‘Baby Driver’ delivers a rip roaring rollercoaster from start to finish

With a soundtrack that rouses even the dreariest of spirits, and sublime action to match it, ‘Baby Driver’ is pretty unique in 2017 cinematic terms; a brilliantly crafted tale that draws you in, grips you tightly and leaves you more than satisfied come its wholesome conclusion.

The auteur of a few of my personal favourite films,’Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ among them, Edgar Wright has done it again. Sure it may borrow traits from his own previous work (humourous scene involving flicking through TV channels – check) and contain slabs of Hollywood cheese every now and then, namely between lovebirds Ansel Elgort’s titular Baby and Lily James’ Debora, but it retains sheer originality, and moments of brilliance.

To sum up the winding yarn of story, Elgort’s Baby owes a debt to Kevin Spacey’s chief heist-planner Doc, and is involved in driving crims to and from their dastardly thefts, but there’s a twist. Baby listens to music during said heist scenes to aid his crippling tinnitus, and so what we, the audience, have is a film in which almost every scene is soundtracked by our hero, Baby.  

What follows, in the wrong hands, could be ripe for unintentional humour, but is dealt with perfectly by Wright, knowing exactly when to play what song and the stylish scenes we get are perfectly put together. It’s said Wright secured the rights to the soundtrack before production, a rarity in the movies, and so during filming blared out the music to the appropriate scene, adding only to the ensuing madness this film manages to create.

The supporting cast of Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey and Eiza Gonzalez are great, fully realised characters, even when they are bad-blooded baddies you care about them. But the duo of Elgort and James is perfect, the two have magnetic chemistry, and you truly believe in them as a romance. A mention, too, must go to CJ Jones, who plays Baby’s guardian. A deaf actor, Jones delivers a star turn, his and Baby’s actions, totally wordless offer a few of the more heart-wrenching moments throughout, as well as more of the humourous too!

Can I talk about THAT soundtrack again? It’s bloody brilliant, for starters, each song is key to each scene, and you genuinely find yourself looking forward to find out the next tune to burst from Baby’s iPod onto the surround sound cinema system. It’s fair to say my morning commutes to work will be filled with the beats from this playlist for a little while. The stunts and driving in the film too, will make even the most timid driver want to drift their way home from their screening.

I genuinely cannot recommend ‘Baby Driver’ enough. It’s a breath of fresh air, among your ‘Fast & Furious’ and ‘Transformers’ franchises that seemingly never die, is a piece of work that manages to deliver both in terms of ballsy action, humour, emotion, and most importantly, FUN! If you’re after a fun thrill at the cinema, then you cannot do much better than give ‘Baby Driver’ a go, it’s definitely the most fun I’ve had at the cinema yet in 2017.

Have you seen ‘Baby Driver’? Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below!

Top 10 Anticipated Films of 2013 (Part 1)

Most Anticipated Films of 2013

It’s a little bit late, but here is a quick look at my top 10 Movies of 2013…

10. Warm Bodies

When I first heard the announcement of a book called ‘Warm Bodies’, being turned into a film, I took note, hearing of it’s ‘different’ plot of a zombie with, sort of, a heart and a conscience. I subsequently bought the book and devoured it in a week or so. It’s a great, if not clichéd story, and at times throughout the book I could visualize it, as a film, and it could be great. Judging by the first trailer, below, it looks like a combo of drama and comedy that such a situation threatened to have. Despite it being described as ”Twilight with zombies’, which the b0ok didn’t strike me as being true, and with a release date the week before Valentines Day in the UK, it could do big business with the same sort of audience, who will be looking for a new supernatural hero to worship. ‘R’, played by ‘Skins’ favourite Nicholas Hoult, could be the zombie tweens would die for (geddit?!).

9. Monsters University

A strange choice for an 18 year old lad, you may think, but ‘Monsters Inc’, was a film released at the height of my childhood, and captivated me. As with many Pixar films, it was great for kids and adults, meaning I even like to watch it every now and then nowadays! And I fully expect screenings of the long-awaited prequel to packed full of the supposed ‘target audience’ of children and parents, aswell as teens and young adults, who worshipped Sully and Mike the first time around, like myself. Very little has been revealed about the film, bar a couple of teaser trailers and a funny ‘university’ style ad for the titular, University in the film, but so long as it carries with it the same spirit as the first film, it’ll all be good. A sneaky cameo (somehow?!) by everyone’s favourite human ‘Boo’, would be great too, go on Pixar you know you want to!

