Baby Driver

First Hit:  Thoroughly enjoyable and fun to watch.

The music mood of the film begins right away. The music is critically important to Baby (Ansel Elgort) because he spends most of his time with his white earbuds in his ears to listen to music that the audience hears during critical moments and sometimes as background in other scenes.

Baby uses the music piped into his brain to drown out the constant noise due to tinnitus. It could be that one of the reasons I related well to this film. Because of the explosive noises I was subjected to in Vietnam and from the extra loud rock concerts I attended, I have a severe case of tinnitus which means I have a constant loud noise in my head all the time.

I find that when I write, especially the two books I’m currently writing, I do it with music headphones on or I use the background noise of a café because it helps me concentrate. That’s why Baby listens to music especially when he drives the getaway vehicles for robberies set up by Doc (Kevin Spacey).

Doc obtains information about banks, armored cars, or even the post office he thinks would make great targets for cash. Doc then gathers a crew of people to do the job and each crew is a cast of different characters for each job he does except Baby.

Doc caught Baby stealing his car once and the trunk contained bags of drugs. Although Baby didn’t know about the drugs, when he fenced the car the drugs were lost. Doc makes Baby drive for the robberies because he’s the best driver there is and Baby’s share of the jobs goes to Doc as repayment for the lost drugs.

The robbery teams include; Buddy (Jon Hamm) Griff, (Jon Bernthal), Darling (Eiza Gonzalez), and Bats (Jamie Foxx). Darling and Buddy are a couple and work together but their first time working with Bats is quite an experience.

When Baby meets a waitress, at a diner he frequents, he is immediately taken with her because she sings while she walks by. Debora (Lily James), is drifting like he is. Her singing reminds him of his mom who sang and also worked at the same diner before she died in a car accident when he was a little boy. He was in the car when his parents died and it was this event that gave him the tinnitus.

When she says to him, she just wants to get in a car and drive west to a new life, he completely falls for her. Baby decides that he’s going to do one last job for Doc, pay off his debt, and ask Debora to go west with him.

This is a great set up for the film because Bats is crazy as hell, Buddy and Darling are fully capable of mayhem, Doc is arrogantly mysterious and Baby is, well, incredibly focused and talks very little.

The only things that I didn’t like in the film was the opening scene which seemed to choreographed and a couple of the scenes when Baby is walking to and from a coffee house to bring the robbery teams coffee. They were a bit to staged as well. Else I loved the driving scenes, the music and the premise as it was unique.

Elgort was fantastic. His inner character is exemplified during the scenes where he's with his foster parent Joseph (CJ Jones). Now that Jones cannot care for himself alone, it is Baby who takes care of him. His boyish soft looks belied the intense driven young man inside. He was perfect for the part. Hamm was great as the intense man, feeding habits including his girlfriend, Darling. Gonzalez was wonderful as the intense woman who was loved by Buddy. Together they had matching intense, impulsive and wild natures. Foxx was off the charts crazy. He clearly made this role his own. Spacey was perfect as the guy with the mean sarcastic whit. He’s got a wonderful ability to make his character drip in a smarmy liquid way. Jones was strong as the deaf man who loved Baby and wanted only the best for him. James was beyond amazing. Her sweet strong personality was perfect for the part. She exuded this role completely. Edger Wright wrote and directed this unique film with deftness. I loved the choreographed driving scenes and my only criticism I’ve already shared. This is one of the best actions films of the year.

Overall:  This movie was a joy ride.

Ant-man

First Hit:  Very enjoyable film that works because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

A fun filled adventure that definitely works because of the storyline, acting, and especially of the acting by Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-man. He approaches the role with intelligence, irreverence, and honesty.

His compatriots, outside of the ants, are Luis (Michael Pena), Dave (T.I.), and Kurt (David Dastmalchian). All together they help Ant-man suit inventor Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly), defeat Darren Cross / Yellowjacket (Corey Stoll) who is trying to re-create Dr. Pym’s technology for evil use.

The motivation for Scott is his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson) whom he doesn’t see much because he’s been in prison. The scenes of Lang as Ant-man when he’s working with the ants is priceless. As an audience member, I knew it was fantasy, yet I bought the story and film because it was so well put together – with lightheartedness.

