trailer are expecting that such, they may be very well disappointed. The film broadens into deep and darker territory and it is a joy and pleasure to watch. Redemption not having a wide US release, due to it being a more so UK film, has brought upon the reason why, however the audience does get to view into its further purposes. Filled with great artwork, dialogue and scenery.

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.

(69%) A more dramatic change of pace for Mr Statham resulting in a better than expected crime drama. The direction is rock solid with fantastic use of neon light, and the main characters are nicely fleshed out with real back story along with haunting tragedy that works well in pushing forward the choices they make and the people they are. All-in-all a very well put together production, despite a few minor niggles with its slightly overworked plot, but I'd still put it amongst hard-man Jason's best performances as well as his better films in general, although those expecting an all-out action movie better look elsewhere as this is mostly a drama, and a very good one at that. P.S "Hummingbird" is a much better title for this movie, so why it's also called the rather bland "Redemption" I have no idea. I'll stick with calling it Hummingbird.