Hostage

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.