116.
Baby Driver
9/10
I missed this as the Odeon Screen Unseen but was glad to find the time to be able to find a night to get to the cinema. I wasn't too fussed on this after the trailers and experience with recent films focused around driving so going into this movie, I wasn't expecting to be blown away but to simply add another number to my list. With a decent set of cast, some tunes and reviews from the lads as too how good the film was, I wonder whether I was going to be pleasantly surprised. Let's crank it up and see what's driving the fans wild.
The film begins with a red car pulling up opposite a bank with Buddy, played by Jon Hamm, Darling, played by Eiza Gonzalez and Griff, played by Jon Bernthal, getting out as the main robbers whilst the getaway driver, Baby Played by Ansel Elgort plays 'Bellbottoms' on his iPod. With the money grabbed, team back in the car, the music is blaring in Baby's ears whilst he speeds away from the police through the city. High speed, obstacles everywhere, we are swiftly moved between them and when two other red cars are spotted, Baby disguises his car between them and is able to trick the police and escape. In a parking lot, the team swaps cars and get away. Already I'm enjoying this more than any chase in the Fast and Furious creations. It's so clever, which is shown in the next scene when Baby goes to grab some coffee for the team. He's listening to a new song and as he walks down the street the lyrics are shown in signs, graffiti, posters and forms of media as they are sung on the track. Along with Baby moving along to the music himself. Back at the hideout the team meet with their employer, Doc, who is played by the great Kevin Spacey. With Griff being a bit of a knob, he explains that Baby had an accident when he was younger and he has tinnitus, so the music drowns out the humming in his ears. Griff tries to scare him with fists but Baby doesn't flinch once and although his sunglasses are stolen, he simply gets another pair from his jacket. Once parting ways, Buddy tells Baby not to answer Doc next time but Doc tells him to ignore that.
We see a bit more of Baby's personal life where he lives with a deaf paraplegic called Joseph who watches as Baby puts his cut of the money, with a lot more, hidden in the floorboards. They do a bit of sign language where Joseph knows that he's into some shady business. In his spare time, Baby takes recordings of people's conversations and remixes them onto tapes. One we see is labelled, MOM. Baby goes to a diner where he sees a young waitress called Debora, Lily James is the actress and she's singing a song which he recognises. She takes his order as he records her and the two have a back and fore before he asks the name of her song. He later buys it in a shop and dances around the room leading Joseph to work out that Baby has met a girl.
Doc picks Baby up for a new job and to meet his new team with the main guy played by Jamie Foxx. Bats, who he plays, learns that their target is an armoured truck but his eyes are fixed on Baby who he thinks isn't listening to the plan, just his music. Baby then recites the plan word for word but Bats still isn't convinced. For Baby and Doc, this will be their last job together because it settles a debt for them. Baby once stole Doc's car and the merchandise inside so expensive so he needed it all repaid. Later, on the job we see how useless this new team is because instead of Michael Myers Halloween masks, they have got Mike Myers as Austin Powers. Groovy baby. Before they get out, Baby needs to restart his song, showing how important timing is for him. Bats kills the guard and everyone fumbles back into the car to drive away only for a marine to try and ram them off the road whilst shooting through their windows. They get lodged under a lorry and Bats aims his gun at the marine but Baby stops him killing him by swerving the car and losing him altogether. At a parking garage, they separate where Baby travels with Bats and has to answer whether he made him miss the shot and no matter the answer, Bats knows the truth. He holds a gun to Baby's face and tells him not to catch feelings.
Baby returns to the diner to see his girl again where she has asked another worker about the boy. She finds out that his mother used to work at the same place so always visits for the memories. He goes to pick up his cut from Doc to see only two other members of the job made it back. Bats has killed for the mistake that the guns were left in the car before they swapped over. Doc has Baby get the car with the body in the boot crushed and then the whole job owing is over. Whilst it's getting crushed, he has a flash back of his childhood. His mother was a good singer and his father an alcoholic and as they argued whilst driving, they got in a fatal accident with one survivor, Baby. Because he needs a new job and only really knows driving, Baby takes the job as a pizza delivery guy, allowing him to start seeing Deborah properly. With his money, he takes her to a really expensive place that he heard Buddy and Darling talk about before, only to find out that bill had been paid for and looking up he sees Doc. These characters are never really out. Doc needs him for a job and if he doesn't accept, Deborah could get hurt. Accepting, he then takes her home and their first kiss happens. Doc takes Baby to a post office where he wants the next job to take place. He has Baby go in with his nephew to check the place out for the finer things of the job. Sam the nephew takes it all in instead and tells Baby what to tell Doc but before they leave they interact with a nice lady on the desk and he has a little bit of guilt already. This could be the turning point for him. Baby calls his girlfriend with a plan of driving away together and then has a black and white fantasy of her waiting for him by a car, ready to leave.
