Director: Edgar Wright
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 113 minutes
Baby Driver (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
Baby Driver is one of those movies that caught a lot of wind the last year, as it received a lot of positive critiques when it aired in theatres, simply because it was different. Now that a few months have passed by, we were eager to take another close look at the physical release of this film, in order to determine what was so special about this flick about a getaway driver. Thanks to Sony we were able to get that chance, and we did not wait to dive into this action tale about bad choices and love once again.
The plot of the movie is rather simple, as it all revolves around Baby (Ansel Elgort), who looks like an average teenager/young adult, who is tied up in some rather shady business. He is a pro driver who serves as a getaway driver for teams that commit crimes under the orders of Doc (Kevin Spacey). While Baby looks like a good guy, he has to work off a debt he has with Doc, for destroying some of his property, and it’s clear that Doc isn’t a character you would want to mess around with. Every job Baby goes on earns himself a few credits, which he stores aside, while the bulk of his cut goes to Doc, who lowers his debt each job he goes on. Baby clearly wants to leave this life behind him, as he wants to take care of his surrogate father Joseph (CJ Jones), and he also has an eye on a local waitress Debora (Lily James).
For the most part the movie revolves around Baby wanting to leave his shady life behind, build up a relationship with Debora, and try to start over. It’s also interesting to see how Baby’s character comes to life, as he has tinnitus, which causes him to hear a constant ringing noise. To drown out the noise, he constantly listens to music, and he is an avid lip reader, making him a peculiar character. The latter is something that makes the story more interesting and unique.
The pacing of Baby Driver feels a bit off, as it moves a lot slower than many other movies in the genre. While this isn’t a bad thing per se, it just takes some time getting used to, and thrill seekers might give up after a half hour in, as the movie really takes its time to build up toward the main event. Nonetheless, waiting does pay off, as the movie turns very interesting, intense and original beyond the halfway mark. Even though the story itself isn’t innovative or original for that matter, it has some original twists along the way, and is presented in a fairly unique fashion, making this movie stand out in its genre.
Acting performances are quite sturdy in this movie, with Ansel playing the very peculiar and interesting Baby, the controversial Kevin Spacey however plays a somewhat boring stereotypical character. Other than that we see Jon Hamm play Buddy, a somewhat likeable villain, with Jamie Foxx playing a somewhat annoying gangster that just feels a bit off, and too forced to become convincible, making him an annoying presence throughout the bulk of the movie. Other than that, the supporting roles all do a fairly decent job.
While there are a reasonable amount of special features present on this Blu-ray release of Baby Driver, most of them are along the lines of making of featurettes, removed content, previews and even a music clip. Even though your Baby Driver experience can get lengthened quite a bit, most of the extras aren’t that noteworthy.
Conclusion
Baby Driver is a weird movie, in the sense that it offers something familiar, with totally different pacing and a somewhat diverging storyline compared to most movies. If you like fast cars, an interesting tale about someone being sucked into the world of crime and a mushy love story in-between, then this movie will certainly tickle your senses. If you like your action movies, fast and impressive, then this one might just drive you by unnoticed.
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