User reviews

Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgard are entrepreneurs who undertake an audacious venture to deliver a fiber optic cable from Kansas to the New York Stock Exchange that is faster than all the other portals by just enough to make a staggering difference in market returns. In choosing to take this gamble, they wind up using valuable information obtained from working for their former boss (an effectively domineering Salma Hayek) whom they now find is their competition.

Although this is a well-acted film, its momentum is a bit erratic. The storyline never loses its energy but the plot sometimes takes peculiar detours. This ambitious enterprise is fraught with the emotional imbalance of its two dissimilar protagonists, one a highly calculating salesman (Eisenberg) and the other a neurotic computer wiz (Skarsgard). We discover that each one has motivations of his own. As considerable opposites, they keep the film's dynamic engaging.

Some of the film's best moments are when these two aspiring masters of the universe find the core principles behind their work being challenged by the citizenry they cross paths with. The film takes a mild-mannered look at the ethics of the project but mostly lets the audience judge for itself. Recommended as workmanlike filmmaking on obscure but compelling material.

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.

Writer/director Kim Nguyen did a better job directing, than the choppy writing/screenplay. Great story concept, but the films 111 mins, slow pacing and dragged out scenes, felt like almost 3 hours, and made for somewhat of a boring story that didn't hold much of my attention. The acting was great, especially from Skarsgård and Eisenberg. I am a fan of Hayek, but this character wasn't for her. Nevertheless, the underwhelming writing didn't make up for the great performances. It's a generous 7/10 from me

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!

"The Hummingbird Project" (2018 release from Canada); brings the story of cousins Vinnie and Anton. As the movie opens, we are at the offices of "Torres & Thathcher, New York, October, 2011", where Vinnie and Anton both work as data analysts. Unbeknownst to their boss Eva Torres, Vinnie and Anton are planning to leave and branch out on their own, as they have found a way (or so they think) to get data from the Kansas Electronics Exchange a millisecond faster than everyone else by building a 4 inch fiber tunnel in a straight line from Kansas to New York. Of course, this involves many legal and practical challenges. Off they go... At this point we are 10 min into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this movie is written and directed by little known (on the US side anyway) Canadian Kim Nguyen. Here he brings a story that could have a major impact on how stocks are traded on Wall Street. Within minutes, it is clear that the vibe Nguyen is going for is Adam McKay's "The Big Short". In and of itself there is nothing wrong with that. Except that here, it simply doesn't work all that well. First of all, we need to make a leap of faith that stick traders getting data in 16 milliseconds rather than 17 milliseconds (think about that) will cause a tornado in the stock markets. Second, the movie makes a number of side bars that divert from the major story line (sorry, I don't want to divulge more than that). On the plus side, the movie is helped enormously by the lead performances. Jesse Eisenberg (as Vinnie) and, even better, an almost unrecognizable Alexander Skarsgård (as Anton) truly carry the film on their shoulders. Salma Hayek's screen time (as Eva Torres) is all too brief, unfortunately. Bottom line: the movie is not bad per se, but neither is is compelling. It all feels like a lost opportunity.

"The Hummingbird Project" premiered at last Fall's Toronto International Film Festival to so-so acclaim, and the movie now is getting a limited theater release. It opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, and the Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (8 people, including myself). I can't see this playing in the theater for more than just a few weeks. If you are interested in a "Big Short"-wanna-be that falls, well, a bit short but that has its moments, I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater (if you can), or VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

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

This is a perfect example of what I call a "Soft Thriller", and a great one too : soft thrillers have the story structure, codes, gimmicks and narrative techniques of a "classic" thriller, but present a cast of everyday folks going to extreme lengths to achieve their endeavours, be it linking New York to Kansas City with a high-speed fiber line.

The Mc Guffin : 16 ms speed. This number comes up about twenty minutes in the movie, when the two main characters portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skarsgard have their first on-screen meeting with their investor. After lots of technical squabbles and character development, here comes the first twist : the game is down the the milisecond, who gets even half a jiffy of advance beats the market.

Anton, the brains, lays out the plans and tells the investor that the line will operate at 17 ms speed, only for Vincent, the business-savvy, to jump in front of him and reassure the investor that the line will as promised operate at 16 ms. Cut to the elevator, Vincent is already planning ahead while Anton is panicking about this damn milisecond : there is no more to "scrap from the code", it can't be done. Too late, Vincent has his mind set. The line will work at 16 ms, or they lose everything.

