Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

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mfunk9786
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#26 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Jul 05, 2017 3:15 pm


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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#27 Post by matrixschmatrix » Wed Jul 05, 2017 4:14 pm

Huh, I think I find the idea of a Hot Fuzz sequel even more alluring- I don't want to see Baby get hurt, or lose his relationship

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thirtyframesasecond
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#28 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:01 am

I'd never heard of Ansel Elgort before this movie (given what he's starred in, no surprise really) so checked his Wikipedia page - since altered. Man, he has a weird attitude to women. He said he loved going on set with his photographer dad because he could leer at women, that at his exclusive school, he'd get girls whenever he wanted and that the great thing about working with Shailene Woodley is that he had no interest in sleeping with her!

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mfunk9786
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#29 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Jul 07, 2017 3:20 am

Very weird for a straight man in their early to mid 20s to be attracted to women, I agree

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Red Screamer
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#30 Post by Red Screamer » Fri Jul 07, 2017 2:14 pm

I wish this whole movie were as good as its first two or three scenes, when it, maybe even more so than Scott Pilgrim, threatens to propose a contemporary mutation of the movie musical. After that it descends into Tarantino lite.
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The images of Deborah with the car, shot in ugly digital black and white despite being a reference to the iconography of 50s films, some of the most intensely colorful cinema in history, are presented as simplistic, empty fantasies and then are affirmed anyway and we're expected to feel something. That's my problem with the film—instead of parodying genre convention or playing it straight, Wright sells every cliche with a winking knowingness that makes it all feel empty.
The action sequences are dazzling and there are a few good laugh lines, but I don't know how, outside of the first few scenes, this can be seen as anything but a step back from the genre deconstruction and social commentary of Hot Fuzz or the endless stylistic innovation of Scott Pilgrim, among his other work. And as for maturity, the "Tequila" sequence, far and away the worst in the film, is embarrassing, tasteless, and juvenile.



Two trivia:
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1. I like that when Baby takes out one of his earbuds (always the left), the mix mimics it. Though if I'm hearing right, it's the whole song sent to one speaker,
instead of one half of a stereo mix, which applies to everything except maybe "Let's Go Away For Awhile." Can anyone confirm/deny this?

2. Deborah and her outfit/hairstyle/job look remarkably similar to Twin Peaks' Shelly Johnson.

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thirtyframesasecond
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#31 Post by thirtyframesasecond » Sat Jul 08, 2017 11:32 am

mfunk9786 wrote:Very weird for a straight man in their early to mid 20s to be attracted to women, I agree
It's more that he comes over as a complete jerk, but you know, he's young, handsome, successful, had a privileged upbringing, so it's easy to be cocky.

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#32 Post by matrixschmatrix » Sat Jul 08, 2017 12:37 pm

Superswede11 wrote:I wish this whole movie were as good as its first two or three scenes, when it, maybe even more so than Scott Pilgrim, threatens to propose a contemporary mutation of the movie musical. After that it descends into Tarantino lite.
SpoilerShow
The images of Deborah with the car, shot in ugly digital black and white despite being a reference to the iconography of 50s films, some of the most intensely colorful cinema in history, are presented as simplistic, empty fantasies and then are affirmed anyway and we're expected to feel something. That's my problem with the film—instead of parodying genre convention or playing it straight, Wright sells every cliche with a winking knowingness that makes it all feel empty.
The action sequences are dazzling and there are a few good laugh lines, but I don't know how, outside of the first few scenes, this can be seen as anything but a step back from the genre deconstruction and social commentary of Hot Fuzz or the endless stylistic innovation of Scott Pilgrim, among his other work. And as for maturity, the "Tequila" sequence, far and away the worst in the film, is embarrassing, tasteless, and juvenile.
I've been thinking about this, and I don't entirely disagree, but I don't think I agree, either.
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I think my issue is, fundamentally, that Jamie Foxx's character doesn't work very well. He's too reckless to be someone that Spacey should be up for working with- and working with twice, too- and a lot of his actions result in cartoonishness that feels out of place with the rest of the movie, the shootout with Paul Williams you allude to in particular. The scene in the diner is pretty good- the movie gets a lot of mileage out of tension there, and out of the walking-on-eggshells unpredictability of dealing with someone completely out of control- but I think the amount of time Foxx spends in control of the narrative is far too long, particularly for someone who is abruptly killed before the third act. I think the movie works best for me when everyone except Baby is living in the real world, more or less, making Baby's other worldliness stand out more, which is a quality that Hamm brings; Foxx seems to have imported his character from Horrible Bosses instead.]

