Great, I'm sold!
― tong poo (da ba dee) (crüt), Monday, 24 July 2017 16:51 (seven years ago) link
Any particular reason for thanks to Tarantino in the credits to Baby Driver?— Paul (@reev0) June 27, 2017
― Number None, Monday, 24 July 2017 17:00 (seven years ago) link
He gave me car chase advice, general support and one cool script idea.— edgarwright (@edgarwright) June 27, 2017
― Number None, Monday, 24 July 2017 17:01 (seven years ago) link
lol I guess it owes something to Tarantino
― blog haus aka the scene raver (wins), Monday, 24 July 2017 17:03 (seven years ago) link
good god, I loved this movie but didn't give it much thought after I saw it. why so much hand-wringing? it was fun. i loved that he made tape collages. some cool music choices. short, fun, original script. GREAT! end of discussion...
― flappy bird, Monday, 24 July 2017 18:53 (seven years ago) link
We don't take kindly to fun round 'ere
― Neanderthal, Monday, 24 July 2017 19:16 (seven years ago) link
You can't spell fun without FU.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 24 July 2017 19:19 (seven years ago) link
Didn't earn the fun
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Monday, 24 July 2017 19:52 (seven years ago) link
"The movie's at the service of the soundtrack, I might argue"
Yeah I just came here to say it's a soundtrack in search of a movie. Violently meh. So meh that I'm somehow really mad at it. I passed up Valerian and Laureline for this drivel.
― Conic section rebellion 44 (in orbit), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 00:23 (seven years ago) link
Andrew - yes, that's what I was referring toNeanderthal - I was just using "twist" as shorthand. There was absolutely nothing apparent to me that docs character was suddenly gonna go all soft, esp when he's had baby in his debt since he was a kid and threatens his life. He didn't just let him off the hook - he let him off the hook after he fucked up a heist AND he got himself killed to save baby
This movie looked like it was totally gonna be my jam - but it just felt lame from beginning to end. Also I disliked all the music.
― just1n3, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 01:11 (seven years ago) link
lol I only thought this was OK but it's several orders above Valerian xp
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 01:12 (seven years ago) link
Atomic Blonde better not let me down like this
― just1n3, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 01:12 (seven years ago) link
Also I disliked all the music.
― just1n3, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:11
!!!
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 01:19 (seven years ago) link
*shrugs* it's just not the kind of music i particularly like
― just1n3, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:37 (seven years ago) link
I wasn't into a lot of it but none of it seemed bad
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:47 (seven years ago) link
Foxx shoots up cops at weapons deal. Which may or may not have been a setup. We might not be meant to know either way but it had the air of stink before he acted. No explanation of why spacey wouldn't have dropped a hint as to the fact they'd be dirty cops which would seem cogent.
Spacey's character doesn't go wildly in for explaining his actual business to the hired help
Dude weaponed up and ready to ambush the cru at the van holdup. Again, the direction, detail and the long looks we're given of this guy in advance of him turning into a have a go hero are all redolent of a plot thread that......goes nowhere? Never see him again.
This guy has nothing to do with Spacey, the cru, or the holdup. He's a random passer-by who keeps guns in his car bcz he's an ex-soldier nutbag and Georgia is an open carry state. We never see him again because we follow Baby, the titular character of the film, after the encounter, rather than branching off to follow this rando and examine his unhappy home life.
Agree that this film was a messy disappointment.
― Doubtless they are toss. (sic), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 02:51 (seven years ago) link
I'd lazily claim that that's all fine except for Wright clearly directing the movie to draw attn to these things then leave them dangling. That kind of chaotic confusion works in the tone of a Ronin or similar, for me it was smartypants messing in this one.
