The Hummingbird Project

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.

Cousins Vincent (Eisenberg) and Anton (Skarsgard) quit their trading jobs and want to make a fiber cable tunnel from Kansas to Wall Street in New York. The plan is to dig underground all the way, through rivers, mountains and the like; and yes, they will pay the owners of property to drill under their lands. The speed to do this between Kansas and NY is calculated at 17 milliseconds, but they need to cut that to 16-milliseconds. And you will like this: the speed of a single flap of a hummingbird's wing is 16-milliseconds. So now you understand the title. Their former boss Eva Torres (Salma Hayek) is furious for them leaving, and will do her best to upset their plans. Oh, oh.

The undertaking of this project means a lot of money to do what is needed and the money is funded by Brian Taylor (Frank Schorpion) who is a big time trader on Wall Street, but who also wonders if he can trust Vincent.

Vincent is the hustler and Anton is the coding genius who tries for most of the movie to get the transaction speed down to 16 -milliseconds, and if this is done, then their transactions can beat all other traders and millions will be made.

What keeps us engaged are the acting performances of Eisenberg and Skarsgard. There isn't anything else. This is a slow roll with Vincent trying to get leases signed so they can dig under property and Anton going crazy with coming up with a code to get the speed down to 16-milliseconds, and by doing this he also ignores his family.

A major obstacle comes about when they need to dig under Amish Land. Another major obstacle comes about when Eva puts up cell towers.

Notables: Sarah Goldberg as Mascha, Anton's wife; Michael Mando as Mark, a partner with Vincent and Anton; Johan Heldenbergh as the Amish Elder.

So if you are interested in seeing that the boys make digital information faster between Kansas and New York this is for you, otherwise this is a slow roll. Again, it's the acting of Eisenberg and Skarsgard that will keep you in your seat. Skarsgard may be a candidate for a Best Supporting Actor. (7/10)

Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Humor: No. Language: Yes. Rating: B

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!

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.