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#33 Post by Cde. » Sat Jul 08, 2017 3:23 pm

Superswede11 wrote: shot in ugly digital black and white
It's actually film. These days they've merged to the point of indistinguishability.

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carmilla mircalla
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#34 Post by carmilla mircalla » Sat Jul 08, 2017 10:12 pm

Cde. wrote:
Superswede11 wrote: shot in ugly digital black and white
It's actually film. These days they've merged to the point of indistinguishability.
Only because of the use of digital intermediates

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#35 Post by John Shade » Wed Jul 12, 2017 1:07 pm

I saw this and really enjoyed it--not quite sure if I liked it as much as mfunk, time will tell. As others have mentioned the first ten minutes or so are great. I'll definitely watch it again in years to come. Somewhat like The World's End, I thought it could maybe lose just a few minutes.
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Did Jon Hamm's character really need to show up yet again for the parking lot face off? I would have been fine with him dying in the diner. I'm sort of surprised that he made it that far.
And yet I really wish we had more scenes with Baby and Joseph, and Baby and Debora. Those were the moments that I enjoyed the most, which separated it enough for me from the Tarantino comparisons.
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The ending seemed like a big departure too--Baby tossing those keys in the water was one of my favorite moments. I'm surprised Armond White didn't love it for that alone, and he un-Armonded himself and called it immature for that.
I wonder if anyone else thought that stylistically it didn't feel as obviously a Wright movie as his others, maybe because it's less comedy oriented--as weird as this might sound I also didn't think it was as kinetic as Scott Pilgrim even though there are some great chase scenes.

This article talks about a deaf viewer's reaction to CJ Jones portrayal of Joseph. Some clips people here might like


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mfunk9786
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#37 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:57 am

More than maybe any other song in the film, it's got plot/dialogue around it, I think Sony's just gonna have to pay up because it doesn't make sense to take it out

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matrixschmatrix
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#38 Post by matrixschmatrix » Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:45 am

What a strange fuck up- per the article, Bolan's people found out the song was even in the movie when Sony reached out about soundtrack rights. Given that the copyright changed hands in 2014, and Wright says they pre-cleared some of the most important stuff before even bringing the project to Sony, I wonder if they just wound up clearing it with the wrong owners

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#39 Post by John Shade » Fri Aug 04, 2017 12:29 pm

I'm still surprised they didn't use Pulp's "Disco 2000"...

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Ribs
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#40 Post by Ribs » Wed Aug 16, 2017 6:30 pm

It's now grossed more than all of Wright's previous films combined. I'm sure they'll be getting on top of locking down that sequel but I'm much more interested in whatever passion project Wright's able to build to off the studio's goodwill that'd come other than that.

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Swift
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#41 Post by Swift » Sat Oct 14, 2017 7:46 pm

When I watched the film last night, I noticed that Wright was using some tracks which were the source samples for more famous tracks. The horns from House of Pain's Jump Around and the intro to Dr Dre's The Next Episode being the obvious standouts. This wasn't a coincidence. Wright has confirmed that he used WhoSampled.com as a resource when putting the soundtrack together. There's an interesting article on that website which breaks down the samples used. In many instances, he cleverly uses the source track and then later on in the movie reprises it by using a song which samples it.

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domino harvey
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#42 Post by domino harvey » Sat Oct 28, 2017 5:40 pm

Found this mediocre at best. As an action movie, the car chases are over-edited and not particularly clever. As a musical, well, I give points for trying with the number set during the opening credits with graffiti and assorted extras reflecting the lyrical and instrumental content, but even here at its most ambitious the film never offers something I can't just get in a simpler form from Doris Day traipsing through the Warners backlot in Lucky Me decades prior. And the CGI-aided sync isn't even that well-done! I liked how baddies and goodies shifted as the film progressed, but this movie just seemed like a ludicrous collection of cliches and bad mainstream ideas (deaf black foster parent, anyone?). I wasn't bored and it has a certain slick 90s worthless HBO movie vibe to it at times, but y'all must be dying of thirst for a good action film if this is what passes for one now.

