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Reviews

‘Baby Driver’ Review 

Wannabe Movie Critic

Mozart in a Go-Kart

 

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(TriStar) 

Listen carefully you hear that? Well I know you can’t actually hear anything, you’re simply reading this review. But off somewhere in the distance, is me still giving this movie a standing ovation. Baby Driver, Edgar Wright’s latest masterpiece just hit theatres, and people and critics alike are singing praises about it. Now ever since I can remember, I have loved everything Edgar Wright has ever done. He’s simply brilliant, and one of the best working directors in Hollywood today. Hot Fuzz, Shaun of The Dead, and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, just to name a few are some of my favorite movies ever made. Hot Fuzz to this day remains in my top 15 flicks of all time, I’ll never forget the first time I watched that movie. So after all the drama that went into his Ant–Man experience, which we all know would have been spectacular, we were all left waiting for Wright’s next work of art. Then a little trailer dropped for Baby Driver, and I was hooked instantly, everything about it made me super excited. The movie popped, and when I saw the cast, my jaw almost hit the floor. I’ll will certainly get into it later, but the cast for Baby Driver is truly one of a kind, but I’ll start by saying, HALLELUJAH, this is Jon Hamm’s moment. For films that is, the guy is already a bonafide rock-star, thanks to Mad Men, but it made me so happy to see that man kick so much ass in this movie.

So I’m not going to go to far into the plot of the movie, because at its core, there really isn’t a whole lot there. That’s not taking anything away from the movie at all; I just really want to make this spoiler free. So nothing that wasn’t in the trailer or you could gather from looking at the poster for the movie. So we have Baby, a getaway driver, who happens to suffer from tinnitus, which causes him to have a subtle ringing in his ears at all times. This was caused by a car wreck he was in when he was younger, which happened to kill both his parents. Baby, played by Ansel Elgort, ever so effortlessly as I might add. Baby comes across very smooth, and very confident, but at the same time very quite and shy. Ansel (so hot right now) sorry I had to make that reference, gives off all of these emotions with such ease, I was really impressed by him. This was the first time I really watched one of his movies, this kid as a seriously bright future. Baby works for Doc (Kevin Spacey), who is on top of his game here, as the fast talking, extremely cocky, baddest guy in town. There back story is simple, Baby steals a car that happened to belong to Doc, and when Baby dumps the car, little does he know, it was filled with a lot of “goods”. So When Doc tracks down Baby, he makes him his getaway driver for all the heists his team pulls. It just so happens that Baby is the best getaway driver anyone has ever seen. Doing all these different heists, Baby meets a bunch of interesting and colorful characters. Griff (Jon Bernthal) the muscle man. The asshole of the group, who sadly is only in like 5 minutes of the movie. Hopefully if they ever make a sequel he will come back, because in those 5 minutes, he was stealing the show in my opinion. We have Darling (Elza Gonzalez) and Buddy (Jon Hamm) who are husband and wife, and realistically what I’m calling “couple goals for 2017”. Darling is a little firecracker, who might seem very cute and innocent, but she is not to be messed with. Especially when it comes to getting between her and her man. Jon Hamm, this is your coming out party my man. I don’t know how he does it. Remember in Mad Men, how he was so incredible at playing the overly confident yet ironically  very sad man. Well he tees that one up again here, and he knocks it out of the park. No actor today, can pull of the sad drunken puppy dog look better than Hamm himself. I’m just so happy for Hamm, because he deserves to be a mega-star and I just don’t think he’s been getting the right roles, until now. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Jon Hamm needs to be Harvey Dent in the DCEU, but that’s a whole other discussion. Next we have Bats (Jamie Foxx) who is a sadistic, witty, and kind of charming guy. The oddball of the group, who really seemed like the darkest of the bunch. He loves crime and that’s why he does this for a living. Where everyone else, seem to be committing these crimes, because well they either don’t have a choice, or they need the money. Foxx is truly brilliant here, my god, when he’s on his game, Foxx is one of the better actors working today. He also happens to have some of the best lines in the entire movie; his comedic timing in this was flawless. Rounding out the cast we have Debora (Lily James) the love interest of Baby, and she was just so adorable. She works at the same diner that Baby’s mom used to work at, and the second Baby hears her sing, well he falls instantly and madly in love with her. The chemistry between James and Elgort was noticeable the first time they were on screen together, and it made me more invested into the movie. There’s nothing better, then when you can actually believe in the love story going on within the movie, because it seems real. They were so good together, and James herself was great, coming off her awesome performance in Cinderella. They knocked it out of the park when casting this movie; everyone fit their roles to perfection.