8. Django Unchained

Having literally JUST seen the film today on it’s UK release, I can confirm that my suspicions of this being one of the biggest and best films of the year were true, ‘Django Unchained’, is one of Tarantino’s best yet. It’s a typically daring project for the divisive director, who follows up the time-bending ‘Inglorious Basterds’, with his brutal slavery-based spaghetti-western. Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington all star in a, a times hard watch, but it needs to be to display and show up the horrors that black men and women had to face in the 19th century. Also divisive will be the excessive use of the n-word, something often brought up when Tarantino’s films are being discussed, and whilst it is a sticking point, and at times really not needed, it has its place whilst the director works to create a haunting recreation of those dark days a couple of centuries ago. I’ll go into further detail in my review, but Django certainly deserves his place on this list.

7.  Into the Wonder

This only came up on my radar the other day, with it’s stunning trailer (below) spellbinding to the senses. The music astounding, and something I personally LOVE in a film, the shots, as artistic and beautiful as it gets for a Terence Malick film, and the voiceover from star Javier Bardem haunting. All of it came together nicely, and has got me interested, interested in the same way it’s predecessor, and supposed companion piece, ‘The Tree of Life’, did, which incidentally I didn’t get round to seeing. ‘To the Wonder’, may well go the same way, but with one of my favourite actors of the moment, Javier Bardem, present, a well-shot, well-scored drama could be right up my street. It’s Spring release will see whether I get round to seeing it or not, but it looks very, very promising at the minute, with critically acclaimed director/star Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams and Olga Kurylenko joining Bardem, along with Mailck, one of the most highly regarded directors of all time.

6. The World’s End

The third and final part of the much acclaimed, and bizarrely titled, Cornetto trilogy, The World’s End, sees buddies Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright teaming up once again, this time turning their thinly veiled parody with apocalyptic movies. ‘Shaun of the Dead’, and ‘Hot Fuzz’, were excellent films in their own rights, aswell as cracking takes on the zombie and buddy-cop genres, and ending it with an apocalyptic theme seems just right.

It’s great to see how far the trio have come since ‘Shaun’, too, with Simon Pegg, almost capable of leading a Hollywood movie all on his own, and supporting roles in big franchises, ‘Mission Impossible’, and ‘Star Trek’. Nick Frost has stayed closer to his roots, with parts in British films, ‘Attack the Block’ and ‘The Boat That Rocked’, but mixing it up with ‘Tintin’ and ‘Snow White and the Huntsman’. Director Edgar Wright has also made a strong name for himself with the stylish ‘Scott Pilgrim vs the World’ and the upcoming Marvel adaptation of ‘Ant-Man’. So as a result of this bizarre trilogy, three solid careers have been made, but most importantly, genuinely brilliant films in their own right have brought laughter to the millions.

This outing throws ‘The Office’ and new Hollywood Hobbit, Martin Freeman into the mix aswell as the great Paddy Considine, as they join Pegg and Frost on the bar crawl to end all bar crawls, as the world is conveniently ending simultaneously. It’s going to be a cracker!

The second part of my preview for the new year’s films is coming soon!

Trailer Talk #2: Django Unchained, Iron Man 3, Gangster Squad

The last couple of weeks have seen a trio of big movies that have action in their DNA hit the internet, all put their own stamp on the genre though, so let’s see what  Spring of 2013 has to offer us…

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino returns with his first flick since 2009’s ‘Inglorious Basterds’, in a revenge tale to rule them all, and a pretty daring one at that. Django Unchained focuses on the titular character, played by Jamie Foxx, a slave who’s rescued by a mysterious man, an alumni of ‘Basterds’, Christoph Waltz. Waltz wants Foxx to help him track down the notorious Brittle brothers, and in return Foxx will get his estranged wife back from the clutches of evil slave trade owner Calvin Candie (Leonardo Di Caprio). Throw in Samuel L. Jackson, Jonah Hill and Kerry Washington as Django’s wife, and what we have here is a delicious set-up with a cracking cast to boot. The trailer’s rough action vibes set against the slavery backdrop, may be too ‘risky’ for some, but it’s Tarantino! The action and humour looks brilliant, as does Di Caprio in a meaty role that you can tell he’s relishing and that last shot of the blood against the white flowers is excellent. America get it on Christmas Day, but we don’t have to wait much longer, with it appearing here in the UK on January 18th.

