Beat the Devil

This short film is the most stylish and funny of the 8 bmw short films I have seen so far (I got them free on a DVD at the he2003 convention). Whether or not you will like the film depends on if you like the Las Vegas loud tackiness of Tony Scott's style, which meshes perfectly with James Brown and the usual over the top acting from Gary Oldman. I enjoyed it immensely, and the Marilyn Manson cameo at the end is quite amusing. The story is extremely simple: James Brown sold his soul to the devil to become the godfather of soul, and now he has aged and wants to race the devil for another 50 years of life. The directing style reminded me of the hyper-kenetic Run Lola Run (Lola Rennt). Gary Oldman as the frenetic devil is an interesting contrast to Clive Owen as the calm driver. Very enjoyable.

Another episode in The Hire-series. It looks different from what we have seen so far but again it is pretty good. James Brown as himself sells his soul to the devil, a great performance by Gary Oldman. The Driver has to race the devil and his driver, played by Danny Trejo. If he wins James Brown gets another 50 years to live. Clive Owen stars as the driver again and there is a nice ending with Marilyn Manson.

I've never seen so much action poured into 9 minutes of film. I had to watch it again to see what I missed the first time. It has Gary Oldman doin' his thing. (NOBODY can do 'outrageous' like Gary Oldman can) His devil is wild! James (I Feel Good) Brown who supposedly actually DID sell his soul to the devil.(that's between them, I'm not getting into that) Clive Owen looking all serious and observing the goings on around him. (I think Gary made him a bit nervous) Mr. Brown has sought out the Devil to re-negotiate his contract. The Devil enjoys a wager, but likes the concept of winner takes all. The wager? Drag the Strip at dawn. The Devil: Cool! The race is on. So what we have is Gary Oldman, James Brown, Clive Owen, a 1976 Trans Am and a BMW Roadster drag racing down the Sunset Strip, and what a ride.

This is a very amusing piece which is quite a bit out of the ordinary. It makes you think a lot about certain scenes of Natural Born Killers and U-Turn - and if you can actually make it in the world of show business without having to sell your soul... well, only few knows, I suppose... A very decent picture, but the total and absolute best part of the picture is a short appearance by shock rocker #1 Marilyn Manson in the end. The Devil himself, in the shape of Gary Oldman, saying "It's that creepy guy from downstairs..."...I recommend this little piece, it's downright hilarious.... even if you're a poor little sod who's NOT into Marilyn Manson ;-)

To BMW Film's credit, it seems to me that much work is put into making each film as independant as possible. Sure there are parallels, mostly with subject matter, but stylistically each one stands apart from the others.

Beat the Devil is, in my opinion, the weirdest of the films. The subtitles, the car chase, everything is heavily stylized. Accusing this film of being unrealistic is like saying the ninja turtles aren't human. Duh, they're not supposed to be. That's a poor analogy but you get the idea.

The whole thing is also thick and complicated. The dialogue is often unintelligible and I'm still not quite sure why The Driver would bet what he did...but does it really matter? I mean, Gary Oldman plays the Devil and James Brown is in it.