The script is written by Wright also, so not only does he direct this thing, he also wrote it, so just hats off to that guy (because everyone loves hats). Wright is known for is creative, original and stylistic way of making movies, and it showed in both his directing and his writing. His movies can be wacky and corny at times, and this is no exception, but it’s always done in such a tasteful manner, that you hardly even notice it. As a lover of music, I saw myself in Baby at times throughout the movie. Music is such a big part of this thing that it almost feels like a musical. Pretty much throughout the entire thing, there is a song blaring through Baby’s headphones, no matter what he is doing. Whether he’s dancing his way through the streets to retrieve coffee for the gang after another successful heist, or when he’s getting the lowdown for their next job. Wright captures people sharing headphones listening to a song together so romantically and touching, that you can forget just how much music can bring people together. The song choices are so on point, and the each song fits so well into each scene, it’s just a perfect blend of movie making and music sharing. He loves music so much, and it’s such a big part of his life, that at a certain point in the movie, he hijacks a car, but can’t drive it until he finds the perfect song on the radio to drive off too. Its little things like this that makes this experience so joyful and just so fresh.

This summer has been a massive let down for movies, and it was so nice to go into a movie, and not only be pleasantly surprised, but it was ORIGINAL. Yes, this is a heist movie, some of my favorites movies involve heists (Point Break, The Town), but this was different. The movie’s style is so carefully and perfectly crafted, the way everyone dresses, the colors, to even the music in certain scenes, just makes this one hell of a ride. The opening car chase is just incredible. We have seen this movie a million times before, this really is nothing new, but it’s the way Wright goes about it, that makes it feel like a breath of fresh air. With being unique and original. I’m sorry for all the times I used the word baby in this review, just wait till you see the movie, the word “baby” should maybe be outlawed. One last thing, I bet Mike Myers is pumped, he got the most screen time he’s had in about a decade.

I’m going to see this movie again, and I have a feeling, it will be sneaking into an all-timer for me, it’s hard to put into words how you truly feel about something, but this is the kind of movie, which makes you want to be a filmmaker. It made me feel happy inside made me think that if you work hard enough good things can happen. I love this movie to pieces and I’m so damn glad Edgar Wright left Ant-Man because if he didn’t I wouldn’t be writing this review right now. What can I say, it’s slick, fun, stylish, action packed and most of all stuffed with an incredible soundtrack. GO SEE THIS MOVIE.

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Baby Driver = 97/100

 

 

Reviews

‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ Review

Wannabe Movie Critic

So it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it might have been written by 8th graders.

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(PARAMOUNT)

Everyone’s favorite franchise is back! That was a joke, the more this franchise goes on the angrier people seem to get. I remember way back when the first Transformers came out and I dragged a bunch of my friends to the theatre to go see it. They all thought it was going to be horrible, and they really didn’t know too much about it, unlike myself who like now, was a nerd. All I remember was after the initial scene of Blackout going after the military base, they all looked at me and said, “this is going to be awesome,” then Megan Fox came onto the screen and well then they were really sold. I love the first Transformers, it’s honestly in my top 20 favourite movies of all time lists, but ever since the original, they haven’t really been able to make a better movie. The best part about the original, besides it having Shia LaBeouf in it, was they really kept it simple. The plot wasn’t insanely confusing and it was really easy to follow. Ever since, Michael Bay, who is back in the directors chair for the 5th and last time for this franchise, just really likes to make things BIGGER, and way more confusing each time out. All I’ve ever wanted was for them to recreate the magic from the first one, and just go back to the stuff that made it so awesome. But well I think at this point Bay has just become a world-class prick, and honestly does this on purpose. Transformers: The Last Knight, isn’t the worst of the franchise, but it’s just the cherry on top of what can only be describe as a less than stellar summer movie season so far. I wish I could just go back to Megan Fox opening up the hood of Bumblebee, because those were good times, I even had the poster in my university dorm room.

So here’s the thing, I’m not even going to attempt to tell you what this movie is about, because to be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure myself. One thing is certain though; this movie starts off in medieval times, as we see King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table team up with Transformers. I know, and that’s where we get introduced to this magic staff, that only certain people can use. Honestly that’s all you really need to know, for a simple concept, boy do they really make it seem like you’re trying to learn a new language throughout this movie! The magic staff is the key to the whole movie, that’s all you need to know, magic staff and well explosions! Again Mark Wahlberg is back as everyone’s favorite inventor Cade Yeager (that’s his actual name), and he’s trying to save and rescue the remaining Autobots around Earth. He’s also like the most wanted man on the face of the Earth, but manages to stay hidden, in a junk yard, along with like half a dozen giant robots…..Josh Duhamel is back as Lennox, appearing in the first three movies, so now he leads a team called TRF, their job is to hunt down any Transformers and well kill them. We get introduced to two new female characters in this movie, and they were just meh. So we got a little firecracker Izabella, who has no home or family and goes around fixing Transformers, they try to play her out to be this kind of badass kid, but most of the time, she’s just being ridiculous and any 14 year old, would no doubt shit themselves if they were dealing with giant robots. Next we have Laura Haddock (who I love from the Inbetweeners movie) who is the love interest of Cade. But she’s also very vital to the story line, but I won’t really go into it, seeing how it’s in the spoiler territory. All I can say is I’m pretty sure they wanted to bring back either Megan Fox or get Sophie Turner for this role. Because she is these two girls mixed, actually at some points in the movie, I could swear it was Megan Fox on screen. So that kind of took me out of the movie, like why are they casting someone who looks identical to her? Oh I know it’s because Michael Bay is just messing with us at this point right? Sir Anthony Hopkins is in this also, well because sometimes you just need a good payday. He tries I guess, but like, all he’s really doing is filling us in on plot details and giving a few monologues. BE BETTER ANTHONY! That’s all I’m saying about the plot and characters, because the plot doesn’t matter, or the characters.

Don’t get me wrong, Michael Bay, you know how to shoot action scenes. He knows how to do things on the biggest and most grand scale. I’ll give him that, and I think the action and the fighting in this movie, was the best of the series so far. I went to this movie solely based on the fact that I knew there would be incredible action, and he didn’t disappoint. I’m even going to go as far to say that well, the Bumblebee vs. Optimus fight is better than the Batman vs. Superman fight. When the first trailer hit and I saw that these two guys were going to throw down, I knew I would have to be their watching it in IMAX. Like I don’t get why Bay has to make such great looking movies, but care so little about everything else. My god this script was probably written by 8th graders. There are so many talented writers that need a chance, and yet you turn out garbage like this. There is no reason why we can’t have an incredible Transformers movie, but it seems like all Bay cares about is explosions, product placement and introducing the world to new hot girls. Seeing how this is his fifth movie, maybe he could take a little pride in his overall work, because he shoots actions almost better than anyone, and I think he’s really good at getting the most out of his cast. He’s also an asshole for shooting this movie in three different aspect ratios, so throughout the entire movie, the screen keeps getting bigger and smaller, depending on what camera he used to shoot that particular scene. 3D glasses make movies hard enough to watch, imagine the screen changing sizes every 10 seconds.

At the end of the day, yeah this movie isn’t very good, fans and critics alike are destroying it, but I had to find out for myself. The 10-15 good minutes of this movie, and by that, I mean like 10-15 minutes of just pure awesomeness, reasons I go to the movies for. But it’s 2 hours and 28 minutes, they could have cut 30 minutes loose. But Bay is notorious for making extremely long movies. Those great minutes almost make up for everything else, because I’ll remember that Bumblebee vs. Optimus fight for a long time, because it was just so breathtakingly beautiful. I just don’t understand why everything else has to be just so terrible. This is a money making franchise, it will probably still make upwards of 700 million dollars, so maybe Paramount just doesn’t care about fan service anymore. Michael Bay is done as director and I think it’s time for some fresh blood to get in there and overhaul this thing for the better. We need better human characters, if they are going to be in these movies as much as they are. But more focus needs to be on the Transformers themselves and if I had it my way, I would say to hell with the humans and replace them with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Just for one movie, and see how it goes, I think that could be a really fun movie, it beats watching Mark Wahlberg be a superhero and a 14 year old girl some how fight Decepticons, it’s just not worth my time anymore. But I continue to give this franchise money, because of moments like Bee vs. Optimus and the other incredible action sequences, it’s a love/hate thing for sure, because it just doesn’t make sense to me, why these movies can’t be great. They are making like 14 more, so I guess they have plenty of time to correct this course, or simply just take more of my money. I’m a sucker for robots, what can I say….

