Beat the Devil (2002)

It is still not as good as the first series as the original is the original true. But it is good with usually bad guy Gary Oldman who has since reformed as the Commissioner of Gotham City and Machete's Danny Trejo against Clive Owen and the late, great James Brown.Brown feels that his soul has been corrupted by the devil aka Oldman. And wants to have the Driver win the race against the devil and Trejo doing the driving on the Vegas strip.In order to have his career back. As it is non-stop action in the seat of your pants thriller. As the Driver for him, it is just another day on the job for him. But for Brown it is do or die.

Having executive produced many of the glossy, star-featuring, BMW-funded short films The Hire, it appears that Tony Scott wanted to make sure that it was his that stuck in the mind. While some of the films have featured slick thriller concepts, Scott's Beat the Devil goes a different way by having the Driver having to drag race in exchange for a renegotiation of the contract that exists between James Brown and Satan. It tells you a lot when my one line summary of the plot does nothing to covey how excessive and OTT the film is.Instead of delivering this plot in a tense way where the drama gives way to a high-stake, high-tension race, Scott decides to turn everything up to 11. There is no point in talking about plot, visual, score, performances, editing etc as if they were different things here, because they are not – they are essentially all delivered in the same way – which is frantic. Subtitles appear on the screen, freeze-frames are everywhere and generally the design of the short film is all about impact and frenzy. The Devil's lair is weird and the dialogue sequence with him is just madness with loads of stuff going on whether it works on not. This excess may please many but for me it came over as a bit silly and it became the entire short film – again, awesome if you like it, a problem if you don't.For me the biggest downside to this is that the car and the race become just another hyper-edited mash of rapid images without any content or base. The race isn't exciting or impressive technically and indeed it just seems to exists to allow the Devil to be excessive. Ironically for the Hire short that I would rate low, Beat the Devil actually managed to have the strongest finish and it is a punch line that I really enjoyed. The cast have a choice to buy into the frantic aspect or not. Owen doesn't really do it since his character is on the outside and, as a result he almost feels unnecessary in his own film. Brown is good but a little hard to understand and perhaps gets carried by the hyper delivery rather than owning it. This is made more obvious by how completely Oldman goes for it. The last thing I saw him in was Tinker Tailor (a very impressive performance of restraint) but here he is balls-out crazy in his delivery – I didn't like the approach but I have to give it to Oldman for what he managed to do within it; no doubt it is his film.Overall then a very OTT and excessive short film that really goes all out for spectacle over content. Those that love hyper and ridiculous action sequences (think Crank but moreso) will eat this up – but in the context of the other shorts, I was rather missing a bit of actual excitement or drama featuring the car at the centre of the short.

This is a very surreal film. James Brown (yes, THAT James Brown) goes to see the Devil (Gary Oldman) as he's getting older and wants to make another deal with him--a deal to restore his youth. Brown has brought a driver along with him (Clive Owen) and proposes an auto race to ..either give him the youth or to give him Owen's soul this time.It's obvious that a lot of money was put into this short, as the star power of the three principle actors is impressive. Plus the stunts and fancy camera tricks didn't come cheaply. In 2000 and 2001, BMW commissioned a series of 8 films directed by world-famous directors like Ang Lee, John Woo and, in this one, Tony Scott helms this short. I must admit that I have only seen one other film in this series, so comparing it to the rest isn't yet possible. However, compared to the fabulous short made by John Frankenheimer, "Beat the Devil" came up a bit short. One of the biggest reasons for me is that it just looked like too many disparate story elements were shoved into this film--almost making it an assault on the senses. While Frankenheimer's film WAS intense and packed a lot into a short, this one went many steps beyond that. In addition, the whole idea of a battle against the Devil is a bit clichéd--as it's been done many, many times in the past. Still, for a major adrenalin junkie, perhaps you'll love this film. It certainly was interesting--even if I wasn't bowled over by it.

This film is pretty crazy. Of the many BMW films, this one has to be the most odd, yet interesting of them all.The film stars Clive Owen (Sin City, Closer) as the Driver (a guy who drives people around in a BMW), Gary Oldman (True Romance, Batman Begins), as the Devil himself, and James Brown (the King of Soul) as, well, himself.James Brown has a contract with the Devil, in which he has sold his soul for fame and fortune, but, alas, he did not put in a clause about Aging. So, without his moves, he can no longer be famous. He wants to renegotiate his contract so that he is younger so he can still preform, and Clive Owen is caught in the middle of it all. James Brown bets that he can beat the devil in a race, and, if he does, he will receive his youth.This short is directed by Tony Scott (Domino, Top Gun), in his newer style, much like that of Domino and Man on Fire. The quick paced-ness makes the short immensely fun to watch and exciting to look at. The vibrancy of the colors and style of the characters adds a richness to a great story.Part of the BMW line of shorts films, each with a different director, this one stands out as amazing and shocking at the same time. You wouldn't expect a film about a car to be this insane.