Oh baby! Baby! Oh, Baby! Oh, Baby!
You too will be singing the praises of “Baby Driver,” an action-packed, edge-of-your seat, turbocharged, lightning fast, sexy as spit thriller, written for the screen and directed by Edgar Wright (“Shawn of the Dead”).
It is also super violent–not gory–just violent with amazing chase scenes with the police always two steps behind Baby (Ansel Elgort) whose instant driving reflexes are paced by an awesome soundtrack.
The soundtrack is the key to “Baby Driver” as Baby has an acute (and crippling) case of tinnitus (hearing sounds in your ears due to an external source that no one around you can hear) – which pretty much immobilizes him.
Baby needs to drown out the world around him by pounding up two small earphones and a 46 song killer soundtrack that is a music nerd’s dream, including Bellbottoms (performed by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion); Harlem Shuffle (performed by Bob Relf) and Egyptian Reggae (performed by Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers). Frank Sinatra, eat your heart out!
Filmed on location in Atlanta, “Baby Driver” opens with three criminals, Griff (Jon Bernthal), Buddy (Jon Hamm) and his beautiful Mexican lover, Darling (Eiza González), walking into the First Bank of Atlanta, and start shooting up the place.
We see only snippets of the robbery as the focus is totally on Baby, headphones in place and rocking to the beat … as seconds later the gangsters rush out of the bank and leap into the waiting car.
That’s when the fun begins. For you see, our hero, Baby, has been coerced into working for a crime boss—a great deadpan role by Kevin Spacey (TV’s House of Cards”) and finds himself taking part in multiple heists that are all doomed to fail.
When he is not doing incredible things with automobiles that Detroit engineers never designed them to do, Baby is making “goo goo” eyes at the lovely Debora (Lily James), a waitress at a local Atlanta diner and the two don’t just scorch up the silver screen.
They melt it. “Baby Driver” has it all–an irresistible leading man … Great love story, and …
The baddest of the bad guys you are rooting for to win it all. Not to miss is Eiza González, 27 as the red-hot “Darling” and she is all that. González (no doubt a soon to be A-list Hollywood actress) is mesmerizing and steals every scene she is in—quite a feat in a movie about bank robbers.
Also jumping into Baby Driver’s life is Jamie Foxx (“The Amazing Spider-Man 2”) as the fanatic, wickedly violent “Bats” who is truly and most certifiably, crazy. Let’s just say he gets what he deserves before the credits roll.
Everyone gets what they deserve in this Edgar Wright film–be it good or bad.
“Baby Driver “is an intoxicating, strap-yourself-in thrill ride. If you love great car chases, a hot love story and really great bad guys, “Baby Driver” is not to be missed.
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