Le projet Hummingbird

I liked this movie a lot. Don't pay much attention to ratings, watch it and decide for yourself, I'm glad I did that. Good movie.

The movie is projecting modern society's hunger to grasp more from life, to get richer and faster. While the story and pace of the movie is fast enough to keep our interest in it,the script however, feels a little dry. Imagery is just captivating and production design is on top. The highest praise I can think of the movie is Alexander Skaarsgard's acting - which is smart, emotional, funny and nothing he has done before. A supporting actor nomination is a possibility if the movie gets wider recognition and release.

Don't waste your time. There is nothing compelling about this story and at the end, all was for naught. There isn't even a legitimate antagonist, so what drives these ambitious tech geeks to succeed? Nobody knows and neither will you! I saw other reviews praising Skarsgard for a breakout performance, but even that was run of the mill. Just because you're naturally handsome in real life and you use makeup to make yourself bald and gain a few pounds to look out of shape, does not an Oscar caliber performance make. This could have been great, but fell flat in every way. Mediocre writing, mediocre direction, mediocre performances, mediocre cinematography. You walk into the film with the promise of a 5-star meal, but you find yourself served with McDonald's. Use your time on something worth it.

I was interested to see this having read Micheal Lewis non-fiction book Flash boys and if I didn't know better I would say this book had just taken the premise of that book and tried to put a fiction film around the basics of it.

The technology is close to real life and quite interesting, plus the size of the project is quite something to see.

However the plot is just about ok if a little ridiculous at times and the story lacks a build up of any tension or suspense so is just a bit flat.

When a financial IT hustler in the midst of his greatest gamble is presented with a death sentence, he decides to dig a deeper hole.

Twitchy, wide-eyed Jesse Eisenberg is perfect as the edgy and on the edge Vincent, putting out a series of unfortunate fires in his bizarre quest to drill a straight fibre cable pipe from Kansas to New Jersey. Better is balding nerd, hunch-backed, awkward code crunching cousin Anton, played by unrecognizable Alexander Skarsgard in equal doses of clown tear sadness, and physical slapstick. Their escape from and battle with Cruella Devillish Salma Hayek (strong boss Eva), stirs the plot pot.

"The Hummingbird Project" is an exercise in determined futility, as a couple of misguided geniuses in search of life-altering, get rich quick adventure, get in way over their heads as their world spirals out of control. And though the film veers off common sense tracks, there's no denying it's power to cajole viewers along for the crazy ride.

Dig it!