Brilliant, but ho-hum.

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2017)

Okay, so I watched Series One of Spaced last week. I watched Hot Fuzz last night. I pretty much have Shaun of the Dead memorized, word for word, camera angle to camera angle. I got myself fully into the Edgar Wright Zone. Tonight, I saw this film on the big screen, my first Edgar Wright big screen experience since seeing World's End for the second time. And it was fun. Lots of chases, lots of gunplay., lots and lots of Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Hamm chewing up the scenery (although, it must be said, not enough of Flea with his prosthetic nose). The soundtrack was brilliant, and warranted by the plot. So why do I feel let down?
The problem, I think, is that on some level I expected Edgar Wright to do something more with the form. All of the actors do very well performing their roles, but all of them are playing basic stock characters: the Innocent Kid who has been coerced into a life of crime, his crippled Foster-father trying to keep him on the straight-and-narrow, his naive, wholesome Love Interest, the sinister Mastermind, the psychopathic street wise Gangsta, the sociopathic Whiteboy thrill seeker with his sultry Moll, etc, etc. All well and good, but all something we've seen before.
With Baby Driver, Edgar Wright proves that he can make a heist/car chase/shoot 'em up movie as well or better than any other director. No one doubted that he could. I just wanted him to do something subversive with the form.