Bullet Points: Baby Driver
We live in a world where most television sitcoms have at least one episode that plays out like a musical. Are there really that many people who go apeshit over watching Steve Carell dance like an idiot? It must be true, of course, since every show from The Office to Supernatural does these terrible episodes and I guess it was only a matter of time before someone made an action movie in the same way…other than Bollywood.
Synopsis: After being coerced into working for a crime boss, a young getaway driver finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail.
- Tough Guy Criminals: Being that this is a heist movie, there are a handful of different characters we meet throughout that have to fill the roles of the typical crime movies. Unlike many other films, Baby Driver uses recognizable actors like Jon Bernthal and Jon Hamm to get you invested in the heists early on but due to the fact that Doc (Kevin Spacey) never uses the same crew twice, we don’t get to see them again for some time. Their acting is the equivalent of a caricature artist at the zoo. Each of them with their own little stupid gimmicks like a WWF wrestler from 1995.
- Casting the bunch: At least they tried. We get some really quality actors with Foxx, Spacey, Hamm and the bunch, but the dialogue seems very much beneath them. Not to mention, the heroic lead is a guy who barely talks in the film. Elgort isn’t good enough not to talk, either. I rather liked the use of music in his ears for the film and the reasoning behind it, but he definitely isn’t a good enough actor to pull off the quiet that was in the script. Lilly James is the love interest and she is cute enough but also just another one-note pretty face for Baby to fawn after.
- Kevin Spacey: Oh, Kevin. I can’t even see him in a movie or show anymore without instantly being grossed out. He plays the man who runs the heists. The man that “discovered” Baby’s abilities with a car, and the man who threatens him to keep up his driving…or else! He also gets to do the big turn at the end which felt a bit off to me.
- Weapons deals and tire squeals: Where the film really becomes enjoyable for me is when there is action on the screen. The car chases are magnificently edited and shot and the music matches up to form some sort of symphony of car-nage! The heists in the film are nothing special. We really don’t get to see them in action as we mostly hang with Baby in the getaway car but seeing Den of Thieves recently certainly didn’t help my grading of this film. It’s not one of the Fast films, but felt to me like they took Statham’s Transporter character and stripped him of his British accent and brawn. Put behind the wheel with the tunes, Elgort isn’t awful.
- True love: Baby (Elgort) and Debora (Lily James) play that tragic couple in Baby Driver that reminds me of Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette in True Romance. I could easily give out about how their romance lasts all of three scenes and now I’m supposed to believe that they’re willing to kill/die/and wait for years for one another, but to be totally honest I didn’t hate it. I think that they’re both weird characters on their own and that allows me to accept their sudden love a little more easily.
- True Evil: The end of the movie gives us a little swerve. Instead of Jamie Foxx’s Bats becoming the ultimate villain, he dies pretty quickly and then Jon Hamm’s Buddy takes up the mantle. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Buddy the only character in the film that didn’t treat Baby like a total asshole? And he was only really pissed because Baby caused his wife to die and he missed out on a big score. If anything, Buddy was acting like a rational person and everyone else were a bunch of jerks who deserved to get wacked!
The Verdict: All I heard after Baby Driver came out was how amazing it was. It even has a 7.6 on IMDB, which is just insane to me. I can admit that I did have fun watching the film as I think Edgar Wright is a good director and I didn’t hate Baby or any of the other characters over the course of the movie. My main issue was that I also didn’t love any of them. I enjoy a good soundtrack in an action movie but a hero without a lot of personality and a villain that is all but non-existent leads me to believe this movie was way over-hyped. Good soundtrack, though…
