Few days after this movie premiered in Indonesia, I finally got the chance to see it yesterday after one of our weekend staycation in Serpong area (more on that in my wife's blog). We did plan to see the film then but due to various locations we visited, we decided it would be best to just see this when we were back in Jakarta. Though our favorite seats have been taken for the 2.45 PM show, we thought that waiting for the 5PM show would not be a good idea, seeing that we were both rather tired and wanted to take a rest in the evening. So off we went and saw this at Setiabudi. Now let us get on with the movie.
Brief Story Line
A young man nicknamed Baby (Ansel Elgort - The Divergent series, The Fault in Our Stars etc) was working as a getaway driver together with a crew of 3 robbers. The crew was working for a boss called "Doc" (Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects, Superman Returns etc). Baby was a very excellent driver who was able to escape from the police chase using his expertise. His unique way of driving was to always listen to music and follow the rhythm of the songs. It would be revealed later on the reason of his unique habit as he almost never took out the earphones from his ears.
Baby was living with a foster parent named Joseph (CJ Jones) who disagree to Baby's illegal money making way. But Baby promised him that it would only be temporary. Meanwhile Baby also had a crush on a diner's waitress named Debora (Lily James - Cinderella live version, Downton Abbey TV series etc) and they hit it off easily. He even contemplate on driving off with Debora and leave the city behind.
After being promised to do one last job, Baby finally got the call from Doc and was introduced to the new crew members consisted of Buddy (Jon Hamm - Keeping Up With The Joneses, Mad Men TV series etc), his girlfriend Darling (Eiza González - From Dusk till Dawn: The Series etc) and a crazy guy called Bats (Jamie Foxx - Ray, Collateral, Sleepless etc). This latest robbery would have a major impact on Baby's lives and the choices he make would change his life and the people around him forever.
So what would happen in this robbery? Could Baby achieve his dreams of driving off with Debora? Find them all in this unique full of music action drama movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I saw the movie's trailer for the first time with my wife, both of us were amazed with how cool the driving sequence was. So we kind of expected the movie to be filled with nonstop scenes of car chasing. But it turned out that those scenes were not as many as we would have hoped for. Yes there were plenty of them, and the final climax scene was actually awesome, but in general, it would have been a lot more satisfying had there been just a little bit more of those.
Throughout the movie, I noticed that there were very few scenes that were not having music/songs in the background. Some were louder than others. So you better see this one in a theater with good quality sound system (which also support the car chase scenes intense moments). It was also very cool in the opening credit scene of Baby walking around listening to the music while buying coffee for the crew. The camera seemed to be moving along nonstop following Baby's movement and it was also very cool of the director Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs the World etc) to put some words from the song in various places. Be sure to see this part as it was rather unique.
The plot of the movie was actually quite standard and you could find them in similar type of movie. But the main attraction here would definitely be the awesome car chase and escape scenes. Ansel Elgort was getting a role that suit him where he just need to act cool (not a lot of expression) and listen to the music. Though there was one scene in earlier part where it was a bit surprising to see his behavior while waiting for the robbery. I loved Kevin Spacey's character in here while the rest of the crew were pretty good as well. Lily James character here was quite likeable and I also like 1 minor character of a boy named Samm who was very funny.
As a movie of a getaway driver, this movie delivered some cool amazing scenes but if you expect a full fast paced car chase after car chase with actions all over the place, then it would probably be more satisfying if you see the Transporter trilogy (the original one with Jason Statham). However this movie was having a better story line and slower pace in some of the scenes, plus that unique (some people called it stylish) way of directing which was most likely what people & critics loved. Oh because of the nature of the movie with music running through out almost entire duration of almost 2 hours, the soundtrack was really a lot. And there was no post credit scene, in case you are wondering.
In conclusion, if you are looking for a stylish unique movie filled with music and some awesome car chase scenes, then you can certainly enjoy this one. But if you are expecting nonstop thrills and suspense plus action or fighting scenes, then you might not be entirely satisfied with this. The choice is yours.
Happy watching!
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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