the hire

it's snowing outside, after weeks of spring-like weather. it's a wet kind of snow, anyway, so it won't pile up outside much.

i'm writing this entry to rave about bmwfilms' "the hire" dvd. it was given by my sister's friend, because he works in a bmw branch. it's a collection of bmwfilms' short movie clips featuring slick bmw cars (duh) directed by some of the most acclaimed hollywood directors, like john woo, ang lee, guy ritchie, and my personal favorite HK movie director, wong kar-wai. if you haven't seen any of these bmw clips yet, i strongly suggest you order your copy online (you just pay for shipping costs) or head to your nearest bmw dealer...or if you live outside USA, endure the agony of downloading it, depending on your connection speed. hehe.


i downloaded their first feature film when i was still in manila, guy ritchie's "star" featuring madonna. took me hours to finish that 5-minute video. but it was worth it! stick-shift savvy clive owen plays "the driver" in these featurettes. i adore this guy. he is hot! haha. this movie was how i got to know about bmwfilms in the first place. what could be more fun than a car chase with madonna tumbling around the passenger seat with blur's song 2 (that "woohoo" song!) adding acceleration to your viewing pleasure?

john woo's "hostage" shows his flair for slow-motion scenes, while ang lee's "chosen" shows his serene sense of story-telling by using classical violin music as background for the whole video. i would say that this one displays the bmw car's features in an advertising manner the most, and it has the cutest, "aawww"-inducing ending too.

"beat the devil" by tony scott looks like a marilyn manson video, and he's (marilyn) got a surprise cameo in the end too. it's more of a fantasy-type story where james brown challenges the devil played perfectly by gary oldman (looking like his bram stoker's dracula role in it too) to a drag race in las vegas. the prize? extended youth (50 more years to be exact).

"ambush" by john frankenheimer has clive owen driving his client away from masked gunmen out to steal an expensive diamond allegedly smuggled by his passenger. this for me has the scariest use of a countdown threat.

"ticker" by joe carnahan has a political theme, as well as "powder keg" by alejandro gonzalez-inarritu, only the latter is made more like a documentary film. this one actually made me cry because here, the client dies.

wong kar-wai's "the follow" is so wong kar-wai...he loves to use voice-overs and picks a particular song as the signature of the movie. forrest whitaker and mickey rourke are in this one.

the dvd also has an interactive gallery of the cars used in the films, as well as behind-the-scenes clips of the driving stunts.

i wish they'd make more of these!