Despite how Doc works, he uses the same crew for the first time with Bats, Buddy and Darling already there as Baby rolls up and the team needs to meet an arms dealer to get guns for the main heist. On the way Bats goes into the shop whilst Buddy and Darling get it on in the back seat. Whilst this is happening Darling tells Buddy that Bats looked at her funny and they decide to kill him after the heist is done. Arriving at the warehouse the guns are on display but Bats being the crazy guy he is notices that there are police stamps on the boxes so opens fire and shoots the main guy causes everyone to spray bullets until they are all dead and Darling is left with a bullet in the arm. Bats throws a grenade into the enemy car for a final sling before driving away. As this was going on, Baby was once again playing music and it's a great scene as each bullet shot, goes along with the tune of the song. I'm loving this. The team aren't happy with Bats until he explains that they were cops. On the ride back, Bats orders Baby to pull over into the diner, the diner he always goes to and for once he rejects the offer but this doesn't go down well. He has to act like he doesn't know Deborah and she does back but this clearly upsets her and the gang know until Bats threatens to shoot her and Baby grabs the gun refusing. Leaving, Baby hands Deborah a message and then leaves. The return to Doc who isn't happy that his contacts haven't rung about the deal being completed and loses his mind when he finds out the truth. He knew they were cops and they were on his payroll anyway. He demands the team stay there tonight in order to keep out of sight. He asks Baby if the heist should still go ahead and he insists that it should, maybe knowing that the money will help him and Deborah.
Baby tries to sneak out in the middle of the night to see her, the message said 'Road trip 2am' and that's where he was heading. He's stopped by Buddy who questions everything about him and whether he is a nark. Bats turns up asking the same and pulls out Baby's recorder and then knocks him out after finding his address. He wakes up in front of Doc and Bats spills all the tapes he's recorded onto the table. He's sat in Joseph's wheelchair, making Baby worry about what has happened to him. Baby proves the tapes are what they are from one he recorded from the first heist of the movie. While all of this is happening, Deborah is left waiting inside the diner for Baby to take her away.
The next morning and the team are at the post office in order to complete the heist. Dropping the team off and heading around the back he sees the woman who works there and shakes his head at her in order to warn her not to go inside but she instead heads to a guard and tells him that she thinks something is going down. The team get back into the car as Bats kills the guard and then aims his shotgun at the driver ordering him to leave but instead Baby loses it and drives straight forward, impaling Bats onto a pole hanging off the back of a construction track parked in front. With him dead, the rest of the team make a run for it as the cops turn up. Getting chased through the streets we see Baby as a little sprinting, out running most and hiding in a park whilst watching the happy couple run past being chased. He runs into a shop to change his appearance but gets seen once again and makes his way to a car, hot wiring it but crashing it into Buddy and Darling as the cops open fire and they start spraying back. Darling is gunned down and Buddy loses his mind, trying to kill everyone and blaming Baby so turning the gun on him. Again, the music is brilliantly going along with the tunes that are playing. Baby returns to his apartment to help Joseph and take the money before dropping Jo at a retirement home with a pocketful of money. He leaves with an emotional message of failing him and leaves as a police helicopter tracks his car down. Heading back to the diner he wants to take Deborah away finally but as he walks in he sees Buddy sitting there, looking beat up, but wanting revenge for Darling. A cop enters to use the toilet but when Buddy is looking elsewhere, Baby shoots him in the chest and grabs Deb's hand to make a run out the back and into some waiting cops but soon take another turn and find an abandoned place where Baby rings Doc to explain but Doc doesn't want to know, in fact he acts like he has never heard of him. They steal a car from two guys and had over Doc to sort things. Doc is ready to cut all contact with him for this failure and getting the crew killed but as Deborah walks in he seems to change his mind and lets Baby take some money. He even lets him retrieve the tape saying 'MOM'. The three head to the lift only for the floor to stop on the rest of gun seller's crew but although Doc gets shot twice, he kills the three men, only for Buddy to arrive in a cop car and plough him down. Buddy reverses to make sure and then sets his sight on the last two remaining two. Both in cars by now, Baby rams Buddy's car over the ledge of the car park multi story. With it falling floors down, it's now the end, but no, Buddy got out in time and holds a gun to Baby's head but Deborah has got a crow bar and slams it over the head of Buddy. Baby grabs the gun and fires rounds into his one-time crew member and he falls down onto the already fallen car and it explodes.
The following morning Deborah is driving their bullet ridden car as Baby sleeps and they are listening to that special tape, it's his Mom singing on tape but as they continue on the road they come to a road block. She wants to get away but Baby decides to give himself in because she deserves more. Going on trial in a few cut scenes we see people on the stand as character witnesses for him. The post office worker, a lady whose car he stole, apologised for and gave her bag back, Deborah and Joseph. He's given 25 years but after keeping his head down is out on parole after 5. During his time inside he gets postcards from his girlfriend and she finds out his real name is Miles whilst in the court and now they have more songs to listen to with his name included. We see his fantasy from earlier come true as he walks out of jail to meet Deborah waiting for him at the gates and the scene shifts from black and white to full colour.
I loved this movie. Music is something I really enjoy so to see the scenes linked with music in the form of the action, driving, gun shots and words in the back ground was massively underrated if anyone missed this. If it was missed I urge people to go back and witness this again. There wasn't a huge amount of driving involved and what was on show was high paced gripping to the max. Because there wasn't too much, it helped the story take place rather than relying on the cars take the main focus like other franchises. The cast worked very well and there wasn't a need to too much dialogue from the main characters because emotion was shown in other ways and each person was their own character. The film was full on fun and the adrenaline rushes kept me gripped. Even the humour in this was back and fore between dark and light but worked because it was delivered by the characters that could carry it. It was so hard to find a fault with this film but saying that the only reason that it didn't get the full 10 is that I wish it was longer!
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