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Wednesday, 26 July 2017 07:03 (seven years ago) link
the first two times we see deborah she's rocking out to her own music, on her own headphones. baby's instantly drawn to her. a woman listening to her own music, that you can't hear, gives her a kind of power and independence, which is awesome, and it seems like baby responds to that, which is awesome. and then the movie just.. totally gives up on that dynamic. she knows more about music than he does (lol "trex") but somehow we end up with a "let me school you about music lil' girl" scene anyway. and then as noted upthread she just waits around in her ridiculously short costume dress in this impeccable, empty diner. where baby's blonde mom used to work! was anybody else just a liiitle bit skeeved out by that? just me? oh and she also pops up in baby's jimmy dean picture-postcard fantasies, draped over a mean set of wheels. it's so schematic that it's almost brechtian or something. it's absurd. but all played totally straight, no comment on the paper-thin pulp unrealness of it at all. which is maybe for the best, i dunno. it's a good point about the sickening violence of the climax feeling really out of place with the rest of it. i'd almost show it to my kids if it wasn't for kevin spacey getting graphically reversed over several times.
i really liked baby needing to rewind the song if something slowed down the heist, but it didn't add up to anything really?
lily james kept reminding me of a young jennifer jason leigh - the comparison didn't flatter her
but yes, i too am now in love with ansel elgort, i won't lie
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 28 July 2017 21:45 (seven years ago) link
oh and the movie i saw just prior to this, on the airplane, was guardians of the galaxy, whose hero also has a mother who died too young and left him an old cassette tape that he's willing to risk his life for. ??!
agree that spacey's turn at the end felt v lightly earned - and i was disappointed that baby never got to face him down. on the contrary, they became, like, buds!? after spacey set all this in motion and ruined his life? fuck outta here! hamm's just a random menacing heavy. i'm no expert in script mechanics but to this unfrozen caveman it was a fatal deflation of the stakes
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 28 July 2017 22:01 (seven years ago) link
I don't recall it being that violent.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 28 July 2017 22:28 (seven years ago) link
the rebar thru jamie foxx was like nothing in the movie to that point. and for me spacey vs car was super gruesome
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Friday, 28 July 2017 22:35 (seven years ago) link
Glad to have u on board TH otm on each point
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Friday, 28 July 2017 23:01 (seven years ago) link
Many xps - I'm def not saying the music was bad, it just didn't do it for me
― just1n3, Friday, 28 July 2017 23:25 (seven years ago) link
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand),
yeah...
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 29 July 2017 01:04 (seven years ago) link
I passed up Valerian and Laureline for this drivel.
― Conic section rebellion 44 (in orbit), Tuesday, July 25, 2017 8:23 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this is infinitely better than Valerian lol
― flopson, Sunday, 30 July 2017 23:13 (seven years ago) link
'messy dissapointment' is way ott wrt the plot (even if some of criticisms by Tracer are smart and legit, i just didn't care that much while actually watching it), but even so, forget plotting/character development for a moment--the car scenes are so meticulously and geniously EDITED!!! and comprise like 75% of the movie; more than compensates imo
― flopson, Sunday, 30 July 2017 23:20 (seven years ago) link
Jesus I wish 75%
― jk rowling obituary thread (darraghmac), Sunday, 30 July 2017 23:42 (seven years ago) link
Valerian was marginally better imo but still disappointing.
― just1n3, Monday, 31 July 2017 00:15 (seven years ago) link
oh come on Valerian was dreadful!!
― flopson, Monday, 31 July 2017 00:42 (seven years ago) link
does Ansel bottom in Valerian
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 31 July 2017 00:47 (seven years ago) link
Dane DeHaan is nearly as cute as Ansel and the voice he affects is unbearable; he sounds like an 11 year old impersonating his father on the phone
― flopson, Monday, 31 July 2017 00:54 (seven years ago) link
*is NOT nearly as cute
― flopson, Monday, 31 July 2017 01:05 (seven years ago) link
OTM and he looks all of 15
― just1n3, Monday, 31 July 2017 02:52 (seven years ago) link
I think I had lower expectations for valerian than baby driver, which is why BD was worse imo
― just1n3, Monday, 31 July 2017 02:53 (seven years ago) link
this was fairly fun, but every single thing in it pointed to Baby hugely outwitting everyone with a giant confusing amazing car chase sequence to cap off the film. They set him up as being super smart, but instead he suddenly turns stupid, fucks up the getaway royally and we get a pretty boring fight instead?
