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Baby Driver


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  • 3 months later...

Ehhh, it certainly has music in it.

 

The music is fun and well placed. Not like Suicide Squad where it hits you over the head, annoyingly so. And not so perfect like Gunn's love letter to music in Guardians. It just... fits.

 

The performances are great. The story is fun. The action is ridiculous. Even the slower parts are cool and with feeling. Is it better than Shaun or Hot Fuzz? Hmmm, maybe not, but its up there.

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Right before Spacey calls him again. He is flipping through channels with his foster dad and for a split second it shows the guy in the car when he says "Is this the place" at the beginning.

 

 

Also, another cool thing during the number at the beginning when he is getting coffee

 

 

Keep an eye on the graffiti and shop signs. They have lyrics to Harlem Shuffle on the walls as it's playing.

 

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^Ditto about noticing the graffiti.

 

As for the movie, I thought it dragged a bit in the third act but overall very good. It definitely lives up to the hype. I didn't know that about the music video though. Pretty interesting Wright's idea for a film germinated from a music video. Thanks for sharing that, axels.

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NZA and I caught this today. I was pretty bored throughout but chalked that up to pretty much never being impressed by fast cars or shoot outs. I left the theater thinking it was ok, probably great for those who are more into the genre. But as we discussed it on the way home, I realized that I found it completely predictable and poorly written and now I'm just gonna say I didn't like it.

 

I didn't care about a single character. Ansel Elgort seemed like he was on some strong Xanax, which was in character, I suppose, but even when he inevitably goes into "badass mode" I still wasn't buying it. I predicted 95% of the outcomes of every scene or story line. I picked up on every planted seed and plot device. They were far too conspicuous. I kept thinking "maybe it finishes strong and that's why it's reviewed so highly?" But nah. That ending was implausible and silly.

 

 

Homegirl waits on Baby for what we assume is a 5 year bid because they're in love after two dates? And Nick pointed out it's a little silly that she's driving the car on the bridge but doesn't catch a charge? C'maaaaan.

 

Yeah...the whole thing felt gimmicky and annoying in the end. Kinda wish we'd caught the new Apes instead of this.

 

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giphy.gif

 

okay yeah so i had fun with it but there's definitely bits that donny pointed out that were troubling, and not in some "i watched a red letter breakdown of this" type of way but like super obvious when even watching, which is weird for me since i tend to just go along for the ride

 

 

yeah baby himself reminded me a bit of the dude from lucky number slevin, in that he was supposed to be charming & eventually badass but i didn't get the latter...which was fine, cause there's a lotta star power here that carried things for me. seeing punisher, spacey, hamm, fox etc in a room was pretty cool

 

for me, one of the things that felt really forced for the plot was spacey's complete 180 from being nearly a full-on villain to "okay, you killed some crew & blew a big heist, but you're in love? here's a bag of money, im gonna take shots and get run over 3x for you", after that even terminator hamm was thrown a bit off, but again, mostly enjoyable

 

one thing i kept feeling was that wright's planted seeds donny pointed out - hamm quickly referencing a background as a driver, main dude recording stuff he ought not, etc - felt like a convention he absolutely did in his cornetto/apocalypse trilogy but maybe lent themselves better to something more comedic than action, i thought.

 

 

overall i think it's cool he tried another genre & going in blind usually helps, but my biggest beef here was akin to watching dogma: yeah, i enjoyed the final product, but when the cast is that strong part of me's gonna feel like you could've done something overall better with it.

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Ok so the Spacey stuff

 

 

Baby's been his ONLY driver for ten years. I thought it was a nice touch not to make him such a complete villain. They had sort of a weird father son thing going on, and that final bit fit nicely.

 

 

I think y'all were focusing wayyyyy too much on the plot and just not enjoying the pure fun-ness of the thing. I don't think there is any denying how technically well made it was. Gimmicky? I mean, yeah maybe, but it was constructed so tightly and I thought it flowed really well. The gimmick was advertised from the beginning, but it was executed really well.

 

Maybe music choice goes along way here. If it had a different soundtrack, maybe the reaction woulda been different?

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okay but spacey

 

 

literally didn't let him leave & implied he pretty much never would, at risk of maiming him & killing his friends...i guess he was nice to him at times, but it just felt like cause he was useful. it was a face turn that came outta nowhere to me

 

 

i can say nahhh to the latter cause i liked most of the OST, and actually the time around baby's apartment (particularly with his foster dad) was some of the more enjoyable stuff...music wasn't the problem for me there. like...i know it's an action flick so i don't often look for tightness but the caper stuff? mostly happened off screen, cause it wasn't about them. the chases? were obviously well done, and i enjoyed em. i even enjoyed the OutRun angle of him just wanting to drive off into the sunset with the girl, cliche stuff like that can work for me...but i guess i was really hyped to see edgar wright doing something again (it's been forever, unless you count some bits i assume made it into ant man?) and i have had a high bar for dude (big fan of Spaced, loved his trilogy etc)

 

really, i'm bagging on details here but overall saying i enjoyed it more than i didn't, just that it could've been better for me, given the director's pedigree/high review score. that's not a scathing thing to say, is it? donny doesn't really enjoy much from those genres, i'm more or less saying it was alright with some fun bits and some stuff i thought fell flat.

 

*edit: the way it did stuff constantly to the beat of the music was something i liked too, that's the kinda thing that can easily feel cheesey (especially if you overuse popular music like panch pointed at with SS) but i thought it worked here & dug it

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I think y'all were focusing wayyyyy too much on the plot and just not enjoying the pure fun-ness of the thing.

 

That right there is my issue with this genre. Story is often secondary to flashiness and I can't enjoy a movie if I don't care about the story (or the characters, etc.). I honestly would've skipped this altogether if it'd been anyone but Wright. I'm a big fan of his and thought maybe he could write a better action/car-chase movie. But it was far too problematic for me.

 

The music was ok. I don't think better songs would've helped much.

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...Yeah...the whole thing felt gimmicky and annoying in the end. Kinda wish we'd caught the new Apes instead of this.

Count your blessings. I saw Apes tonight and it was disappointing. It was just so . . . boring. Second worst film I've seen this summer after Transformers 5. Edited by Mr. Hakujin
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  • 1 year later...

I mean, yeah it's dumb but that's not why I don't like it.  I don't like it because its titular character is an unlikeable dweeb and the story is pretty weak overall.  Edgar Wright exceeds at directing complex action-packed comedy, so why he chose to direct a mostly-serious action movie with 8 jokes is beyond me.  It was alright but I certainly don't understand why people championed it so much.  I mean if you're going to do a movie that's sold on diagetic music you can surely at least get a more memorable soundtrack.

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edgar wright has proven several times now that he can pull off adapting something really fun (scott pilgrim), can carry ensemble casts through a comedy series with heartwarming moments (spaced), and can have a blast while subverting horror/comedy across a trilogy.  

 

this was a bunch of pieces & talent in a way that wasn't really fun and fell apart if you looked at it even remotely closely (and that's not even taking things apart like say @C_U_SPACECOWBOY does).  like baytor said, he took the comedy out of his action stuff here and the action that was left was..okay?  

 

it got pretty high praise so yeah, it's not terrible but i'm gonna dump a little on it because he's a talented director that's done so much more with so much less. 

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