Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

bob the moo In the fifth of the BMW short films call The Hire, The Driver is sent into Columbia to recover a wounded war photographer and pull him out of the country. The photographer laments his role as observer across war after war, looking to the few rolls of film he has of a massacre as being perhaps a way he can do good.The subject matter here is a real odd choice and it is all the odder when you view it in the context of the other short films in this series which are glossy and sleek generally. With this one though the filming is grainy and the focus is less on the vehicle and more on the dialogue between the two men – again, an odd thing for a film funded by BMW, but here we are. I was actually very open to the idea of something more than just another car chase short film, so I didn't have a problem with it in terms of its concept, just its delivery. You see there isn't anywhere near the grit that this suggests and it feels like it is "doing" gritty rather than being that way by natural of extension of what it is doing and what it is covering.This shows once the characters start interacting. The photographer's lamentations are fairly standard things and they are sturdy rather than natural in the writing. His dialogue is made worse though by the even clunkier lines delivered by the Driver, the worse by far being "but Mr Jacobs your photographs have done a lot of good" or something like that – with that line you could see Owen had no idea how to say it and make it work. The short also comes over as being hollow because really it doesn't have much to say at all on the world it is set in, which adds to the feeling of the dialogue being empty which then feeds back onto the film as a whole to make it seem like it is just wearing the clothes of concern for the sake of a short film.The most surprising thing then is that it was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, a director on the rise at the time after Amores Perros. He directs it like it is insightful, brave and challenging but this approach is totally at odds with the clunky nature of the script (such as the thing with the mother at the end) and the fact that the central thing about the short is selling a high-end luxury car. The latter point (about the commercial) I can swallow to a point, but it is the failure to deliver a story that doesn't feel hollow that really hurts me. It hurts the cast too. Skarsgård rolls in his own blood and laments his life of observation the best he can, but he is alone in the core of the film; Owen has a much harder job and he looks uncomfortable and cannot make even the smallest lines work.I applaud the BMW funders for trying to make some of their short films be "about" something and for not just making glossy action shorts (although they made those too!) but this film just doesn't work at all. Viewed on its own it is clunky, overly well-meaning and labours throughout its short run-time; however viewed alongside the other shorts, it stands out as odd all the more and frankly doesn't fit in with the overall concept of the films. I wanted it to work because it is the most "worthy" of the shorts, but to be honest the best I can say about it is that it "meant well".

Chodewick Tears could not be held back when viewing this BMW film. The first film was a groundbreaking car chase by the "master" John Frankenheimer. The second was probably the most beautiful car chase ever filmed by Crouching Tiger and Ice Storm filmmaker Ang Lee. The third didn't really effect me as much as the others but it still held it's place. The Guy Richie fourth film was just downright hilarious, I have never seen Madonna utilized in... that way.Now I am brought to this film, done by Alejandro Gonzalez Inaritu, famous for his breakthrough film "Amores Perros" which I also had the pleasure of viewing. If you have not seen this movie I highly recommend it due to the fact that it leaves you feeling three different emotions for three different vignettes. A movie hasn't moved me in that way in a long time."Powder Keg" follows The Driver, played by Clive Owen who is always portrayed in the other films as a hard-boiled merc with a soft side somewhere. In this film, his soft side is his care for human life. He knows his passenger may be dying from a gun shot wound but he doesn't want him to because he believes his passenger is key to preserving human life. On the flipside, his dying passenger believes that his sole purpose in life, as a war photographer, has been to photograph death. He believes he has never saved anyone and his pictures do nothing more but "Sell a few more papers"Without ruining any of the actions that take place in the second half of these 8 minutes, I assure you that in these 8 minutes you will feel more intensity, hatred, sadness, and fear than in any other 8 minutes of watching a film. At a point I felt the same intensity of watching a "certain" scene from "The Deer Hunter", at points, this film shares the same mood of the "The Deer Hunter" and "Amores Perros", but at the same time creates it's own mood. This film will start you with open eyes and leave you with eyes of tears. There is nothing bad I can say about this movie because it was never cheesy, never dragging, and never melo-dramatic. And if you are moved deeply by this film I highly recommend "Amores Perros" which is done in the same style.I conclude by giving credit where credit is due. I am sure it is not news when I state that Clive Owen is an amazing actor. In this film he delivers his best performance. The reasoning behind this being his best performance is that his eyes contain so much emotion that you can feel exactly what he is. Also that is a great job on Inaritu's part being able to capture that emotion. An all around amazing 8 minutes. Required viewing. 10/10

marcelo-26 Powder Keg is most unlike the other BMW films. It's as different in its way as Star was. Where Star was humorous and light, Powder Keg is dark and bloody. The first of the films that deserves and R Rating, it has profanity and violence unlike the others; sensitive viewers beware. That said, its story is well written. The photographer's sense of frustration over not having done enough to help those he photographs, the oppressive presence of armed militia everywhere, the desperate need to make the border against overwhelming forces, and most of all, the bloody back seat of the vehicle, all paint a picture of doom and gloom for the characters. The scene at the end with the mother explains the earlier comment by the photographer, "My mother taught me to see." The driver's feelings of loss and failure, assuaged not at all by delivering the dog tags, is well acted out.I hope this isn't the end for this fine series.

Marko Djordjevic I began watching these The Hire Videos after my friend mentioned that Guy Richie Directed Star, and I was hooked. I've downloaded all the videos using BMW's Video Player and I've been able to watch them all the time. Powder Keg isn't my favorite one, but ends the Short Film nicely as we experience every type of emotion that the driver gets while he does his job. The ending is well-doneThe only downside to this great series are the short Films between the movies. They make no sense and actually make you wonder why they even bothered to make them. If someone knows the true reason for their inclusion, please let me know