The opening sequences of this movie shows you there and then that this is going to have a very specific style and feel to it. The action of the characters and the way the movie is edited, directly parallels the beats and mood of the soundtrack. Most everything is synced up with the music and songs, which means that you are either somebody who is going to really like that this movie is doing that, or you will be annoyed as heck.
Ansel Elgort lip syncing to a song, or drumming on the steering wheel to the beat, or dancing along to the music while doing an errand of getting coffee. Is that something you'd enjoy? How about the sound of gun fire that is synced up to the "Tequila" song? Maybe songs that have the name "Baby" or "Debora" on it, because two characters are named that in the movie? Are those the kind of things you'd like? I thought the whole conceit of this directing style is pretty clever actually, but I can understand if that's not for everybody.
If that mixture of visuals to the soundtrack does scare you a little, don't worry because the whole movie is not like that; although I personally wished it was all like that. To tell you the truth, I didn't think the whole soundtrack was as great as I hoped it would be, even though there are some excellent choices of songs in there. With all that said, that's not the only thing worth mentioning in this movie, because there are some excellent chase sequences in this film that are most definitely worth seeing, and were quite exhilarating. It's not even all just car chases either, because there is a chase scene on foot that was quite exciting as well.
I thought the whole cast were generally really good in this, from Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, to Eiza Gonzalez. There were shades of their characters seemingly being a little one note of just being specific archetypes, but this is an Edgar Wright movie so it isn't that simple. I liked all the characters they played, and the chemistry they all had with each other was just excellent. The bits of them bantering, and the funny lines that were said, were all just entertaining overall.
Although I did mention that this movie is very stylish in a fresh way, the story itself isn't that far off from what you've seen before. It's not completely following a familiar plot formula to a tee, as there are some surprises, so it's not exactly that derivative either. Despite the cool directing style, the fact that it's not a completely unique experience kinda disappointed me a bit. Maybe I expected more than I should have with "Baby Driver," but either way it is undoubtedly worthy of your time to check out.
lovedit ENJOYED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible
