Entertaining car chase movie with excellent soundtrack

Rating: 7/10 (10 November 2017)

I'm a fan of the 'Cornetto trilogy' so i was exited to see what Edgar Wright would do with his first American movie. It apparently has a lot of music in it so that should be a good start!
The movie opens with three gangsters and a getaway driver about to do an armed robbery in Atlanta, Georgia. The young getaway driver employed by the gangsters boss is named 'Baby' (Ansel Elgort), who suffers from tinnitus but listens to his Ipod all day to block it out. With the right track playing, Baby is able to perform amazing driving skills. The gangsters successfully escape the police, thanks to Baby and they meet up with the boss, named Doc (played by Kevin Spacey) to distribute the loot. Apparently Baby is not really working for Doc , he's actually paying of a debt because he tried to steal a car from Doc in the past. But Baby has almost paid off the debt with Doc and he meets a lovely girl named Debora (Lily James) so things are starting to get better for him. But on his last job he has to work with a very dangerous gangster named Bats (Jamie Foxx) who really dislikes Baby. On top of that Doc forces Baby to continue to work for him, threatening to hurt Debora if Baby refuses. So far his love for music kept Baby going but now that his new love interest is threatened, the gangsters get more dangerous, will he still get through it all?
Overall this was a very entertaining movie, the action is fast paced and exciting, the car chase scenes are sublime and the acting is decent. Some characters are a little over the top. Jamie Foxx goes a bit overboard playing a dark gangster and Jon Hamm, who plays a more relaxes gangster, get's a bit 'larger then life' later on in the movie. I liked the performance of the young cast, Ansel Elgort and Lily James. I was not a fan of Ansel's previous work but I think he's getting better. Sadly his character is the only one given a decent background but it's done well, especially how they use music to describe his moods.
The movie is not without problems though. The romance between Baby and Debora is a bit forced and feels like it came out of a fairy tale. But perhaps this was intended? And it suffers from the usual action movie tropes like people treating point blank shot-wounds like it's noting but a scratch, the police is nowhere to be seen and some characters are just evil for evil's sake. (I just want to make lot's of money and that's all!) I expected more jokes in this movie as well and felt the movie could use it, but perhaps Wright didn't want to make another 'cornetto' style movie.
The best part of the movie is the amazing soundtrack. Every track feels like it belongs there and it brings the movie to a higher level, especially during the car chase scenes.
Baby Driver is a very entertaining movie with an excellent soundtrack. Worthy of watching for the soundtrack alone, especially if you like car chases.