Rudd was perfect for the role. He’s so comfortable in his body and the script’s dialogue was perfect for him. He’s great. Pena is also fantastic. He’s talkative, yet there is an air of intelligence in his storying telling. Douglas is strong as the scientist. Lilly is wonderful to watch and her backing up her intelligence with physical abilities were excellent. Stoll was really good as the strength of evil doing and the antagonist. Fortson was enjoyable as Rudd’s daughter. Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish wrote a great script. Payton Reed had a great handle on how to execute this story.

Overall:  This is a really fun and enjoyable film.

The Worlds End

First Hit:  Although funny at times, it wore on me and, in the end, didn’t quite work.

The film starts our rather drudgingly with Gary King (Simon Pegg) in some sort of support group telling a story that gets no intelligent discernible feedback from other members of the group.

Next thing you know, he’s recruiting his old friends to take a trip back to village where then stopped a tour of 12 Pubs some twenty years earlier. He wants them to finish the tour, like it will make his life different. King is manipulative and in a way that made me groan. Anyone falling for is stupid arguments for going deserved what they got.

Regardless of the quote un quote friendship that may have existed, there is really nothing that binds this group together. However, without this piece there would be no film, so… His friends in this caper are Steven (Paddy Considine), Andy (Nick Frost), Peter (Eddie Marsan), and Oliver (Martin Freeman).

The banter (writing) between the blokes, at times was laugh-out-loud outstanding, but in between the improbable plot and outcome put a dark (forget it) cloud over the entire film. It is like some of the bits were great, but the whole was left wanting.

The epilogue, sort of speak, did not help the cause of the film and therefore the ending was – “The World’s End”.

Pegg was funny at times but his character wore on me and I would have been rid of him early if I were one of his blokes. Considine, Frost, Marsan, and Freeman were all solid in their roles and upheld the story line very well. Pegg and Edgar Wright wrote the improbably script while Wright did a reasonable job as director tying it all together.

Overall:  Not much to enjoy except the funny bits which come few and far between.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

First Hit: Inventive filmmaking and acting made this a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

I like when people take some risks. Edgar Wright took the story written by Michael Bacall, Bryan Lee O’Malley and Wright, himself, and turned it into a visual reality based on the combination of comic book graphics and real life.

Like in the very old days of TV Batman, Wright’s team used graphics in expressing actions and words while adding interesting patterns of staging and lighting to this story. Telephone rings and you see “rrrriiiiinnnngggg” super imposed on a wall or table. People fly through the air like they do in amazing Asian martial arts fighting scenes. Edgy music adds a powerful punch to the background visuals and adds to the fun and enjoyment of this film.

And I just loved the names of the characters including: Pilgrim (played by Michael Cera) who is in a band named Sex Bob Ombs, had an old girlfriend name Kim Pine (played by Alison Pill) that broke his heart (he was pining for her), finds Knives Chau (played by Ellen Wong) who is a high school girl who likes Pilgrim and cuts to the chase, runs into Ramona Flowers (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead) whom he falls in love with immediately and she changes hair color weekly, and discovers that to hang with Ramona he must defeat her seven evil ex’s.

The band members’ names are Stephen Stills (played by Mark Webber), Young Neil (played by Johnny Simmons) and Julie Powers on drums (played by Aubrey Plaza). When the band gets invited to play a "battle of the bands", Pilgrim also has to defeat the seven ex’s if he wants to keep his new girlfriend. In these scenes he is a martial arts master and as soon as he conquers an evil ex, a pinball score rises over the ex’s head and the person turns to coins (a payoff).

All through this, there are other amusing and funny moments as the story unfolds. There are lessons to learn for all the characters and the film is fun to watch. It has a level of freshness to it that felt like I was seeing something interesting on the screen that didn't measure its worth by how big the explosion had to be.

Cera is still playing the nerdy boy with some smarts which he occasionally uses. He plays this role often and someday he might want to try something totally different. Wong was fabulous as Knives. She captured the character extremely well. Winstead was also very strong as Ramona. Pill was good as the previous girlfriend who broke Pilgrim’s heart. Webber, Simmons and Plaza were great as band members who put up with and supported Pilgrim through the adventure. Kieran Culkin was fabulous as Pilgrim’s gay roommate. Wright directed with film with fun and an eye for color and scenes which spoke clearly.

Overall: Not sure I’d like to see a lot of films shot this way, but when one comes along that is this well crafted, it is definitely worth it.