Vincent's Icarus complex, carried by Anton's wings and his dream of retiring far away from the hassle, leads the movie from character to character, each more interesting than the last, from the first land owner to the last unexpected frontier of unbridled american capitalism, quite a clever twist and well executed. And as all classic drama heroes, Vincent's wings burn when he gets too close to the sun, although they are not his.

The whole cast is on point, and by on point I mean that Salma Hayek, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael Mando doing their thing fits their characters perfectly, and the occasional overacting adds an almost surreal feel to some scenes without tainting the whole experience. This is only achieved by a great script and direction, the keystone of which is Anton's character.

Smart people written by smart people, that's chat we wanna see. Enough of the Sherlocks and Sheldons, let's see some more Antons, Chigurh or Zaleski. Everything happens inside, off script. No smartass monologue, no being sassy, only erratic eve movements and sudden epiphanies. For a good chunk of the film, Anton grinds through microseconds and microseconds to get to that 16 ms speed, all leading to the epiphany of epiphanies, which I see a lot of people on here criticizing but I that found actually hilarious.

No thriller without a villain, and Eva Torres as a fierce business woman going the extra mile to prove her ego over Anton's is an interesting idea, although not explored enough. Maybe because Eva's ego is not the issue, but Vincent's. Halfway through the film, an unexpected twist completely changes the stakes for him, making the endeavour not a business matter anymore, but a very personal one. Or more so, he makes it a personal one despite what common sense would dictate, and all the way through the end this matter is addressed in a way I haven't seen in a while.

Hummingbird project is a great soft thriller, well read as you will see for yourself if you have any interest in telecommunications, and technology serves the plot as is instead of being a prop like in many other movies. From futuristic neutrino messaging projects of Anton's to the very lo-fi SSH phone hacking, Hummingbird is a movie of it's time and tackles all sides of the financial tech world, even going into some marxist corners as a bartender who asked Anton about his work asks him then about the "lemon farmers in Zimbabwe".

A sort of meet-cute although not heavy handed, this scene is a pivotal moment for Anton and his involvement in the job. After a bit of banter about him being a CIA agent and her calling the KGB on him, he finally opens up and explains to her with some role-play what he achieves with this milisecond : she is an investor and he is trading for her. Alright, a lemon company then. With his milisecond, Anton gave her 10$ ahead of the other investors. All of this for 10 bucks ? All of this for ten bucks a second, which adds up to a lot in a whole year, as he explains to her almost proud. Then what about the lemon farmers, what do they get ? "They are irrelevant". How can they be when they grow the damn lemons ? Yes, how can they be irrelevant ...

Great characters, great plot, lots of interesting twists, ethic dilemmas and on par dialogue, Hummingbird deserves it's 7/10, and would have gone up to an 8 with a more creative photography direction and editing.

As I sit here watching this flick right now as I type, I am thinking to myself "is there something else I could be watching?", then I paused and decided to write my impression so far. Eleven minutes in and I cant get past the fact that Jesse Eisenberg has no depth as an actor, I dont know if I am watching him portray Zuckerberg, Lex Luthor, the odd character in Adventured or any other movie hes done. He has no depth, rather just comes off like a sneaky slimy creepy guy that in real life... well no one is like him in real life because he so weird in his one single acting style he chooses that person he always seems to portray would never exist!

There are others like that that sort of are so far out on a limb that they are unbelievable in every role and for me are hard to watch, but for some reason people drool over, for example Nicholson, Depp, Walken and so many others, who really have just one odd method of acting at which point they have used up their bag of acting tricks.

On to the flick at hand, a couple of side mentions goes to Selma Hayek, shes the CEO (or something) of a large company? Shes dressed like an ex-fashion model with 6 inch stiletto heels and some weird salt and pepper hair color, really unbelievable. The smart guy appears to be an odd reclusive introvert with some sort of issues or light autism, yet hes married to an attractive woman and has kids...very odd. There is some subtle Hollywood virtue signaling type messaging snuck in there.

Made it to the 45 minute mark... going to have to stop it, its just that boring. Whats next Hollywood, a movie on a landscaping company called "The Art of Growing Grass" or "Dirty Riders" where they re-sod yards and mow lawns?

I am surprised it has such a high rating, although I am convinced as part of the marketing dollars and efforts for a movie, they hire people to hit up all social media and other open forum review sites and try to stack the deck with positive reviews. I would not recommend this 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.

