I must confess, I’m not too familiar with Edgar Wright as a movie director. Until this, I had only seen one of his movies, Hot Fuzz, and I was laughing pretty much the whole way through, very amused by Simon Pegg’s super-serious London cop being placed into a small town environment and finding increasingly wacky situations with a ridiculously funny conspiracy with exciting action sequences, all creating a funny romp! I am more familiar with his music videos though, having seen moe of those. Granted, it has been years since I last watched one of them, I probably don’t remember anything that happened in them, but I remember enjoying them. With Baby Driver though, I was excited to see another fun romp!
After being booted off Ant-Man by Marvel for being too creative for their tastes (he worked since 2003 on that!) Wright decided to take his energies into making a crime heist movie of his own, with all the comedic energy he could muster. I make an effort to avoid reviewing comedies, as it is difficult to review a good comedy without spoiling too many jokes. In the case of a bad comedy there are only so many ways you can say “it just wasn’t funny”. However I must say, Baby Driver is such an adrenaline filled joyride!
The opening sequence establishing Baby’s (Ansel Elgort) driving skills is such a rush of tension that I was hooked for the rest of the movie. It’s like the movie clawed into the recesses of my mind, found just the escapist fun I was seeking, and kept feeding that area like a very generous pet owner! Right after is literally just Baby going to get coffee for the crew and boss, Doc (Kevin Spacey), yet the gorgeous cinematography by Bill Pope (The Matrix, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) combined with Baby’s music makes it so that you can’t help but shake your head and tap your toes in rhythm.
The car chases are very exciting. If you are like me, sick of The Fast and the Furious (I don’t like any of those movies), tired and bored by all the CGI cars and over-the-top ridiculous stunts that feel more in line with a Hanna-Barbera or Looney Toons cartoon than a live-action movie (those are fine, I just wish the films were more honest about that), constantly annoyed about all the talk of the “danger”, “stakes”, and “fear” when being a good at car racing makes you impervious to all harm (not even little cuts on the crew of those movies, so why should I care about anything that happens?), all the talk of “FAMILY!” in even more ridiculous fashion than the last, then Baby Driver is the movie for you! There is risk, there is tension, there is damage, there is harm to our protagonist! Just what I’m looking for in a car chase!
Baby Driver is a literal joyride of a movie from writer director Edgar Wright with his signature comedy all around and great performances from a talented cast! You will walk away with a big, idiot grin on your face, smiling and sighing from the rush of excitement and laughter the movie delivers, and I highly recommend it!
Image source: www.vox.com
