BABY DRIVER (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

BABY DRIVER (2017) movie

Genre             |  Crime Thriller

Classification   |   M

Running time   |   113 minutes

Released         |   13 July 2017

cast

Ansel Elgort ... Baby
Jon Bernthal ... Griff
Jon Hamm ... Buddy
Eiza González ... Darling
Lily James ... Debora
Kevin Spacey ... Doc
​CJ Jones ... Joseph
Jamie Foxx ... Bats

director

Edgar Wright

writer

​​Edgar Wright

cinematographer

Bill Pope

music

​Steven Price

film editor

​Jonathan Amos
Paul Machliss

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​226,945,087  

Australia                 $​​​​​​​​​​​​​​10,599,605

North America       $​​107,825,862

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the best dialogue

Baby: You and I are a team, Doc.
Doc: Don't feed me any more lines from Monsters Inc. It pisses me off.

Bats: This one, they say that listens to the music all the time?
Griff: I mean, is he retarded?
Doc: 'Retarded' means slow. Was he slow?
Griff: No.
Doc: He had an accident when he was a kid. Still has a hum in the drum. Plays music to drown it out. And that's what makes him the best.

[Baby is sitting at a table in a diner when Deborah, a waitress, notices him]
Deborah: So are you starting your day or did you just get off?
Baby: They call; I go. You know?
[Instantly, Baby's phone buzzes on the table which he catches without looking]
Deborah: So what is it you do?
Baby: I'm a driver.
Deborah: Oh, like a chauffeur? Anyone I'd know?
Baby: I hope not.
Deborah: What is your name?
Baby: Baby.
Deborah: Your name's Baby? B-A-B-Y Baby?

BABY DRIVER (2017) MOVIE IMAGES

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Posters

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Posters

BABY DRIVER (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​Talented getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort) relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. After meeting the woman (Lily James) of his dreams, he sees a chance to ditch his shady lifestyle and make a clean break. Coerced into working for a crime boss (Kevin Spacey), Baby must face the music as a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.

BABY DRIVER (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 13 July 2017
​Pop Movee Rating  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

BABY DRIVER is a sensational 113 minute thrill ride, marrying a tight crime thriller with a soundtrack that literally dictates the story beats. While not unique in concept, the rapide-fire pacing and millimetre perfect choreography Writer-Director Edgar Wright employs makes BBAY DRIVER not just a movie, but a cinematic experience, where the combination of sight and sound combine to provide a unique viewing experience. Then there’s the knock-out cast. Kevin Spacey. Jamie Foxx. Jon Hamm. There’s no shortage of talent in that line-up; but it’s the film’s young leads - Ansel Elgort & Lily James - who draw the viewer into their hopes and dreams as the young couple plan an escape from the troubles in their lives.

The viewer in introduced to Ansel Elgort’s Baby by way of a dynamic opening car chase sequence set to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion punching out “Bellbottoms”. Baby is an absolute demon behind the wheel of a motor vehicle and he absolutely wrings the proverbial neck of the Subaru WRX getaway car for the entire five minutes and eighteen seconds it takes to get through the first of the thirty tracks featured on the film’s soundtrack. Despite his bravura performance behind the wheel, Baby’s criminal colleagues are not entirely accepting of his minimalist interaction.

Jon Bernthal’s Griff tries to test Baby in all sorts of ways, but the kid doesn’t flinch. Fortunately, he has Crime Boss ‘Doc’ (Kevin Spacey) in his corner, providing the credentials for his young charge to keep Griff at bay. Along for the ride are Jon Hamm’s Buddy and Eiza Gonzalez’s Darling; a married couple who delight in dancing on the dark side of the law. What Griff, Buddy and Darling don’t realize is that Doc’s patronage of his star driver stems from Baby’s need to repay ‘Doc’ a substantial sum of money that the crime boss lost when Baby boosted his Mercedes with a stash on board.

Baby’s odd behaviour stems from injuries he suffered as a child in a car accident, resulting in permanent hearing damage in the form of tinnitus. (Anyone who has ever suffered from it knows just how damned annoying it is; particularly if you’re trying to get to sleep at night!) The only solution Baby has come up with to this point in his life is to have a version - any version - of a Walkman, mp3 player or iPod cranked up to his favourite tracks. This comes in especially handy in his getaway driving for Doc, as he formulates his escape plan on the basis of the the tune he’s chosen.

Baby’s only genuine friend is Joseph, his room mate and legal guardian, played by CJ Jones. Despite only communicating via sign language, Elgort and Jones’s characters convey genuine affection for one another, with Joseph deeply concerned that Baby is running off the rails. To the elder man’s relief, Baby’s focus shifts upon encountering Debora, played by the gorgeous Lily James, a new waitress at Baby’s local diner. Her voice alone is enough to catch Baby’s affection, as she breezes by him singing the Carla Thomas tune B-A-B-Y. Debora’s entry into his existence changes everything for him, as only young love can do.

While there’s no Award-winning turns in BABY DRIVER, the entertainment the performers deliver is first-rate. Of all the actors, Ansel Elgort is the most difficult to accept because the opening minutes of the film feature him completely out-of-character and it takes a little while for him to slip into a “normal” type of behaviour as he comes down off the high of his high octane getaway.

Spacey, Foxx, Hamm and James are all spot on, while CJ Jones provides the film’s moral compass for Baby to compare his actions to. Edgar Wright has delivered outstanding entertainment with BABY DRIVER, but has also managed to give viewers his unique mash-up of a Crime Thriller Musical. Don’t be confused though. This is not BUGSY MALONE (1976). Much like the Michael Mann film HEAT (1995), upon which Wright pays homage with several of his set-pieces, BABY DRIVER is serious cinema and needs to be seen on the big screen to be fully appreciated!

BABY DRIVER MOVIE (2017) USEFUL LINKS

​Baby Driver (2017) - IMDb
Baby Driver - Wikipedia
​Baby Driver (2017) - Rotten Tomatoes

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