Jason Statham is Looking for "Redemption" at the Box Office. This Won't Help...

The original title for this film was "Hummingbird". 

That makes even less sense to the movie.

Glad they changed it...

The Story:

Joey (Jason Statham) is former British Special Forces on the run for what he did in Afghanistan.  Now homeless and living on the streets, he just wants to get by without getting caught.  However, fate always seems to find these people, and soon he finds himself on the run again, and winds up able to clean up his act, and begins working for the local London mob.  Stashing away money, Joey, or Crazy Joe begins helping the poor on the streets and a local nun.  When one of Joey's only friends winds up dead, Joey decides it is time to seek vengeance, and he'll stop at nothing until it's finished.

Not your typical Statham action film.

So either that makes you jump for joy, or murmur "uh oh".

Count me originally in the "uh oh" camp.

This movie is very much a drama, with splices of action.  The story is deliberately paced and I hate to use the word "slow" but it is, but not in a bad way, just in the way that it's a drama, not an action flick.

That said, they do let Statham do the two things he is known best for:

Drive
Kick butt

Just not as much.

But that's okay, what he does works perfectly in the movie, and shows how much he wants redemption for what he's done in life.

He has the perfect opportunity to leave it all behind at the end, but decides that he hasn't earned that right yet, so once again he disappears.

Much like this movie will from your memory after watching it.

Final Grade: C

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: One of my least likely to ever see from Statham.  Again, it wasn't bad, it just wasn't great enough to warrant another spin.

Brad Pitt "Killing Them Softly" Will Make You Die of Boredom

They don't actually use the song in the movie.

How disappointing.

The Story:

Markie (Ray Liotta) runs a local gambling establishment for the mob.  One time he robs his own place to get some money, no harm, no foul.  Except when he admits it months later.  So when he is robbed by three locals later, Markie is the prime suspect.  The mob calls in a hired gun, Jackie (Brad Pitt) to take care of Markie.  When he tells his go-between (Richard Jenkins) that Markie is innocent, the mob really doesn't care, they want to make an example.  Before too long, Jackie is going to have a lot of blood on his hands to get things in order.

Meh.

That's my overall reaction to this movie.

It's not bad.  It's not great.

It's a low-budget gangster film, and Ray Liotta does his part as a small time hood.

It was sad to see James Gandolfini for a brief and thankless role in this movie that made no sense whatsoever, and was really a waste of time, and his talents.

Heck, Richard Jenkins as the Driver was probably the best character in the movie, and he was seen all too briefly as well.

But really, the information flows too easily, too often for this heist to make any sense as Jackie mops up all of the loose ends.

They try and tie how the mob works alongside how politics works as this movie takes place during the end of Bush's tenure in office and the rise of Obama.

Well, that's a nifty card to play, but it doesn't help make the movie any better.

Final Grade: C

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: There was absolutely nothing of interest to make me want or need to see this again.