Baby Driver

Like so many action movies these days, it got off to a good start, and then succumbed to the worst of the action film stuff. The best thing about it is the driving, which was largely done in real life and in real time. There is a making-of documentary on the DVD that shows how a lot of it was done. I can also give a shout-out to the fact that not everything happened according to the usual outline for tired old stories like this. That is, you can easily identify the second-to-worst psychopath in a bunch of bad guys, and you’re almost always safe in thinking he will be the next-to-last to die, leaving Our Hero to finally have it out, man to man, with the Big Bad Bad Guy. This one deviated slightly from this formula. But I had a lot of trouble with several elements of the plot. First, the idea that the Big Bad Bad Guy (Kevin Spacey, the first time I’ve seen him since his epic downfall) would be smart enough to plan these capers and stupid enough to use the band of out¬¬-of-control psychopaths he gets together to pull them off. I’d as soon give the job to half a dozen lit sticks of dynamite. And finally, I just did not buy for a millisecond that Spacey would all of a sudden show evidence of a heart at the end by helping Our Hero and The Girl to get out alive. You spend the whole picture making it totally clear that he is completely indifferent to the fate of anyone except himself, and then suddenly he is Robin Hood? Uh-uh. See it for the excellent stunt driving if you’re a Fast and Furious fan. Otherwise, skip it.