← Back to Reviews
in
Hostage is the sixth short film from this BMW project dubbed The Hire, which follows a nameless driver (Clive Owen) hired by different clients to perform different tasks. In this case, the driver is hired by the FBI to serve as the courier in a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee (Maury Chaykin) has kidnapped his CEO (Kathryn Morris) and is asking for... a gesture. Is it the money or is it something else?
This is the third of these short films that I watch, but I'm constantly surprised and baffled by how unique they are. Each short carries its own flavoring, whether it is Wong Kar-wai, Tony Scott, or in this case, John Woo. As simple as it has to be for a 9-minute short, it has enough of his fast-paced, action style to remind you this is Woo's short, especially as the driver has to take his BMW Z4 3.0i [insert link to BMW website] and drive it real fast in order to reach the hostage in time.
Chaykin is particularly good as the kidnapper, and the script gives him enough good lines and moments to make it feel more like what we expect from an actual feature than a "car ad". The final chase is full of thrills, and there's a pretty neat twist in the end that caught me off guard. Being a BMW short, all I wanted from it was to kill 10 minutes, but I got a bit more than that.
Grade:
HOSTAGE
(2002, Woo)
(2002, Woo)
"Words... are cheap. Words... come and go. All I wanted from her was a gesture."
Hostage is the sixth short film from this BMW project dubbed The Hire, which follows a nameless driver (Clive Owen) hired by different clients to perform different tasks. In this case, the driver is hired by the FBI to serve as the courier in a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee (Maury Chaykin) has kidnapped his CEO (Kathryn Morris) and is asking for... a gesture. Is it the money or is it something else?
This is the third of these short films that I watch, but I'm constantly surprised and baffled by how unique they are. Each short carries its own flavoring, whether it is Wong Kar-wai, Tony Scott, or in this case, John Woo. As simple as it has to be for a 9-minute short, it has enough of his fast-paced, action style to remind you this is Woo's short, especially as the driver has to take his BMW Z4 3.0i [insert link to BMW website] and drive it real fast in order to reach the hostage in time.
Chaykin is particularly good as the kidnapper, and the script gives him enough good lines and moments to make it feel more like what we expect from an actual feature than a "car ad". The final chase is full of thrills, and there's a pretty neat twist in the end that caught me off guard. Being a BMW short, all I wanted from it was to kill 10 minutes, but I got a bit more than that.
Grade: