Should You See ‘Baby Driver’?

ShutTheFuckUpDonny8 years ago

Yes.

Yes.

1000x yes. Baby Driver is incredible. It restored my faith, not only in movies, but also in humanity. Because most movies are shit. For every Godfather, there are 20 Transformers: The Last Night. This one is so good it helped me get over whatever the fuck The Hobbit movies were trying to do.

Since the day that it was announced, the expectations for Baby Driver were through the roof. It had everything you could ask for: Edgar Wright, a top tier British director with several critically acclaimed comedies under his belt, voyaging across the pond to bring us an action comedy, starring huge names like Kevin Spacey, Jon Hamm, and Jamie Foxx. Then came the trailers, which teased out of control action scenes, hilarious dialogue and a killer soundtrack featuring all of your old man’s favorite songs. The movie was such a sure-fire hit that I walked into the theater last night terrified that it was going to suck.

But it did not suck. It did not suck at all.

This absolute gator tail of a movie kicks it up all the way up to a 10 during the opening scene and does not let up for the next 90 minutes. It features some of the best editing I’ve ever seen or heard. Every action on screen — gunshots, crashes, slammed doors and reloads — sync up with the music perfectly. All the performances were great. Jamie Foxx steals every scene he is in as a diabolical foil to Baby, played by the kid from The Fault In Our Stars. Jon Hamm and Kevin Spacey both crush it and remind you that guys that are that talented are also super funny and superior to you in each way.

The plot is your typical “one last job” story. Baby, a gifted young getaway driver in love with a cute waitress, finds himself stuck in a life of crime. If you’re thinking it sounds like Drive, that’s because it’s almost the exact same story, only with slightly less aspergers. Baby Driver is filled with familiar character types: the crime boss who refuses to let him go, and a crew that consists of a psycho, a cool guy, and a very, very good looking female.

But what makes this film great is that it uses those clichés and the expectations that come with them to its advantage. Characters who you expect to stick around disappear after one scene, the bad guys do things that the good guys are supposed to do and vice versa, and people die when you least expect them to. I felt like a complete fucking idiot about 20 times while watching it because every time I expected the movie to zig, it went ahead and zagged on me.

So take a friend, girlfriend, mom, dad, or nearest homeless person directly to your nearest movie theatre. Don’t wait to catch it on demand and don’t be a douche and pirate it. Go buy a ticket and watch it in the theater like a real American. Because movies like this won’t get made if they don’t make any money. And if that happens, I guess we can all go see the Yahtzee movie when it comes out next summer..