MartinHafer In 2001 and 2002, BMW hired some of the world's greatest living directors and Guy Richie (who actually made one of the best of these shorts) to make eight short but very cinematic films. All of them featured a BMW as well as Clive Owen in the lead, but otherwise the directors and directors were apparently allowed to carry out their vision in making some truly outstanding films. This is the fourth of the series that I have seen and it's just amazing that the folks at BMW managed to get John Frankenheimer, John Woo, Ang Lee and others to make these films--as well as the acting talent they could assemble. In this particular film, Wong Kar Wai ("Chungking Express") directs and the film co-stars Forrest Whitaker and Mickey Rourke--all these in a genre that almost always features "newbies"!! This is the prettiest of the the shorts I've seen so far. The camera-work and especially the music are just wonderful--it's a real nice work of art. The problem, however, is that the story itself seems just too short--even for a short film. At about 8 minutes in length, I wish in hindsight they'd perhaps added another couple minutes, as the film just seemed incomplete. Interesting, yes, but incomplete. See it yourself and see if you agree with me--exceptionally artistic but missing something.By the way, it is interesting that although you assume Clive Owen is an assassin in "The Follow", this is never explicitly stated! In addition, in all the other shorts I've seen so far, he's been a heroic sort--here he's much more morally ambiguous. I wanted to know more about this--it seemed like an interesting idea.

Batkid1 The Plot: Clive Owen ( before he was in "The Bourne Identity," "King Arthur," "Elisabeth: The Golden Age," and "Sin CIty" ) plays a "hire" who drives people places they desperately need to go. Often times, they are working for something "top secret" and can only give our protagonist limited information. Also, this is meant to show off the BMW car and is executive-produced by Tony Scott, Ridley Scott and David Fincher ( Panic Room, Alien 3 ).In this episode directed by Kar Wai Wong, our hero is hired by a client ( Forest Whitaker in an uncredited cameo ) to follow a celebrity's ( Mickey Rourke ) girl, suspected of adultery, without getting too close or too far away to where he will lose her.The reason this isn't that great is because the BMW car is hardly seen and it's probably the shortest out of the entire series.

sprengerguido Although this is an oasis of calm and beauty in the midst of the BMW-series of mostly violent car chases, it is not particularly good as a Wong Kar-Wai film. It's the first time he worked from somebody else's script, and one of the few times he worked from a script at all. The supposedly strict production frame of BMW did not allow for his usual approach of improvisation and intuition. Although Andrew Kevin Walker tailormade his script to fit Wong - taking inspiration from his other movies, mostly CHUNGKING EXPRESS - Wong does not manage to deliver more than a weak clone of himself. The vibrant energy and subtle emotion of his other work is mostly absent here. No wonder he only has himself credited as WKW...

Apophis If you have not seen any of the short films, stop reading right now and go watch them. Far from being just a bunch of car commercials, they feature popular directors like Guy Ritchie and Ang Lee, and are really intriguing.That said, I think "The Follow" is the best of this series, and that says a lot. Directed by Wong Kar-Wai, and starring the impeccably cast Clive Owen, this short film differs from the others in that it mixes action, intelligence, and emotion, rather than simply a car chase.The character of the Driver (Owen) is developed very well, in my opinion. He is shown to have his own ethics and standards, and is more that just a good driver.It also features Mickey Rourke and Forest Whitaker in supporting roles.