Year: 2017
Rated R
Rating: * * Stars
Cast: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James
What if 2011's Drive was less dark, a little less cerebral, and contained a more stoic blueprint on what it's like to function as a getaway wheel-man. Well the result would be Baby Driver, my latest review.
Co-starring Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Kevin Spacey, "Driver" involves a pretty boy named Miles (his nickname is "Baby" and he's played by Ansel Elgort). Miles for reasons unknown, is a driver for hardened criminals who love taking down many robbery scores. When Miles was a kid, his parents died in a car accident. He survived said accident but was left with a condition called tinnitus (the hearing of sound with no external sound present). Now, he uses music to drown everything out as he barrels past cop cars like NASCAR's Richard Petty on angel dust.

Anyway, critics have been salivating over this "vehicle" since it premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival (in March of 2017). I wanted to be part of that group but in truth, I found "Driver" to be a bit overrated. Three to four automobile chases between moments of tedium. Underdeveloped characters using spit-fire dialogue as a vice. A required love story with cutesy overtones. A musical soundtrack that overwhelms every scene as if director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) is re-shooting Guardians of the Galaxy. Baby Driver has all this and unfortunately, it doesn't feel very groundbreaking or memorable. The ending involving the obligatory one last job, is perfunctory, violent, and reads like a street sign signaling a screenwriter's "No Outlet". Heck, no one wants to see the protagonist go to jail for being at the wrong place at the wrong time (spoiler). What a downer.

Written by Jesse Burleson
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