Watch “The Hire” Online…Until Oct 21

Just so you know, the BMW Short Films are going offline on October 21st. You can download 'em for free until then. A DVD is also available for free--you just pay for shipping (it was $4.00 for me).

If you were living under a rock in 2001, this was a series of five short films directed by directors you may recognize: the late John Frankenheimer, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-Wai, GuyRitchie, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. The films were released over the Internet, which at the time was a kind of first in terms of "premium content developed for the Internet". A second series of three films, one each directed by John Woo, Joe Carnahan, and Tony Scott, was released in the following year. They're all pretty powerful exercises in visual storytelling, with outstanding cinematography and direction (maybe with the exception of "Beat the Devil", which I found nearly unwatchable). Well worth the 4 bucks, particularly for the behind-the-scenes stuff!

UPDATE: Yep, they're all gone now. Hope you grabbed 'em!

Comments

Wow! Thanks for the tip - one day before I missed my chance!  I really liked Clive Owen in The Bourne Identity and Sin City. I can’t wait to watch these.

They are pretty rad…enjoy!

Yeah, I wasn’t a big fan of “Beat the Devil” (typical Tony Scott effects distraction), other than its obvious star power.  All of the others (the ones with Maury Chaykin and Don Cheadle come to mind) are pretty incredible.

It’s also fun to keep in mind these were all done just before Clive Owen became a marquee actor.  I was just disappointed that BMW didn’t continue making new films for each of its new models.  Oh, and that the DVD wasn’t anamorphic, as it would be an awesome home theater demo disc otherwise!