View Poll Results: Baby Driver

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Thread: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)

  1. #1

    Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)


  2. #2
    Since 1929 Morris Schæffer's Avatar
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    Fucking pumped for this!!! It's a long wait until middle August.
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  3. #3
    Cinematographer Mal's Avatar
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    Mildest of yays in existence. It has some genuine moments but they don't sustain the picture 'til its end. When the story starts to twist, it stumbles and becomes formulaic, predictable, and yawn. There's no wows in the casting other than [
    ]

  4. #4
    Shocking Seductive Spiral Thirdmango's Avatar
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    No surprise it's my favorite movie of the year.

  5. #5
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    This was relentlessly awesome!

  6. #6
    Errand Boy
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    I continue to find Edgar Wright's screenwriting glaringly deficient. I can like a good 50% of his movie with some moderate enthusiasm, and just find the rest inept and infantile. The last portion of this movie annoyed me nearly as much as Flight's conclusion did, and I was only prepared to give this a mild thumbs up before that. I don't think Edgar Wright is a very good storyteller or creator of characters, and that's something I'm fully willing to grant even an in-form Michael Bay.
    Last edited by Weems; 06-28-2017 at 09:51 PM.

  7. #7
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    This is easily sitting near the top of my list for the year so far. Neck and neck with Logan.

  8. #8

  9. #9
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Pretty fun for Edgar Wright's worst movie. It's the most interesting I've found Jamie Foxx in a while. It's also neat seeing Wright try to do old-school shot-reverse shot across-a-table suspense in some scenes rather than his usual energetic rows.

    The romance is awful. I really don't get the point of Wright having the Debora character or any romance at all when he was clearly not interested in giving her any personality. It's a completely infantile and male-fantasy idea of falling in love. Especially pointless when he also introduced another person Baby cares about that is used as threat and motivation in essentially the same way.

    Meh.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  10. #10
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Liked it for the most part. Felt a little languorous in the late-middle, with maybe one more climax than it needs, but maybe not.* Loved the film giving real attention to the Hamm and Foxx characters, agree with number8 that James' character should've received that same level of attention - we get some backstory but not much sense of how she feels the deeper she falls into Baby's world (I actually felt more empathy for the deaf/mute in Baby's care). The action sequences are joyful, the sincerity of the film is deeply felt (cliche as some of the beats are).

    Highlights are the coffee walk at the beginning, the weapons-deal-gone-bad, and the stunning foot chase after the final heist. And the subversion in terms of Baby's final foe.

    *Like all of Wright's films, it demands a rewatch.

  11. #11
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    It pains me because I do think a romance would've worked great with this movie's musicality. It could've been Car Car Land. I love the idea of a central couple's sincerity affecting other characters in various ways ("I was in love once..."), but that requires selling a convincing coupling, and this movie was extremely lazy with doing that. There's not a single moment in the entire movie where I thought, "Wow, they're really cute together." Just constantly "Wow, she's really accommodating with all of this guy's quirks and giggles a lot." It made the final shot embarrassing to watch.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  12. #12
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dead & Messed Up (view post)
    Highlights are the coffee walk at the beginning
    The choreography is absolutely fantastic, got me so ready for the rest of the movie, but I think the very similar tracking shot in Shaun of the Dead spoiled me because it was able to weave that into the plot whereas this one was just a one-off credit sequence. I was sort of hoping it would call back in the foot chase.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  13. #13
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting number8 (view post)
    The choreography is absolutely fantastic, got me so ready for the rest of the movie, but I think the very similar tracking shot in Shaun of the Dead spoiled me because it was able to weave that into the plot whereas this one was just a one-off credit sequence. I was sort of hoping it would call back in the foot chase.
    Yeah, I was expecting a callback too. Wright's taught me to watch his movies looking for those kinds of setups and payoffs, so it was a little disheartening, but after the warehouse shoot-out with the gunshots timed to the music, I wondered if I should consider each sequence its own isolated musical number with its own goals. It's just hard to divest myself of those Wrightisms, 'cause they're a big part of why I love the guy.

    The sequence is a little plot-pertinent, though, because it's supposed to demonstrate his level of comfort with his job and anticipates the reveal that he's almost done doing his work for Spacey and happy about it. [Agree that the Shaun sequences are more meaningful to their story, for sure.]
    Last edited by Dead & Messed Up; 06-30-2017 at 06:47 PM.

  14. #14
    Guttenbergian Pop Trash's Avatar
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    We all agree Hot Fuzz is Wright's best movie, right?
    Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:

    Top Gun: Maverick - 8
    Top Gun - 7
    McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
    Crimes of the Future - 8
    Videodrome - 9
    Valley Girl - 8
    Summer of '42 - 7
    In the Line of Fire - 8
    Passenger 57 - 7
    Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6



  15. #15
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
    We all agree Hot Fuzz is Wright's best movie, right?
    I love The World's End the most, but I think ranking them is sort of absurd. They're all fantastic (the first four anyway; this one needs time to simmer).

