Powder Keg (2001)
8/10
Among the best of the The Hire commercials
3 December 2004
What makes this commercial really stick out from the others is the filming style, which seemed documentary-like. While I found this style a little annoying at first, I ended up actually enjoying it and liking the commercial for being different without being bad(like the one Ang Lee misdirected). The cinematography is very good, and gives us some great intense sequences. The acting is great, both by Clive Owen and Stellan Skarsgård. Owen must have gotten very much used to his character of The Driver by this point, so it's interesting to see him in a more emotional take on the character. Skarsgård is very good as the war photographer, and his final speech, though going very close to crossing over into being cliché, manages to work perfectly and arouse actual emotions in the viewer, rather than just being sappy, manipulative drivel(which this sort of thing almost always is). The action(the little there is) is great and the amount is just right. It's obvious that this was more about story and characters than action and thrills, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu pulls it off perfectly. It's rare to see something so short that manages to hold your interest without a lot of action and whilst managing to tell a story so beautifully and emotionally. While I prefer Ambush over this one, I think it's a great commercial. I recommend this to fans of the commercials and of this type of stories. 8/10
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