Hummingbird

Jason Statham represents a sort of budget Arnie, albeit one that occupies a particular niche. He's the loveable hardman former soldier/crime syndicate enforcer/assassin with a troubled past you can rely on for tooth-rotting nonsensical entertainment with a chewy action centre. Here he plays Joe Smith, a former-soldier-cum-crime-syndicate-enforcer whose troubled past is that he might have flown off the handle and indulged in a bit of extra-judicial killage. All boxes checked.

When we first meet Joe, he's a disheveled mess living in a cardboard box in a back alley in Movie London, all grime and steam and the smell of dubstep. Circumstances conspire to get him back on his feet and into a very grubby halo as an avenging angel of the homeless who also happens to work for Chinese gangsters. There's plenty of satisfying comeuppence-based violence and a romantic entanglement with a nun.

Hummingbird represents a series of missed opportunities. First, it's called Hummingbird rather than Hobo With A Hot Nun. Secondly, “Jason Statham plays Joseph Smith” immediately conjures images of a whole new genre: Mormonsploitation. Thirdly, it's not really sure whether it wants to make a point about the morality of Joe's actions as a gangster, or contrast them with his past life as a soldier, or be a silly film about a nun-seducing supertramp who throws people off buildings.

That said, occasional scenes with Joe's ex-wife and estranged daughter don't last long enough to bog things down, while Agata Buzek's performance elevates the Statham/nun relationship far beyond its superficially ridiculous premise.

The film is bookended with surveillance shots from UAVs because Joe is on the run from military court-martial, a point which has absolutely no bearing on the plot whatsoever. Hummingbird is silly and fun, it looks fantastic and it only takes itself very slightly too seriously.