The film’s well edited trailer with pulsating music, execution and attitude really filled me with excitement. And the film largely turned out to be the same with a little less explosive than expected in its prominently displayed ‘heist’ angle.
In simple words, if you love watching high paced action thrillers equipped with foot tapping musical score majorly focusing on road-chase sequences (like MAD MAX: FURY ROAD) then this is just for you. Edgar Wright’s urban answer to MAD MAX, BABY DRIVER can easily be rated as one of the best action movie of the recent times, even better than the latest FAST & FURIOUS sequel in its treatment and value for money.
Revolving around Baby played by Ansel Elgort, its about how he gets hired by a criminal conspirator Doc (Kevin Spacey) for being the driver in all his planned heists, bringing back the team (Lily James, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm) ditching the chasing police officers using his exceptional driving skills. Baby sadly lost his parents in a road accident, in which he also developed a severe tinnitus (constant humming sound in the ears) continuing with his growing age. To get rid of the same, he now always has the ear-phones on, playing his favourite music from an i-pod becoming an essential part of his life.
The film straight away begins in the fourth gear along with catchy music (watch out the long single shot scene with the coffee) and then keeps delivering similar ecstatic moment at regular intervals till the climax. The visionary, experimental treatment making an outstanding use of more than 30 songs running in the backdrop (as its musical score) brings you on to the edge of your seat at times making a stunning impact. And the stylish execution straight away transports you into the enigmatic world of crime presented on the screen like never before.
The key merit of BABY DRIVER remains its superfine mix of music, action, cinematography, editing and performances giving a novel kind of experience to the viewer, which earlier could be found in only one or two sequences of many similar enjoyable films. But here Wright brilliantly conceives the entire film in the same format like a pacy music video choreographed on some great beats.
However, as mentioned in the tagline, it was less explosive than expected since the film does have its downers severely affecting both its pace and spirit together bringing in some routine elements. Following a hypnotic kind of narration, it suddenly become slower (towards the mid) forgetting all about its brilliant flow focusing on a typical Bollywood kind of romance without any lovable chemistry between the couple seriously annoying the viewer. Moreover though you get to see some heist being executed in the trailers wearing some funny masks, the film doesn’t have any specific sequence displaying the heists and has its entire focus on the escape route taken after the loot depending upon the hired expert BABY DRIVER.
Nevertheless, as a rare musical crime thriller, this deserves to be seen on the bigger screen with music being played loud, especially for the ones who simply cannot live without their music and just love to be behind the wheels when the beats are on.
Rating : 3.5 / 5 (with the additional 0.5 specifically for the way songs have been used in the background in almost entire film.)
Below is the link where you can hear and see the complete list of the tracks used in the film.