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knives
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#43 Post by knives » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:01 pm

Sadly I kind of have to agree with Dom above me. This has a lot of good too it (and I believe that the syncs aren't CGI aided), but there's too much that make it seem like a late Jean-Jacques Beineix film (The step parent Dom mentioned might as well as be out of IP5. Particularly the below bugged me:
matrixschmatrix wrote: I've been thinking about this, and I don't entirely disagree, but I don't think I agree, either.
SpoilerShow
I think my issue is, fundamentally, that Jamie Foxx's character doesn't work very well. He's too reckless to be someone that Spacey should be up for working with- and working with twice, too- and a lot of his actions result in cartoonishness that feels out of place with the rest of the movie, the shootout with Paul Williams you allude to in particular. The scene in the diner is pretty good- the movie gets a lot of mileage out of tension there, and out of the walking-on-eggshells unpredictability of dealing with someone completely out of control- but I think the amount of time Foxx spends in control of the narrative is far too long, particularly for someone who is abruptly killed before the third act. I think the movie works best for me when everyone except Baby is living in the real world, more or less, making Baby's other worldliness stand out more, which is a quality that Hamm brings; Foxx seems to have imported his character from Horrible Bosses instead.]
This hits the nail on the head of what I really didn't like about the film Foxx's character is so terrible and forces the film into so many terrible decisions that the movie becomes actively bad in his scenes. The film could have done better having Foxx play someone other than a competent version of his Horrible Bosses character. Really the whole third act is kind of terrible and annoying in that it is based on the characters making bad decisions to cover for the existence of Foxx's stupid moron.

I really wish it did more with the mickey mousing concept which would have more strongly made this a pop music version of the genre workings Wright did with the ice cream trilogy. Still, a bad Wright film is more entertaining than 90% of what comes out in any one year. The casting of the gun runner for example is exactly the sort of quiet genius that makes Wright good even when unsuccessful.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#44 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:05 pm

Ironically, I think the scene with the gun runner is the one that, if excised, would improve the film the most. It felt over-the-top even for Foxx's already over-the-top character, and it would've been absolutely fine without it. Seemed to only exist to heighten the menace by the time they got to the diner. Having seen this again it's dropped in my esteem, but I still think there's a lot to like there. And I'm also not exactly sure what's CGI-assisted about the limited amount of sound sync - it just seems like good editing.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#45 Post by knives » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:26 pm

I agree entirely as much as I think the casting is fantastic. It took me completely out of the movie and is the cause of a lot of my sour grapes.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#46 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:53 pm

Wright seemed very pleased with the whole deli meat metaphor thing. It was something that Tarantino would've written better and shot better and still cut himself. Edgar Wright is an impressive director but most of his missteps come from not being quite as clever as he thinks he is.

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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#47 Post by dda1996a » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:53 pm

I share everyone's opinion, but while this is lesser than his other films, I find this typical of Wright films. Good concept, decent humor and wonderful use of editing and use of the medium. But I rarely ever feel like Wright truly deconstructs the genres he is working in, and this is his worst effort. This felt like a bad mixing of every cheap 80/90s action movie. And even the concept itself was barely used in any interesting way. The use of music that was hyped as the de facto reason for the movies existence was barely utilized in accordance with the action in the film. And I found the entire storyline clichéd, including Baby's entire character. At least the romance does have chemistry to offset some of my issues as their scenes together at least gave the movie some energy.

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knives
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#48 Post by knives » Wed Nov 29, 2017 4:57 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:Wright seemed very pleased with the whole deli meat metaphor thing. It was something that Tarantino would've written better and shot better and still cut himself. Edgar Wright is an impressive director but most of his missteps come from not being quite as clever as he thinks he is.
I thought it was neutral quality for me. Foxx's actions plus Spacey's explanation are the main things that bothered me about it.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#49 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:08 pm

To clarify a bit, knives: I think that's why he kept it in, despite realizing the deficiencies of the scene's logic re: the actions of Spacey and Foxx. The writing is whatever, but I think he thought it was more than whatever, so much so that he didn't mind sabotaging the flow of his own film to leave his clever little scene in.

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knives
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Re: Baby Driver (Edgar Wright, 2017)

#50 Post by knives » Wed Nov 29, 2017 6:12 pm

I see, yeah. You're right, but I think what it does for the plot is worth exercising from the scripting stage hopefully.

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