BABY DRIVER
characters. Gru and his family head off to the European backwater of Freedonia, where his long lost brother Dru lives. Meanwhile, back in the US, Balthazar Bratt is a mullet-wearing, breakdancing, super villain. He was a 1980s child TV star who wants revenge on Hollywood for cancelling his show. His lair is littered with Rubik cubes and suchlike, while famous songs of the decade from Madonna et al are crowbarred onto the soundtrack. This is all a disappointingly cynical attempt to keep the parents and grandparents in the audience happy, while the comic violence entertains the kids. The minions’ fart jokes are far funnier than the warmed-over nostalgia that was intended to keep me occupied. With new characters added with every film, the script has a lot of juggling to do to keep everyone busy, and it feels as if we’re watching a couple of different scripts less than seamlessly stitched together. I was bored by the scenes where Gru worries about his job and his new wife frets about bonding with their three daughters. With the Illumination studio developing new films such as mega hit movie Sing, this feels more a stale contractual obligation filler than a labour of love. And it’s not as despicably great as the previous films. Cert Running time
This exhilarating crime caper is so achingly cool and confident, I should be in it.
Sadly for me, Hollywood has yet to knock on my door. So you’ll have to make do with Ansel Elgort as Baby – the getaway driver on bank jobs for Kevin Spacey’s sharp-suited mob boss.
Baby looks like a young Han Solo with shades and earphones permanently attached. This allows for a stream of great tunes of every type, including Jonathan Richman’s Egyptian Reggae.
He plans to do one last job before hitting the road with Lily James’s pretty waitress.
The thin thread of the plot is pimped to the max by the trademark zippy editing and knowing humour of Brit director Edgar Wright. He puts a fast spin on the heist movie the way he did with the zombie movie in Shaun of the Dead.
The dialogue pops, tyres squeal and bullets fly as this non-stop thrill ride delivers your new favourite soundtrack to the summer.