Car chases and movies go together like peanut butter and jelly. The car chase is almost as old as film itself. But it seems recent history has seen an increase in films that center on the cars. Films like Transporter, Drive, John Wick, Mad Max:Fury Road and the endless Fast and Furious films have given us plenty to choose from in this genre. So Writer/Director Edgar Wright must have had something new and different to say in this genre, right? Right?
Edgar Wright does weave his car chases around a story. It is standard fare. You have the Mastermind (Kevin Spacey), the protagonist (Ansel Elgort), the love interest (Lily James) and the heist crew. In this case, the boss doesn't use the same crew twice. You get a mish-mash of players on each job (Jon Hamm, Eiza Gonzalez, Jamie Foxx, Lanny Joon and Flea). The boss, Doc, only keeps one thing constant...his driver. His driver is Baby (Elgort), an otherwise gentle kid with a talent for driving. An accident when he was young has left him with tinitus. He drowns out the ringing in his ears with several iPods loaded with a variety playlists that get him in the groove.
The film is more about pacing and choreography than anything else. Most of the characters are flat and, at times, overwrought. The staccato dialogue is consistent with the pacing, but felt a bit cliched. Even forced at times. Ultimately, this film comes down to how much you like car chases. The chases are choreographed with the music, which also places a heavy emphasis on the soundtrack, which was carefully selected and intriguingly varied. Great effort was put into timing the soundtrack with essential action unfolding on the screen. It worked for me. Gimmicky? Sure. But it worked.
There are lots of things I look for in a film. But ultimately, my ratings come down to how much I liked it. I didn't really expect to like this film. It seemed a bit shallow. The characters lacked development. The story was predictable. The dialogue could have been better, but did match the tenor of the film. The soundtrack was solid and the choreography to the film was well done. Ultimately, this film succeeded for me on pacing. Not much to hang your hat on. Seemingly a thin strand to give a solid rating to. But it was enough for this type of film. At least it wasn't a parody of itself like Fast and Furious. I would give this film a solid 7.5/10.
Photos and video courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment (public domain).