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – Transformers: The Last Knight = 52/100

Reviews

‘The Fate of The Furious’ Review 

Wannabe Movie Critic

God I can’t wait till the drag race on the Moon in what I’m calling; Fast & Xtreme or Furious & Xtreme. I dunno it’s a working title, some combination of Fast, Furious and Xtreme!

(UNIVERSAL)
Spoilers ahead, so drive with caution. 

So like are we calling them “The Furious” now? Every super group has a name, The Avengers, The Beatles, Justice League, The Dream Team, and with the title The Fate of The Furious, I’m now declaring these people as “The Furious!” I think it’s a pretty cool idea, so let’s just go with that, because after the latest installment in this money making franchise, the last one made 1.5 BILLION dollars, Vin Diesel and company are legit super heroes. These movies just keep getting more over the top and ridiculous but you know what, I’m okay with it; in fact I absolutely love it. Going into it, if you’re not willing to turn off your brain, expect the most ridiculous of things to happen, and just laugh at how big Dwayne Johnson is, you’re just not living life to the fullest. Dwayne is actually so large, he in fact punches a huge metal wall and the after math looks like the Hulk just smashed the wall to shit, and by the way, his hand is fine! One thing these movies do, is to let us know how important family is, in fact I kept track of how many times the word “family” was said throughout the movie because I thought it would be something extremely high like 30, but it was just 16, and that made me sad. Family is the driving force of this movie and without spoiling the biggest reveal of the movie, okay I lied I’m going too! DOM TORETTO IS A FATHER PEOPLE! Wow that feels good to get off my chest, that’s right Dom knocked up Elena, that blonde cop from Fast Five, Dom is such a dirty dog! And like I said, his kid is the driving force for this story, and I’m calling it now, they will do an 18 year time jump in this franchise but no one will age except for the baby because like I said these people are super powered human beings. Wouldn’t that be cool a time jump, and now we are in 2036 and there are flying cars, I just blew my own mind. The writers of these movies should just contact me, because I have so many good ideas on where this franchise should go!

So the latest outing is directed by F. Gary Gray (Straight Outta Compton) and our entire beloved cast is back! Remember what franchise we are taking about here; the plot is insane, but simple at the same time. A mysterious woman Cipher (Charlize Theron) tracks down Dom, and blackmails/seduces him into working for her, but it isn’t revealed till much later in the movie, why Dom agreed to help her with such ease. So Dom goes rogue, and turns on the family, leaving Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) crushed and Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) in jail where Deckard (Jason Statham) is also being held. Tej (Ludacris), Roman (Tyrese) and Ramsey (Nathalie Emmanuel) are also kicking around, and once it is revealed that Cipher is a cyber terrorist, such a clever name eh, it’s up to the team to track down Dom and take care of Cipher once and for all. I enjoy the cast in this franchise, they all know what’s going on, they are all aware of how ridiculous things are, but still they make it their own and I respect that. Statham and Johnson really meshed well in this; in fact they are the best part of the movie. There’s a joke where Deckard calls Hobbs “Hercules” and I laughed because Dwayne Johnson actually played him in a movie, so I wonder if that was a cheap shot, or just something they might have missed when writing the script. Or maybe I’m just a total nerd who knows too much about movies. Statham was the baddie in the last one, but he’s switched teams and I liked that aspect, actually so does his brother, who was the bad guy in Fast 6, jesus you need a Venn diagram to keep track of all this. Back to the cast, they all fill their roles well, and the one thing that I think lacked was the humor. Usually their little quips and banter back and forth works really well, in this I felt it kind of fell flat on its face. Which was unfortunate, because I was sitting in a packed house, and there wasn’t much laughter going on, not until the end, where it deals with the baby (which was actually hilarious), but it’s never a good sign when all of your jokes just aren’t working out. What they lack in laughs, they certainly make up for in action. I don’t know how they come up with some of the stuff that happens in these movies, a big bag of weed could be involved or maybe they just ask some 6 year olds to come up with some crazy action sequences, because some of the stuff going on here is BANANAS. At one point, Cipher and her team manage to hack into all the self driving cars in New York City, and it might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen in a movie, actually I just lied, them driving on ice being chased by a submarine is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. I lied again guys, I’m sorry I really am, HELEN MIRREN being in this movie is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen. Helen, my god, you sweet old lady you. I’m not going to lie, it works but really???? She plays the Mother of Decker and Owen, and she drops the only F-bomb of the movie, which was pretty great. This movie has Kurt Russell again, as Mr. Nobody and I can’t believe that they manage to get these legendary people, how much are they paying them, and it seems like Kurt Russell is having the time of his life making these movies. So good on him, because you might as well enjoy it rather than act like you want no part in being in this.

