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drwexBaby Driver is Edgar Wright's fast-paced heist-crew movie featuring Kevin Spacey (Doc) and Ansel Elgort as the eponymous Baby (b-a-b-y) who is the driver for all of Doc's gangs. I tend to like heist-crew movies - of which Heat is pretty close to the platonic ideal. This one promised to be something extra-special because Baby listens to music throughout. He has a soundtrack to his life and that becomes a large part of the soundtrack to this movie. You may have noticed I'm a little obsessive about music. Also, I tend to like almost everything Kevin Spacey does so I figured this one was a no-lose for me.
For about 80% of the movie that's true. Spacey is a tough-boss tough-guy with a surprising good streak in him, Elgort is a great pastiche of the "kid who could have been nice, but who fell in with the wrong crew" and the other players also do well. I particularly liked Deborah, as played by Lily James. She's sweet but not naive, beautiful but not glamorous, and it's easy to see why Baby falls for her.
The plot is pretty simple: some time ago, Baby boosted a car belonging to Doc that had valuable merchandise in it. Something went wrong and Doc is now extracting his due from Baby one job at a time, because Baby is an amazing getaway driver. Once the debt is paid off, Baby will, in theory, be free to do as he pleases. Of course, nothing is that simple. 3/5 stars; would've had 4/5 but for the ending.
Heist crew movies are always violent. They have exciting car chases and gun battles. People will die. You go in expecting that. For the first 4/5 of the movie Wright keeps it relatively light, with snappy dialog and a couple genuinely funny moments. Baby and Deborah are genuinely endearing and even some of the criminals have good moments.
And then there's the last 20% of the movie which Pygment accurately described as "Well, THAT thing just took a sudden left turn into Tarantino." (*) Don't get me wrong. I like Tarantino; I watch Tarantino movies multiple times, by choice. But I seriously was not expecting that, and it felt entirely out of character with the whole movie up to that point. Like either Wright brought in someone else to script and direct that last bit or I have no idea what he was thinking. It would be too extreme to say that the ending "ruined" the movie for me, but it definitely brought things down.
Still, see this if heist movies are your thing. Just brace yourself.
(*) or words to that effect.
For about 80% of the movie that's true. Spacey is a tough-boss tough-guy with a surprising good streak in him, Elgort is a great pastiche of the "kid who could have been nice, but who fell in with the wrong crew" and the other players also do well. I particularly liked Deborah, as played by Lily James. She's sweet but not naive, beautiful but not glamorous, and it's easy to see why Baby falls for her.
The plot is pretty simple: some time ago, Baby boosted a car belonging to Doc that had valuable merchandise in it. Something went wrong and Doc is now extracting his due from Baby one job at a time, because Baby is an amazing getaway driver. Once the debt is paid off, Baby will, in theory, be free to do as he pleases. Of course, nothing is that simple. 3/5 stars; would've had 4/5 but for the ending.
Heist crew movies are always violent. They have exciting car chases and gun battles. People will die. You go in expecting that. For the first 4/5 of the movie Wright keeps it relatively light, with snappy dialog and a couple genuinely funny moments. Baby and Deborah are genuinely endearing and even some of the criminals have good moments.
And then there's the last 20% of the movie which Pygment accurately described as "Well, THAT thing just took a sudden left turn into Tarantino." (*) Don't get me wrong. I like Tarantino; I watch Tarantino movies multiple times, by choice. But I seriously was not expecting that, and it felt entirely out of character with the whole movie up to that point. Like either Wright brought in someone else to script and direct that last bit or I have no idea what he was thinking. It would be too extreme to say that the ending "ruined" the movie for me, but it definitely brought things down.
Still, see this if heist movies are your thing. Just brace yourself.
(*) or words to that effect.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-11 08:48 pm (UTC)Jamie "I'm the next Samuel L Jackson, mofos" Foxx's character was completely around the bend, along with the whole 2nd heist crew. The heist chick was a complete cipher. And Jon Hamm's character *seemed* interesting, right up until he tried to go all Terminator.
The last 20% of the movie seemed to come from a different movie altogether. WTF?
no subject
Date: 2017-08-12 02:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-17 12:24 pm (UTC)