Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)

[transmogrifier]

58/100

The conceit - wall-to-wall music that syncs with the choreography of a lot of what we see on screen - needs two things to succeed: (a) good music, and (b) interesting choreography. For me, Baby Driver pretty much fails on both counts, given that I spent most of the time feeling as if I was trapped in a bar with someone who had paid the bartender to hook their mp3 player up to the stereo and was trying to prove to everyone there just how cool their music taste is ("What about this? You'll love this"), and that the best set-pieces the film can offer are literally in the first 15 minutes.

Luckily, a film can transcend its conceit - something which BD only intermittently is able to do. All the characters are shallow as hell, but Wright is able to generate some genuine scenes of tension from their broad caricatures - especially the gang's trip to the diner - and it all moves along at a good clip. Pity the central love angle is so drippy, and that the lead character is such an artificial grab-bag of "traits' masquerading as an audience focal point.

Rankings:

1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Hot Fuzz

3. Baby Driver
4. Scott Pilgrim
5. World's End

[Dukefrukem]

Agreed with everything Trans said. Except the ranking which somehow puts Scott Pilgrim and World's End below this. This is Wright's worst. Baby feels like a miscast.

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Agreed with everything Trans said. Except the ranking which somehow puts Scott Pilgrim and World's End below this. This is Wright's worst. Baby feels like a miscast.

Not a big fan of Wright. His heart's in the right place, but I don't think he is a great screenwriter. His movies live and die on the strength of its "hook" and whatever jokes can be wrung out of it. He's a Tarantino you can take home to your gran.

[Dukefrukem]

Not a big fan of Wright. His heart's in the right place, but I don't think he is a great screenwriter. His movies live and die on the strength of its "hook" and whatever jokes can be wrung out of it. He's a Tarantino you can take home to your gran.

Not many jokes in this one though.

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Not many jokes in this one though.

There were attempts, but not many landed. The reason why I like it better than SP and TWE is that Wright finally shows a bit of something different with the tense scenes - maybe he has some other tricks up his sleeve for later.

[Devlin]

Loved this.
It's the kind of oddball heist movie I really enjoy. I get the criticisms that some here are stating, and they are valid, but none of that bothered me because of the sheer cinematic enjoyment of the ride. The music worked perfectly and was an important part of how the movie is constructed. I look forward to seeing it again to catch the things I missed.
This is the first of Wright's films, since Shaun of the Dead, that I thoroughly enjoyed with the first viewing. The others took additional viewings to truly appreciate them.

Wright's film ranking for me-
1. Shaun of the Dead
2. Baby Driver
3. Hot Fuzz
4. The World's End
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

[Ezee E]

This was stoooooooooooopid.

Fun music, but I was so annoyed by all the supporting characters and their one dimension and bad attempts at Tarantino dialog. Despite the sequences, I never really felt any suspense because it all seemed so easy.

This is a bad review, because I'm mostly rolling my eyes through it all. We'll have to a free to disagree here. My favorite scenes were in the diner.

[Pop Trash]

Agree. If Edgar Wright didn't have such a cult following, I don't think people would be so kind to this thing. I'm starting to wonder if him being kicked off of Ant Man was actually a blessing. Guess we'll never know.

[number8]

According to Wright, Jones was the obvious choice. “We saw him, and he was really good,” Wright told Decider. “After that, I saw some non-deaf actors pretending to be deaf and pretending to sign, and immediately it made me feel uneasy. I’d already seen a deaf actor, and I obviously couldn’t help comparing them to him,” he recalled. “I knew that going with an actor pretending to be deaf was the wrong decision.”

Wright echoed these sentiments, crediting Jones with changing him as a director and shaking things up on set. “Shooting the scenes was really beautiful,” Wright recalled. “Working with CJ made me want to be a better director, because I realized that when you’re talking to somebody who’s reading your lips, you’re very aware that 50% of what you say is absolute nonsense – so you should try and be more succinct.

https://decider.com/2017/12/14/how-2...guage-in-film/

[Skitch]

Its been said at least twice already in this thread but I'll say it again: entertaining for Wrights worst film. I feel like I should love this but couple big annoyances. Anytime the Debora character pops up the film comes to a screaming halt. Its not the actresses is fault, she does fine, her character just wasn't written very interesting. And those scenes feel so slowly paced. The car chases are excellent and filmed really well, same with the planning-the-caper scenes. Even the stuff with the old deaf guy is interesting. Something about the Debora stuff just bored me to tears. Then, the climax should have been a big insane car chase, instead we get a foot chase and some screwing around in a car park. Quite disappointed.

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