Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

MartinHafer In 2001 and 2002, BMW debuted 8 different short films on the internet by some of the top directors in the world. It's hard to imagine, but they got the great John Frankenheimer, Wong Kar Wai, John Woo as well as top acting talent for these films. Each film had to have two things in common--they had to feature BMWs and each starred Clive Owen! In addition, actors such as Gary Oldman, Madonna, Forrest Whitaker and mickey Rourke made appearances in some of the films. Wow...it's obvious BMW pulled out all the stops when it came to the budgets for these amazingly slick films.This particular film was made by Ang Lee and while I'll freely admit that it was not among the best of the eight, it was fun to watch and I did laugh at the end--something I don't tend to do when I see films. The problem was not his direction or the acting--they were just great. But the film, aside from the end, was almost all action and little story--the sort of films that just don't appeal to me. HOWEVER, I must also point out that much of the seemingly shallow story did attain some greater depth at the end and overall it is a very nice little film. I won't say anything about the plot--just see it for yourself.

Kevo232 I'm sure many others will say this as well, Beat the Devil was my favorite, but this isn't given enough credit. I disagreed with a comment I read about this film, so I felt I needed to give it what it deserves. The comment I am referring to discounted Lee as "making action to poetic". This was a bad thing to him, thats where I disagree. The car chase scene in this is genius, it IS like the cars are dancing. It's choreographed so well and makes you think of action in a whole new light. There is plenty of action directors you can go to if you want to see the same thing over and over. If you want something new and revolutionary in the action genre, watch this short film. I loved it, 8/10.

HypnoticEye While John Frankenheimer's AMBUSH was a hardboiled vignette, Ang Lee's THE CHOSEN is an attempt at doing a lighthearted mixture of action and comedy. Unfortunately Ang Lee's comedy falls flat. While he might showcase the BMW's maneuverability to good effect; The actual chase between Clive Owen's enigmatic driver escorting a small Tibetan boy and the mysterious henchmen seeking to harm his charge, is staged in a light jokey tone that eliminated all tension and replaces it with uninspired slapstick. Indeed, as the film progresses to its punchline of a conclusion, one suspects that Ang Lee was seeing how to make a film that kids would like along with adults in preparation for his then-upcoming HULK movie (as hinted at near the end). While the final result might be something BMW owners can show to their children, adults will find themselves bored and frustrated.

bradeeoh Ang Lee took to the helm for this second movie in the "The Hire" series. If you think his beautiful style of choreography and cinemotography only applies to humans, or if you never thought about it before, take a look at this one, my favorite entry in the series.The driver is hired to transport a young asian immigrant, who is obviously of some mystical importance, from the docks to a location in the city. Almost immediately after the young passenger straps in to the second-only-to-the-M5 540i 6-speed, the bad guys present themselves and the chase is on.What follows is truly a ballet on wheels. A whole bunch of clumsy american cars and a "lesser" German car show their deficiencies to the amazing skill and ability of The Driver and his performance machine.A first for the series occurs in this film when we see The Driver take a role outside of the car, and you'll see that the role that is played adds a depth to the Driver, and the storyline.On a cool side-note, you'll notice a certain...er... "character"... imprinted on the gift that the young passenger gives to The Driver - this was a subtle reference by Ang Lee that completely put to rest rumors that had been floating around the net, and concretely said to the world - "Yes, I am directing this movie due out in 2003"take notice.:)Overall, though all the other films had great things to offer ("The Star" being absolutely hilarious), this is my favorite. 10/10