This review may not be very helpful..I just wanted to log my thoughts after watching

I just put it on while having some breakfast I t caught my interest, and I hadn't watched a new movie since long so I thought I'd watch it full While watching I was pretty sure that it's based on a true story...the vibe of the movie was such And it was based in pretty a specific enviornment/plot Quite realistic scenarios and feel this movie has got.. I put this movie on coz of Jesse, and was not disappointed at all..the pain depicted by him through his character was realistic and you could feel it..and it gets intense when multiple things go wrong in the later part of movie.. This is great for Jesse's fans.. The plot is very specific and won't have a mass appeal (A geek and a project manager trying to increase the speed of signals in wall street to get ahead in the game..But movie is focused on the characters and scenarios that go wrong for them and not much on an overall plot or delivering a great story)

If you have any knowledge of electronics then the tech. nonsense will be very annoying. Plot holes abound. I think 3/10 is generous. A good cast wasted on a poor script.

This movie has so many ups and downs.. Movie will keep you interested up until the last second. Jesse Eisenberg was spot on.. This guy is so amazing to watch.

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.

Feelings - certain things are hard to convey. We understand betrayal, we understand loyalty. We understand trying to achieve something that seems impossible. And yet I also understand if people are being left cold with this and its story.

It does it best to convey our two main charactes and their struggle to achieve something worthwhile ... all while there are so many obstacles thrown in their way. That does not mean that everything they do is morally right ... or right in general. They are human beings and they are flawed ... but both play it as straight and as perfect as possible. Funny, tragic ... human and weird

This film kept my interest mostly throughout, but wish they would have better explained how these high frequency traders make millions.... Altho love Jesse's acting abilities, wish he could be more articulate. I found the ending to be sloppy....

Can a film top-heavy with jargon, computer-speak and all sorts of things I personally am not familiar with be interesting? I mean, as far the subject matter goes Kim Nguyen's "The Hummingbird Project" might as well have been in a foreign language without subtitles yet this picture about a couple of computer geeks, (Jesse Eisenberg and Alexander Skaarsgard), striking out on their own to make millions is both a lot of fun and ultimately very moving even if you can't always make sense of it.

This is largely due to the thoroughly obnoxious and yet totally brilliant Eisenberg in his best geeky mode while the usually ultra-handsome Skaarsgard, now with bald head and glasses to up his geek level, tunrs in a lovely serio-comic performance. Unfortunately Salma Hayek is totally miscast as the high-powered executive they go up against but since almost everyone was talking double-dutch her performance didn't seem that out of place. Of course, despite the comedy-thriller element, (will they succeed? will they get caught?), and the strong human interest story this sure isn't going to pack them in on a Saturday night. However, give yourself over to its oddball charms and you may be very pleasantly surprised.

Yes, we all know this surfs over a flimsy coat of american-dream-based-BS, and it makes use of such cheap gimmicks as Quaker farms, fatal disease and lemon farmers (I'm not gonna reveal further, you just have to watch it), but it does so masterfully. This is a movie that clearly knows where it comes from and where it is going, and manages to make the journey beautifully. A rare instance of a Canadian movie that doesn't suck! Add to the mix a great cast, a competent script, good direction, editing and cinematography, and you've got a movie that can't go wrong (unless you want it to).

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.

This movie takes you on a journey with the protagonists played by the main two characters. The subject itself is so interesting and intriguing that you end up watching till the surprising ending and takes you on a unique ride. Well made, acted and scripted. Sama Hayak does a great job too.

Two cousins working at a High Frequency Trading (HFT) firm decide to set up their own HFT operation. To help their venture succeed they embark on an incredibly ambitious plan: to build a high-speed cable from Kansas City to New York. If the arduousness and practical difficulties of building the cable aren't already enough, their former employer is determined to wreck their project.

Largely dull. Not the most interesting and engaging subject, even if you work in financial services. There are some interesting segments, largely showing how the two cousins overcome certain obstacles and setbacks, plus some good comedic scenes but these are few and far between. A great performance by Alexander Skarsgard as the paranoid, nerdy, socially awkward cousin is another highlight but is not enough to save this. (There's a switcheroo: Alexander Skarsgard as the socially awkward one, Jesse Eisenberg as the confident one).

Another problem with the film is that it shows HFT firms as somehow necessary and heroic when in fact what they generally do borders on illegal. HFTs remove capital from people's savings without contributing anything. The only people who benefit from the existence of HFTs are HFTs. Michael Lewis's book 'Flash Boys' examines in depth how HFTs operate and it's pretty damning. Read that instead of watching this.

This film tells the story of two traders who tries to beat time by speeding up information travel.

The story is engaging and makes you want to know what happens next. The two main characters are quite likable, and I find myself rooting for them. The way the story ends leaves me with a tinge of sadness, which makes this film special.