Iron Man 3

In a summer jam-packed full of superhero movies, including the gut-busting ‘Avengers Assemble’ in which Iron Man was the star, is the world really ready for another Marvel flick? I’d say, hesitantly, yes. This trailer shows us that the glamorous lifestyle Tony Stark, the brilliant Robert Downey Jr, has been used to over the last few years since his decision to unmask himself as Iron Man, is disappearing, partly because of the aftermath of the ‘Avengers’. His mansion is attacked, his loved ones taken, and he is left with nothing, a stark reminder of the brilliant ‘cave’ section of the first film in this series. If we  see a return to the first film’s quality, rather than the, still fun but ultimately mixed bag, second film, then ‘Iron Man 3′, could be onto a winner. I do think that the overload of superhero films, means that this must change things up a bit to be a true success, I for one am slightly beginning to tire of the genre. With a release date of late April, it hopes to buck the trend and prove summer blockbusters can perform well outside of their comfort zone, let’s wait and find out.

Gangster Squad

Gangster Squad has been plagued by problems recently. The tragic Aurora shootings that shook the world back in July, forced the film back into re-shoots, as a scene, as seen in a previous trailer, saw the protagonists shooting their way through a cinema screen and mowing down movie-goers.Not good. However, re-shoots completed, the film is back on-track and it looks great. Set in the 40’s and starring Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone and Sean Penn in roles that face them off against each other, you know it’s going to be good. Gosling, in particular, with a shotgun and his quiet, understated voice, looks to replicate his almost silent role in my film of the year, last year, ‘Drive’. If Gangster Squad is anywhere near that level, then January 11th, its long-awaited release date, shall be a good day.

Film Review: Horrible Bosses

To say I was expecting a lot going into watching Horrible Bosses, would be a lie. I was expecting a typical American rude comedy, and the only one of the leads I knew was Jason Bateman, and even then I wouldn’t say I was a ‘fan’! Fortunately, the other two leads and the three titular bosses, made for a very good black comedy, a rare feat in modern cinema, however it isn’t completely perfect, but still earns its place amongst the best comedies of 2011.

The story starts with the aforementioned Bateman, dental nurse Jason Day and chemical waste employee, Jason Sudeikis, and how their bosses give them absolute hell. Instantly, the story strikes a chord with the audience, and with the appearances of two reasonably unknown, outside of America anyway, comedians in Day and Sudeikis, perhaps, the audience can relate more with them. If, as planned earlier in the film’s 6-year development, that stars like Ryan Reynolds and Owen Wilson were cast for the roles, perhaps this wouldn’t work as well, due to the instant recognition that those types of actors provide. The three friends hatch a plan, to kill their bosses, and from then on the frenetic pace of the 93 minute film, about as short as it gets, builds and builds.

The three bosses, are all brilliant. The big names of Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston and Colin Farrell all represent the three men’s vision of hell, and each plays to their roles fantastically. Spacey has dangled the carrot of a promotion over Bateman’s character for 6 years, but then decides to award it to himself. Day is the assistant to Aniston’s dentist, who likes to initimidate him with her sexual nature, whilst Farrell is the coke-fuelled son of Sudeikis’ ex-boss who passed away with a heart-attack. Spacey is the best boss, as his personal life is explored in much further detail, and he is the one the audience will truly love to hate. Jennifer Aniston takes a huge step out of her comfort zone of generic rom-coms, since the demise of ‘Friends’, to become the exact opposite, a sex-fuelled pest who attempts blackmail, and generally messes with Charlie Day’s mousy character. Farrell appears the least out of the three, but pulls off a memorable turn as the hell-child,  who’s house the murderous trio infiltrate, and end up ‘spoiling’ his cocaine.

As the fed-up trio begin to formulate their plan, they decide they need a hitman. After a couple of dodgy attempts, they find what looks like the real deal: a hardened Jamie Foxx. His character has done a ‘dime’ (10 years) in jail, for ‘nasty s**t’, the three jump on board, to find him only offering his services as a ‘murder consultant’. Foxx, again, features sporadically throughout the film, appearing when you have just forgotten about him, to steal the show. The reveal of his actual crime is one of the film’s highlights too, his ‘skills’ coming in handy at the very end of the film.

The film whizz’s through at almighty pace, with one minute the guys purchasing their ‘weapons of choice’, and the next, them putting them into action. It seems quite rushed at times, when other scenes, one in the car-park in particular, when the stars are queueing to get out the place, show the level of film-making to be very high. It’s not the most consistent film as a result. As mentioned, Farrell and Foxx’ characters could’ve been given further screentime, and the film expanded to fit them in. Also, I really don’t think the amount of swearing included was necessary, at times it was bearable, at others it was just annoying, and the film shows it can be funny without it, which is even more frustrating.

Overall though, it shows that on a low-budget and with relatively unknown ‘heroes’, that a film can succeed in modern-day cinema, as it hit the $200m mark in America, which is pretty good. It’s not a classic, by any means, but a good comedy, and a good way to kill and hour and a half.

4/5.