Hostage (2002)

Just like the other BMW short films, this one also has its fair amount of nice action sequences. These are easily the center of the film. Owen's and Chaykin's meeting early on is a solid thriller sequence, but everything afterward just doesn't really develop the drama plot until its expected outcome, but offers the viewers something that is nice to watch, but shouldn't be thought a lot about.A man needs to save a woman from drowning in the trunk of a car her now-dead kidnapper put her in. On his way to heroism, he shows us why BMW cars are apparently the best thing to drive. It was nice to see Darius McCrary, even if it was just very short, as his Eddie Winslow was a crucial character in one of my favorite childhood shows. This film was made briefly before people were looking for the next James Bond to succeed Pierce Brosnan and Clive Owen was one of the most likely candidates. The BMW shorts certainly added fuel to his name being in the mix. All in all it was an okay movie, but nothing I'd be particularly interested to watch again, especially the second half.

Wow. This is yet another of the series of 8 brilliant short films commissioned by BMW that were released on the internet in 2001 and 2002. Apparently, somebody at the car maker had a butt-load of money and spent it assembling some of the top directors in the world (such as John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee and Wong Kar Wai) and gave them HUGE budgets and often top acting talent to make these shorts. Not surprisingly, a BMW is featured prominently in each short--in this case the tiny Z4. In addition, playing a James Bond-like hero (and anti-hero in one) is Clive Owen in all eight films! This one was directed by John Woo and I almost gave it a 10--it sure came darn close! Why was I so impressed? Well, because although all the films are great, this one is more like an entire full-length film shoved into only about 8 minutes! It manages to convey a heck of a lot and provide lots of twists in this tiny time frame. Tense, ironic and heart-pounding--this is definitely a must-see.

Clive Owen plays as a driver who has only a short limit of time to rescue a girl trapped inside the boot of a car at the water's edge and is only able to communicate with her by using his mobile phone. This is possibly the longest ad I've ever seen and is also directed by the fantastic John Woo. HOSTAGE (2002) been given 4/10 because it's not really that thrilling or action packed and has unfortunately very little of John Woo's directing style. Although it's an ad, Clive Owen does give a pretty good performance.This ad is not recommended, especially for the people who are fans of Woo.

You can almost always rely on John Woo to deliver great action... Face/Off and those of his films that were made before he went Hollywood, especially those featuring Chow Yun-Fat(or so I've heard; have only seen Face/Off myself) are great and popular for his unique brand of cool, stylish action. His use of slow-motion in action sequences are especially popular; here, he delivers as well... but one can't help but think about whether or not Woo(or anyone else, for that matter) actually read the script. There are quite an impressive amount of glaringly obvious plot holes for such a short action flick... but I suppose what we're supposed to pay attention to is the car(this is a commercial, after all) and its capabilities... though I think many of them are exaggerated, at least slightly, in this. The acting isn't particularly good, but Clive Owen is still great as The Driver... not that one would expect anything else from him. The action is pretty cool, that I must admit. And it somehow manages to overshadow the numerous holes in the fairly thin plot. All in all, worth a single watch, for car freaks. But not much more. I recommend it to big fans of Woo and the commercials, as well as car fanatics. 7/10