Baby Driver

Baby Driver

Dir: Edgar Wright

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Lily James

Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez, Flea

       When I first heard about this movie, I thought it was a sequel to Baby Boss but I was 

  half wrong. Baby Driver is the latest from acclaimed director Edgar Wright whose hits

  include Shaun of the Dead & Scott Pilgrim vs the World.

        It stars teen idol Ansel Elgort, as Baby, a young getaway driver who has hearing

   problems. To help him cope, he blares music on his Ipod while outrunning the police.
   When he's not driving around criminals, he meets Debora (James), a pretty, young
   waitress stuck in a dead end job whom he falls for. Together they dream of skipping
   town and ride off into the sunset.

       But before he can do that, he's coerced into pulling one last job for his boss 
   played by the devilishly Kevin Spacey. When things don't go as planned, the 
   doomed heist falls apart and must survive with the girl of his dreams.

   The Good: The music along with cinematography was stellar. The editing and pacing

   are buttery smooth for its runtime. Some of the scenes reminded me of the video game

   GTA where Baby constantly changes in and out of cars. 

   The Bad: The acting isn't all that great and became a little tedious to watch towards 

   the end. To keep the story moving, it leaned too heavily on its retro soundtrack.
   I had expected more out of it but was satisfied with how it turned out. There was
   one particular character that was introduced but never seen or heard from again. 

   Overall: Edgar Wright hits another home run in this heist movie that disguises itself

   as a coming of age story. If I want to sit and watch a movie with lots of car chases 

   this is the top of my list. The opening chase alone is worth the price of admission.

   Grade: C (7/10)

Annabelle: Creation

Annabelle: Creation

Dir: David F. Sandberg

Cast: Talitha Bateman, Anthony LaPaglia, Miranda Otto, Stephanie Sigman

      If you haven't been keeping track, Annabelle Creation is the prequel of the prequel 

  of The Conjuring 2 with a third Conjuring movie in development. 

      

      This is the latest from Swedish director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out). It tells
  the story of a grieving dollmaker (LaPaglia) and his wife (Otto) who open their
  doors to a small group of orphaned girls and their caretaker (Sigman). Creepy
  things start happening centering around a doll. They soon realize the house is
  haunted by the dollmaker's dead daughter.

      Talitha Bateman plays Janice, a polio stricken girl who investigates the house
 and finds that the spirit is after her. The girls team up to fight the demon that
 resides in the house.

  The Good : This film had a lot of effective jump scares that gave me a jolt out of
  my comfy chair. The sound effects that accompanied those creaking house parts
  made it all the more scarier.

  The Bad : Some of the scare scenes seemed predictable and the plot felt non-
  existent that caused it to drag on. It relied too heavily on some of the horror 
  movie tropes such as flickering lights, closing doors and creaky floorboards.
  It tried too hard to emulate the same religious theme that made The Exorcist
  so scary. 

  Overall : Annabelle: Creation is a step up from the first one and a decent horror
  flick to end the summer. It's an unnecessary entry to an unnecessary franchise.
  This film nods itself to The Conjuring Universe that has been established and 
  hints at another time jump to a new place: Romania. Until then, A:C will do 
  just fine for the time being. 

 Grade: B-