Troops + BMW

In last week's lecture Josh showed us the start of the first ever internet movie 'Troops'. He also showed us one of the ten short films 'The Hire' made by BMW purely for their website. Each movie starred Clive Owen as The Driver and each film featured him driving a different BMW. The one we watched in the lecture was 'The Star' directed by Guy Ritchie. I found both really interesting so I decided to watch some more..

I thought the Troops movie was hilarious. It was very short though, I think it only went for about 10-15mins. It was made as a parody of the Star Wars movies and Cops TV show. I haven't actually watched any of the Star Wars movies before, but I still sort of got the jokes (I think) and recognised some of the characters names. The basic plot was set as a documentary (day in the life of), of the 'troops'. It begins with one of them explaining their job and they come across two young creatures (don't know what they are!) who had stolen 'droids' and so they go to investigate and end up putting the two creatures in lock up. The troops walk off talking about how they are going to have to contact the parents. It then changes to another call they've received about a domestic dispute between a husband and wife, that begun over their missing child. Things get pretty violent and they end up taking the wife away to stay somewhere else for the night. As the troops walk away they are discussing the fight they were having about a stolen droid and missing child. It ends here where you realise the two stories are connected.. VERY CLEVER!

The next one that I watched was the 'Beat the Devil' from the BMW commercials. This one was directed by Tony Smith and stared James Brown, Gary Oldman and a cameo with Marilyn Manson. This was my favourite of the BMW commercials. The story begins in 1954, Brown's character sells his soul to the Devil (played by Oldman) for fame and fortune. It then skips to 2002 and Brown's character now having aged goes to see the Devil to renegotiate his deal to get his youth back. They agree on having a car race, The Driver driving for Brown and another guy driving for Oldman. It's a very close race and ends up at a railway track just as a train is coming. The Driver just makes it across to the other side as the train crashes into the Devil's car and so Brown regains his youth. Manson quickly appears at the end as an angry neighbour complaining about the Devil making too much noise.

I then watched 'Powder Keg' another from the BMW commercials. Josh said in the lecture that this one actually made him cry, not sure if he was joking or not.. but it did make me want to watch it! This was directed by Alejandro Gonzalz Inarritu, I didn't actually recognise any of the actors in this one. It is about a Times Magazine war photographer that was wounded after witnessing a massacre in Nuevo Colon in South America. The UN send a vehicle to get him, and The Driver arrives to take him home. In the car ride they speak and it is revealed that the reason he became a photographer was because of his mother who "taught him to see". Dying in the car, he hands The Driver the 'powder keg' (not sure what that was..?), his camera film, and a necklace to give to his mother. As they cross the border The Driver pulls over, but realises he has already died. The Driver takes the necklace to give to the mother and when she opens the door we see that she is blind. It was such a good storyline, but very sad! I didn't actually cry, but I could definately see how someone could.