  16. #16
    In the belly of a whale Henry Gale's Avatar
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    I was still on a really perfect movie-going high with my Homecoming screening, but decided I couldn't pass up taking this in right after it, and luckily it was a pretty perfect way to sustain that great feeling. I don't really disagree with a lot of the issues you guys had (though I found Elgort and James super charismatic together, especially in the laundromat sequence), but those things that did cross my mind ended up having little detrimental effect on my very high enjoyment of everything beautiful swirling around on screen here, all lusciously and dynamically synced with what it pumped into my ears.

    I will say though, speaking of expected call-backs and such, I was a little disappointed that [
    ]

    Either way, really looking forward to seeing it again, even if I'm not sure it ranks highly with Wright's work for me (though he's still one of my favourites around). But there was just so much clearly planted in it that was happening so fast that I knew it was going to be impossible to take it all in on first viewing, and like D&MU already mentioned, I already think his stuff always has so many so mini-revelatory moments to pick up on with later viewings anyway, with the musicality of the editing and action undoubtedly going to be an awesome thing to re-experience for sure.

    The brief Big Boi and Killer Mike appearance of them sharing drinks with Spacey was pretty funny to me, and apparently only me considering the intense silence of everyone else in the theatre. That might've had to do with, y'know, the scene working.
    Last 11 things I really enjoyed:

    Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
    Safe (Haynes, 1995)
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
    Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
    Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
    What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
    Diva (Beineix, 1981)
    Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
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    Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
    Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)

  17. #17
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    I liked their interactions, I just wish she had more to her beyond being a sort of idealized woman. Most of the characters deepen as the story goes, but she just kinda tags along. [She becomes more actively involved, fighting against Baby's enemies by his side, but I wanted a bit more.]

    And yeah, it's a sort of B+ movie for me, where I say this shit but still really loved the flick at its best, which was often.

  18. #18
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dead & Messed Up (view post)
    I love The World's End the most,
    Wow. Care to expand on why? I thought that was the least of his work and of the trilogy. I enjoyed it overall, but I was disappointed.

  19. #19
    Piss off, ghost! number8's Avatar
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    World's End for me as well.
    Quote Quoting Donald Glover
    I was actually just reading about Matt Damon and he’s like, ‘There’s a culture of outrage.’ I’m like, ‘Well, they have a reason to be outraged.’ I think it’s a lot of dudes just being scared. They’re like, ‘What if I did something and I didn’t realize it?’ I’m like, ‘Deal with it.’
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  20. #20
    collecting tapes Skitch's Avatar
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    I'm interested to know more.

  21. #21
    Moderator Dead & Messed Up's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Skitch (view post)
    Wow. Care to expand on why? I thought that was the least of his work and of the trilogy. I enjoyed it overall, but I was disappointed.
    I'll come back to this shortly, but very briefly: love the hard melancholy, Pegg's performance, thematic complexity, and how it pushes back against the other two Cornettos.

    EDIT: This is actually getting long-winded, so it'll be a while.
    Last edited by Dead & Messed Up; 06-30-2017 at 11:44 PM.

  22. #22
    Moderator TGM's Avatar
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    Quote Quoting Dead & Messed Up (view post)
    I love The World's End the most, but I think ranking them is sort of absurd. They're all fantastic (the first four anyway; this one needs time to simmer).
    I'm honestly in the same boat. Thought about ranking them after seeing this, but honestly couldn't decide what should actually be placed above what across his entire filmography. Dude's got one hell of a consistent track record, and I still maintain that this one is no different in that regard.

  23. #23
    The World's End and Scott Pilgrim are not good. Shaun is his best film, and Hot Fuzz is pretty good. One of the more overrated directors out there....
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  24. #24
    Producer
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    Haven't seen this yet. My favorite is Scott Pilgrim, but out of the Cornetto trilogy The World's End is my favorite too. Simon Pegg's superb performance of toxic nostalgia really resonates and it's one of the few comedies (the only one I can think of at the moment) that haunts me a bit after it ends, with its quietly but intensely desperate and melancholic core.
    Midnight Run (1988) - 9
    The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
    The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
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  25. #25
    Didn't care for this.

    Superb 2nd Unit work, but the dialogue and most of the performances are stylized to the point of annoyance. Without Pegg, Wright strikes me as a fairly lost when it comes to characterization and storytelling. I thought Scott Pilgrim had a lot of scripting issues, but this was worse. I appreciate the grounded action, and the chases are breathtakingly captured, but the narrative is too hackneyed to hang your hat on any of it.

    Jamie Foxx comes out the best in this. Everyone else feels like first-draft Tarantino. Bad material and not the most suitable casting, unfortunately.
    Last edited by DavidSeven; 07-02-2017 at 12:10 AM.
    letterboxd.

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