Beat the Devil (2002)

Very Cool!!!

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This film is pretty crazy. Of the many BMW films, this one has to be the most odd, yet interesting of them all.The film stars Clive Owen (Sin City, Closer) as the Driver (a guy who drives people around in a BMW), Gary Oldman (True Romance, Batman Begins), as the Devil himself, and James Brown (the King of Soul) as, well, himself.James Brown has a contract with the Devil, in which he has sold his soul for fame and fortune, but, alas, he did not put in a clause about Aging. So, without his moves, he can no longer be famous. He wants to renegotiate his contract so that he is younger so he can still preform, and Clive Owen is caught in the middle of it all. James Brown bets that he can beat the devil in a race, and, if he does, he will receive his youth.This short is directed by Tony Scott (Domino, Top Gun), in his newer style, much like that of Domino and Man on Fire. The quick paced-ness makes the short immensely fun to watch and exciting to look at. The vibrancy of the colors and style of the characters adds a richness to a great story.Part of the BMW line of shorts films, each with a different director, this one stands out as amazing and shocking at the same time. You wouldn't expect a film about a car to be this insane.

I really liked this Part of the Hire series, a lot of good acting by Clive Owen and Garry Oldman and a lot of humor, action and a very surprising story with a hilarious ending.Decades ago, the legendary James Brown sold his soul to the devil for fame and fortune. Now he wishes to renegotiate. Hired to take Mr. Brown to a rendezvous with the devil (Gary Oldman), the driver (clive owen) soon finds himself entangled in fiendish plans.conclusion, This is the best Part in the hire series together with The Follow from Kar Wai wong(very different but almost as good).Other nice ones are: Star, Ambush, Ticker and powderkeg.actually there is a really bad one in the Hire series which is Chosen, really bad car chase, i only liked the ending.

To BMW Film's credit, it seems to me that much work is put into making each film as independant as possible. Sure there are parallels, mostly with subject matter, but stylistically each one stands apart from the others.Beat the Devil is, in my opinion, the weirdest of the films. The subtitles, the car chase, everything is heavily stylized. Accusing this film of being unrealistic is like saying the ninja turtles aren't human. Duh, they're not supposed to be. That's a poor analogy but you get the idea.The whole thing is also thick and complicated. The dialogue is often unintelligible and I'm still not quite sure why The Driver would bet what he did...but does it really matter? I mean, Gary Oldman plays the Devil and James Brown is in it.

No matter what Gary Oldman does, he is simply the most exciting actor in the world to observe! And, not only is he marvelous as the devil in this little thriller - but he looks good enough to digest! This man can NEVER do anything wrong; Bravo to his making yet another movie HIS!