Fast and Furious combined with Bank Robbers

Rating: 6/10 (8 December 2018)

Baby Driver starts out with a lot of promise but takes way too long to get there. Baby is a young kid with unbelievable driving skills who, as we learn, gets drawn from a normal life into the life of bad guys and guns. He listens and lives out his life thru music, which is brought out in excellently choreographed coffee shop and chase scenes.
The story develops and you learn about how the poor kid experienced childhood trauma. And you learn how he got pushed to the wrong side of the road. But when he meets his dream girl, he gains hope of escape. Can he, is the question, and the driving line underneath the entire movie.
Along the way we meet some really bad people played by Jon Hamm and Jamie Foxx. The mastermind, who I found a bit miscast, was Kevin Spacey. The banter between bad guys got pedantic after a while, with violence executed for the sake of it, without adding any value to the story. Baby's girlfriend smoothly moves from normal to abnormal life, which was probably trying to have us think of them as Bonnie and Clyde.
Great driving scenes. Some witty lines. Some good music. But too long. This should have been over in 85 minutes, not 110. The director spent way too much time with useless dialog between bad guys and many useless scenes. The kids end up being stupid, and I found the ending predictable and contrived.
But overall, it was an OK movie if you're ok with gratuitous violence, lots of blood, great car scenes, and stories of young love, both lost and found.