Ambush
Ambush
| 26 April 2001 (USA)
Ambush Trailers

While escorting an elderly man to an undisclosed location, The Driver is confronted by a van full of armed men and is warned that the old man has stolen a large amount of diamonds. The old man claims to have swallowed the diamonds and that the men will likely cut him open to retrieve them. The Driver decides at the last minute to help him, participating in a car chase and shootout with the van. The Driver eventually evades his pursuers and watches their destruction. He then delivers the old man to a town nearby and asks the merchant if he did indeed swallowed the diamonds. The client merely chuckles and walks away. The Driver then leaves.

Reviews
Ploydsge just watch it!
Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.
Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Batkid1 This basically sums up the film in general, but I will elaborate. 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 ( Crimson Tide, Spy Game ), Ridley Scott ( Alien, Kingdom of Heaven ) and David Fincher ( Panic Room, Alien 3 ).In this episode directed by the late John Frankenheimer, our hero has to transport a con who has something his mob friends want.
TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews First of all; for a commercial, this is great stuff! I don't think I've seen a commercial that was so thoroughly entertaining. You hardly even notice the product placement... which proves both that the commercial is so entertaining that you almost forget what you're watching and that the product placement is carefully done and the commercial is not just shoving a product in our face. I enjoyed it immensely... and I am not that big fan of car-chases. Actually, I mostly think they're tame and boring. But John Frankenheimer and Clive Owen really make it work... as director and actor, respectively. I haven't seen too many of Frankenheimer's films, but I enjoyed Ronin a fair bit... here, he truly proves how good he is(or was... R.I.P.) at directing action. I haven't seen too many films featuring Owen either... but here he does a great job, portraying the dead-pan, calm and collected unnamed driver. His character halfway made the commercial as great as it is. The action is great, very intense and exciting. The story, as little as there is, is quite good. Andrew Kevin Walker did a great job on the script. All in all, a great little action-packed commercial. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys action. Why can't all commercials be like this? 8/10
Angry_Arguer The Hire series should start changing some perspectives towards advertising. I've taken a profound interest in watching how each director manipulates the topic of BMW and Clive Owen with their own personal touches.From the East we have Ang Lee, Kar Wai Wong, and John Woo. The dedicatedly Western Tony Scott and John Frankenheimer. The last group can be classified as the "new blood" with Alejandro Inarritu, Guy Ritchie, and Joe Carnahan. I can say that Frankenheimer takes the most pedestrian route with his work, his lack of cinematic prowess is displayed in the second half of the chase, but it still is the most powerful in creating a mood. The Eastern influence tries too hard to make poetic overtures in their collective work and, despite their respective differences, they're all the same.So, Frankenheimer is solely in search of entertainment here. Not as good as Inarritu's, but more focused than Carnahan's.
toedte Having seen the TV blurbs about BMWFilms, I wasn't sure what they actually were, but I suspected your usual product-centric infomercial...just webified. I have since seen all BMWFilms' offerings and can't wait for the next one. Ambush, staged on an urban freeway, features: The Driver; his "fare", a diamond courier; a terrorist-loaded van; and some of the finest high-performance and stunt driving I have ever seen. Without noting the director, I was immediately reminded of Frankenheimer's Ronin, not just because of the driving, but also the entire tone of the piece. The initial parrying between The Driver and The Terrorists is wonderfully choreographed and delivers both the precision of attack and defense, and the precision of the BMW machines used in the film (without coming across as pitchy). Once this jousting is over, they opposing forces engage in a high-tech, high-velocity, high-tension chess match ultimately won by The Driver. The intriguing ending leaves you wanting more. Seemlessley edited, highly believable, and mind-grabbing.