Shows Fast and Furious how it's done

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2017)

Edgar Wright's super stylistic pseudo-musical, Baby Driver, puts the Fast and Furious franchise to shame, proving that action-fueled car chasing movies can still be smart, practical, and ball-tinglingly thrilling. Not to say that the Fast and Furious movies don't have their moments, it's just they deter future filmmakers from creating smartly written, practical action films that don't overlie on CGI and over-the-top shenanigans. Baby Driver isn't without its over-the-top shenanigans but its sharp writing, crisp editing and direction, thrilling car chases, delightful humor, and soundtrack help it rise above its over-the-top moments and disengaging romance.
Baby Driver (mostly) hits the mark. The action scenes are directed with so much flair and swift camera movements it's like directors' heaven. Everything in the film is choreographed to the beat of the songs like a carefully rehearsed dance routine. The soundtrack scores and really helps capture the emotion, however, I just wish they could have had one or two songs devoted to classical music (given Kevin Spacey's trailer line "young Mozart in a go kart"). The cast flourishes and really delivers what they are known for: Kevin Spacey's no-nonsense badassery, Jamie Foxx's bad guy antics, Jon Hamm's suave demeanor (for the first two acts at least), and Ansel Elgort's, well he was quite an unknown heading into this but now has surely made a name for himself. And of course the cast was able to flourish with Edgar Wright's cheeky clever dialogue.
With all these qualities it seems as if Baby Driver should be a near masterpiece and one of the better action films in years, yet, somethings took me out of it. For instance, I felt as if the romance happened rather quickly and didn't leave a whole lot of room for any real depth. Debora (Lily James) impulsively jumps into this dangerous relationship with Baby and the whole thing just seemed like an only-in-the-movies romance. Also Jon Hamm might have been playing the Terminator. He survives a gun shot wound to the chest while evading cops TWICE, then he is somehow able to jump out of a falling car before impact, and comes out unscathed from the jump. Don't be going Fast and Furious on us Edgar Wright!
Baby Driver has enough pros to overcome a few distracting cons. It's definitely one of the best films of the year so far and adds another benchmark to Edgar Wright's portfolio of quirky entertaining action comedies. 7.5/10