― jamiesummerz, Monday, 31 July 2017 12:06 (seven years ago) link
A good planner is not a good extemporiser!
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 31 July 2017 12:26 (seven years ago) link
He wasn't supposed to be super smart! He's super naive, and weirdly talented in one very specific area. Almost an idiot savant. And he was never the planner, Doc was. So, once the plan goes bad and he's no longer behind the wheel, he has no particular resources to draw on. He's just a kid.
― Cherish, Monday, 31 July 2017 14:57 (seven years ago) link
atl folk (and others) might find this interesting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ry9X2FPfHM
― constitutional crises they fly at u face (will), Monday, 31 July 2017 15:06 (seven years ago) link
I don't see action films of any kind, although there's probably a tiny bit of overlap with what I do see--I mean, No Country for Old Men had some action. I definitely don't see Fast and Furious-type films, but the music in the trailer for this one reeled me in.
The soundtrack did not save it; just one long reminder of why I don't see action films. Found the last half-hour (everything after "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1") particularly stupefying.
― clemenza, Monday, 4 September 2017 21:28 (seven years ago) link
I really must insist you not use this as any exemplar of action films tbh, there are many brilliant movies released in the last several years
What you want to avoid, imo, is going to see shit movies because of a soundtrack
― passé aggresif (darraghmac), Monday, 4 September 2017 21:32 (seven years ago) link
As soon as cars start hurtling all over the place, I just shut down. And that constitutes, what, a third of the film? It seemed like an action film to me.
I've seen one or two other films where Spacey "heads a crew"--one of them involved gambling, and Justin Timberlake was in it. Every other line's supposed to be charged with witty cool. He's terrible in these roles. And I think it might have been the first time I've seen John Hamm outside of Mad Men. Somewhat better than Spacey--he had a few lines that seemed like they came from an actual person--but equally terrible in that last half-hour. The other four principals--Foxx, the two women, and the baby driver--were comparatively okay, I guess. Did someone think Paul Williams carries a great deal of cultural resonance? "Wow--it's Paul Williams!"
― clemenza, Monday, 4 September 2017 21:45 (seven years ago) link
Woah I didn't say this wasn't an action film
I just protest your seeming acceptance that it's in any way a good example of the genre.
On a separate note, Kevin Spacey is, and always has been, a very poor actor. In many ways as bad as John Malkovich.
― passé aggresif (darraghmac), Monday, 4 September 2017 22:20 (seven years ago) link
That's not true, especially before 1995. Possibly opportunities exposed the limits of his range, but range is overrated anyway.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 4 September 2017 22:36 (seven years ago) link
do u think the car chase scenes are bad, d?
― flopson, Monday, 4 September 2017 22:45 (seven years ago) link
Once you get past what, at the time, I assume was the newness of the car chases in Bullitt and The French Connection, how do you tell if a car chase is good? They just cut the same impossibilities together ever faster and faster, louder and louder.
― clemenza, Monday, 4 September 2017 22:50 (seven years ago) link
staging has a lot to do with it. I felt like the first chase in Baby Driver was one of the best I'd seen recently.
― Neanderthal, Monday, 4 September 2017 22:55 (seven years ago) link
shoulda just made the movie a 90 minute chase. kinda like that shit movie Kidnap but like instead, good.
― Neanderthal, Monday, 4 September 2017 22:56 (seven years ago) link
zoe bell's stunt work in death proof comes to mind as for as good recent chases
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Monday, 4 September 2017 22:57 (seven years ago) link
should also include the infamous stock Troma car crash footage
― Neanderthal, Monday, 4 September 2017 22:58 (seven years ago) link
Car chases in this were told, and first one yes particularly so
You can tell if a car chase is good if you enjoy it. How dyou judge ice cream ffs.
Zoe bells stunt work in deathproof is not remembered in my house but every other excruciating moment she spent on camera will never be forgiven
― passé aggresif (darraghmac), Monday, 4 September 2017 23:00 (seven years ago) link