Baby Driver [Blu-Ray]

Director: Edgar Wright

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Lily James

Release Date: October 10, 2017

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 10/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

Synopsis:

Baby (ANSEL ELGORT) – a talented, young getaway driver – relies on the beat of his personal soundtrack to be the best in the game. When he meets the girl of his dreams (LILY JAMES), Baby sees a chance to ditch his criminal life and make a clean getaway. But after being coerced into working for a crime boss (KEVIN SPACEY), he must face the music when a doomed heist threatens his life, love and freedom.

From the mind of filmmaker Edgar Wright comes the high-octane music driven thriller ‘Baby Driver’ which follows a young but wildly talented getaway driver named Baby (Elgort) who is a true artist behind the wheel, forced to work with various teams of criminals on dangerous heists at the bequest of mastermind Doc (Spacey) who currently has a hold on Baby as a result of a previous incident. But once Baby begins falling for a young waitress (James), he can’t help but question his potential future. Before long Baby’s worlds slowly begin to collide forcing him to contemplate making a decision that could mean the difference between life and death if chosen incorrectly.

Written and directed by the incredibly talented Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Shaun of the Dead) who does a magnificent job at the helm of ‘Baby Driver’ swiftly guiding his own screenplay along with remarkable ease and style. The film also owes a good share of credit to the powerhouse cast that features numerous talented individuals at their finest and includes Ansel Elgort (The Fault In Our Stars), Kevin Spacey (TV’s House Of Cards), Lily James (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), Jon Hamm (TV’s Mad Men), Jamie Foxx (Django Unchained), Eiza González (TV’s From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series), and Jon Bernthal (The Accountant) along with more, nearly all delivering spot-on performances in each of their respective roles, particularly Ansel Elgort who is truly spectacular in the lead role and never misses beat.

‘Baby Driver’ is a ridiculously entertaining, high speed ride that kicks off full force and never lets its foot off the gas pedal while keeping a grin permanently plastered on the viewers face. Easily one of the very best films of the year, ‘Baby Driver’ cleverly allows itself to be largely driven by the music our title character is nearly always engulfed in and the result is one wildly fun journey from start to finish that is quite unlike anything else you’ve experienced. Never allowing itself to play by the common rules, it swiftly maneuvers through the story with a high speed grace and style quite similar to that of Baby’s driving style within; fully embracing the chaos and often musically inspired mayhem and all forming together into a refreshingly original piece of filmmaking that couldn’t be more exciting. It’s gracefully guided along every sharp curve by talented filmmaker Edgar Wright as only he can so effortlessly do, and is boosted to perfection by outstanding performances from an all around powerful cast led by Ansel Elgort who is nothing short of magnificent in the lead role. I would strongly encourage any fan of Wright’s work or that of the notable cast that hasn’t yet had the pleasure of this masterpiece, in addition to anyone with even the slightest bit of interest in the film to make a point of checking out ‘Baby Driver’ when you have the opportunity to do so; this one is definitely not to be missed.

Overall, ‘Baby Driver’ is a tense, insanely fun and music driven ride that never falters throughout its spectacular course, offering up consistent high octane excitement and grin-inducing action along with plenty of laughs that should have no trouble keeping you glued to the screen until the end credits roll. Filmmaker Edgar Wright does a magnificent job guiding his own script along and his capable guidance is complimented all the more by a powerhouse cast that never disappoints. I can’t possibly recommend ‘Baby Driver’ highly enough, it’s a truly spectacular piece of filmmaking that is not only wildly entertaining, but one of the very best films I’ve had the pleasure of so far this year, if not the finest. Any fellow fans of Wright’s work or the talented cast members definitely won’t want to dream of missing out on this modern masterpiece.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Baby Driver’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 2.39:1 Cinemascope Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty great as a whole and provides a fairly sharp and detailed presentation throughout. It holds up quite well even during the numerous fast moving sequences and never causes anything occurring on screen to become negatively affected or rendered indiscernible as a result. Aside from some mild instances of slightly less detailed minimal tidbits of faces and the like that are largely unnoticeable without looking too close, it holds up quite well. Overall, this is a pretty solid high definition video presentation from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment that while perhaps not quite perfect, still looks pretty fantastic and shouldn’t disappoint fans of the film.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack sounds wonderful and delivers a crisp, clean and notably active audio presentation from start to finish. It constantly takes advantage of all five available channels in order to immerse you within the music that plays a prominent part in the film, in addition to sending bullets, vehicle activity, crowd chatter and more throughout the various speakers with regularity, and never allowing any dialogue or additional audio elements that may be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, this is an aggressive and immersive 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack that perfectly complements this insanely fun film.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Baby Driver’ includes quite the impressive collection of bonus content featuring hours of noteworthy extras that fans should have a great deal of fun with. Included on the release are 2 ‘Audio Commentary’ tracks; both a ‘Director’s Commentary’ and an ‘Audio Commentary with Edgar Wright and Bill Pope’, in addition to a number of ‘Deleted and Extended Scenes’ from the movie (running approximately 20 minutes in length altogether) and numerous behind the scenes Featurettes that take you deeper into bringing various aspects of the film to life and feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew, behind the scenes footage and plenty more. The included Behind the Scenes Featurettes are: ‘That’s My Baby: Edgar Wright’ (running approximately 9 minutes), ‘Mozart in a Go-Kart: Ansel Drives’ (approximately 6 minutes), ‘I Need a Killer Track: The Music’ (6 minutes), ‘Meet Your New Crew: Doc’s Gang’ (11 minutes), ‘Find Something Funky On There: The Choreography’ (6 minutes), ‘Devil Behind the Wheel: The Car Chases’ (7 minutes), along with footage from ‘Rehearsals and Pre-Production’ (approximately 17 minutes in total) and various ‘Selected Scene Animatics’ (36 minutes combined). A ‘Complete Storyboard Gallery’ broken down into four parts, plus the 2003 ‘Mint Royale “Blue Song” Music Video from Wright (4 minutes) are also included, along with ‘Promos and More’ which includes tons of teasers, trailers and promotional videos for the film (approximately 21 minutes altogether).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

Film Rating: 10/10
Disc Rating: 9/10

Edgar Wright’s ‘Baby Driver’ is Now Available to Own on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD & Digital from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

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