Chosen

I'm sure many others will say this as well, Beat the Devil was my favorite, but this isn't given enough credit. I disagreed with a comment I read about this film, so I felt I needed to give it what it deserves. The comment I am referring to discounted Lee as "making action to poetic". This was a bad thing to him, thats where I disagree. The car chase scene in this is genius, it IS like the cars are dancing. It's choreographed so well and makes you think of action in a whole new light. There is plenty of action directors you can go to if you want to see the same thing over and over. If you want something new and revolutionary in the action genre, watch this short film. I loved it, 8/10.

You can actually download this freely from BMW's website. As it is a plug for BMW, it is strongly focused on the automobile scenes. BMW, however, did allow Lee enough license to create a captivating film. It is somewhat enigmatic, yet the necessary information is beautifully presented, leaving the viewer more curious than frustrated. Clive Owen is no great shakes, but he gets the job done. The car scenes are beautifully executed and filmed. The kind of cinema that makes you want to go buy a BMW. Watch in the end as Lee alludes to a future project.

Our protagonist, The Driver, as we know him, starts out by picking up a young Tibetan boy in an abandoned New York dock. Shortly after the pickup, however, he is met by two other cars with hostile intent. The Driver manages to elude the two in an all out chase around the dock that results in the destruction of a chasing Mercedes. This movie features terrific chase sequences but contains a sense of "commercialism" as The Driver's BMW seems to be nearly invincible and overall superior to the cars that the chasers drive. But this "episode" in the The Driver series is fun to watch and fabulously directed by Ang Lee.

Ang Lee took to the helm for this second movie in the "The Hire" series. If you think his beautiful style of choreography and cinemotography only applies to humans, or if you never thought about it before, take a look at this one, my favorite entry in the series.

The driver is hired to transport a young asian immigrant, who is obviously of some mystical importance, from the docks to a location in the city. Almost immediately after the young passenger straps in to the second-only-to-the-M5 540i 6-speed, the bad guys present themselves and the chase is on.

What follows is truly a ballet on wheels. A whole bunch of clumsy american cars and a "lesser" German car show their deficiencies to the amazing skill and ability of The Driver and his performance machine.

A first for the series occurs in this film when we see The Driver take a role outside of the car, and you'll see that the role that is played adds a depth to the Driver, and the storyline.

On a cool side-note, you'll notice a certain...er... "character"... imprinted on the gift that the young passenger gives to The Driver - this was a subtle reference by Ang Lee that completely put to rest rumors that had been floating around the net, and concretely said to the world - "Yes, I am directing this movie due out in 2003"

take notice.

:)

Overall, though all the other films had great things to offer ("The Star" being absolutely hilarious), this is my favorite. 10/10

The car chase in the second "The Hire" short, is so choreographed that it's almost like the cars are dancing with each other! Really a must see for the fans of Eastern cinema.

The cinematography and editing work better for the movie than was the case in the first "The Hire" short "Ambush" but it still is Ang Lee's directing that is the highlight of the movie. The story tries to be a bit more than just a car chase which was not really necessary but not really disturbing either. The ending is really fun!

The music by Mychael Danna is a bit simple and kind of irritating at times and the action might not be as good as in other "The Hire" shorts but it still is on par with most of them, thanks to Ang Lee's directing!

7/10

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