Most of my friends will be aware of my penchant for cinematic works showcasing the panoply of talents of a certain Mr Jason Statham. Not quite sure why I approve of his oeuvre to such an extent – I think he has the same kind of thing as Michael Caine – he’s likable, you like him, his character seems to be on your side slightly fourth wall-mocking of the scenario he finds himself in. Anyway, I like his work.
So it should come as no surprise that on my recent flight home from Cancun, I selected “The Hummingbird Project”, as that clearly showed it was a “new release” heavily featuring Statham in its imagery. Such was the prevalence of Statham in the printed magazine, online summary and detail page, I wasn’t too concerned that the “Cast” section didn’t include his name – it was obvious this must mean “supporting cast to The Great Statham”.
On watching the film, I did start to suspect he isn’t in it. But it’s a good cast – Film Zuckerberg, the saucy Nordic from True Blood (who is distinctly unsaucy in this film) and Salma Hayek in a wig. I kept wondering if Statham would suddenly appear and sort things out, but he didn’t. It would have been a better film if he had. It’s not a good film – a hasty lash-up based on Flash Boys by Michael Lewis. And they really crowbar the Amish into it in attempt to give it some ehrlichkeit. It also occurred to me that Statham may have directed the film – but no, not him (I think he has yet to make his directorial debut).
Once I got home, I tried to work out what Statham film this in fact was – it wasn’t hard, as the imagery features on imdb.com:
And what do you know, Redemption was originally called Hummingbird, so now it’s getting hoovered up by some in-flight system under The Hummingbird Project. Note: Redemption was definitely not playing on the in-flight system.
Anyway, no great harm done, just kind of, well, weird really. And it’s my own fault – if I’d kept up to date with my Statham cinematic portfolio, I wouldn’t have made the mistake in the first place.
Timsformational 