I’m just going to go on a little rant about how much I love Dwayne Johnson. Honestly he makes everything better. This franchise would be dead to rights if he hadn’t decided to come on board, and since he has, it has become what most people know it as today. He also might be the largest human on Earth; he picks people up in this, like a sack of potatoes, its great. I just believe he can do whatever he is doing in these movies, at one point he takes a torpedo and pushes it at a car, while hanging out of his own car, like he is a goddamn Olympic Curler. Thing probably weighs a ton and well isn’t nothing but a peanut to Hobbs. So if a franchise is ever in need of a reboot or a pick me up just call this man, and all your problems will be solved. So yes this movie is insane, things happen that will blow your mind. Like I still don’t know when these people became super heroes, maybe in Fast 5? I honestly want to see this cross over with The Avengers, because I think The Furious would maybe take the cake. They are the Kevin McAllister of super teams, give them some prep time and anything is possible!

One thing that disappointed me was the under utilization of Charlize Theron, she’s a badass woman, and all she did was stand in an airplane the entire time! She can throw down (watch the Atomic Blonde trailer) and I was hoping for some hand-to-hand stuff with her or maybe drive a car. She does get away in the end so she will be back, but I kind of felt cheated a little bit. She was a decent villain, like she got Dom to turn his back on family, if they didn’t show that in any trailers and no one knew about that going into this movie, would be a bigger twist than Sixth Sense ending. But like I’m trying to think back to the movie, and it’s almost a blur, just so much destruction and chaos, and it was hard to keep track of. There are so many characters now, it gets a little oversaturated, and it’s hard to give all these people something to do. These movies aren’t going anywhere for a long time, so hopefully they can clean that up before the next one, because it was probably the biggest problem of the movie. Like as I’m writing this review I forgot that Scott Eastwood joined the cast, he plays Little Nobody, and I really liked him! He was a great addition to the cast, I think he’s a really good young actor, but again they just keep adding people to these and at some point, enough is enough!

What can I say, going in I knew it would be over the top action, some horrible dialogue and a lot of white beaters, and I got just that. But this movie is going to make a billion dollars, people LOVE these movies and I don’t blame them. These are the best bad movies that Hollywood is pumping out today. Guilty pleasure for sure, and sometimes you need that in your life. They won’t win any awards, you will forget about it in a few days, but you will have a good time watching it, and isn’t that what going to the movies is all about? Get a large drink and popcorn, buckle up and prepare yourself for an overall enjoyable car ride.

One last thing, Paul Walker is no longer with us, and that sucks because I think he was truly the heart and soul of this franchise, but at the end of the movie, I saw it coming from a mile away. They name Dom’s kid Brian, to honor him and I just thought that was a real genuine movie moment. You could even see it on the actor’s faces, they really are a family, and I know they all miss him dearly, so to me that was just an awesome emotional moment. Looking forward to see what’s next, because the sky is the limit, literally they will probably have flying cars soon!

Check ya later,

Nate’s Movie Tour Reviews – The Fate of The Furious = 69/100