Joel's Reviews

BABY DRIVER (2017)
Director: Edgar Wright
Rated: R




A script that emerges from a Simon and Garfunkel song seems like a fun challenge, and the writing of Baby Driver must have been just that. The film's use of tightly staged choreography and coverage mixed with a flavorful soundtrack and comedy bits unfortunately don't add up to much more than the seedling dare to base an entire filmed story from an involved daydream spawned from an old folk tune.

Baby is his name and he's got ringing ears, tinnitus to be exact. When he was a boy his parents died in a car accident that left him with hearing damage. Later in life he is a getaway driver for a car theft criminal ring led by Kevin Spacey as Doc. Baby is in debt to Doc so Baby must drive for multiple jobs until his debt is paid. Using several playlists on several ipods, Baby simply can't put a car into gear unless he has a good enough song queued up. It's a real sickness.

Meanwhile at home, Baby cares for his foster dad, a deaf wheelchair bound man. When Baby has retreated to his room, he makes DJ mixes using the day's many conversations he's recorded with a micro cassette pocket deck. He does this very well, and among his collection of tapes we seen many funny titles, all but one that is labeled "MOM". At a nearby diner where his mother used to work, he meets Deborah. She walks by singing a song. He records her. They become romantically involved with plans of hitting the road.

OK, so the writing sounds good and it should be totally serviceable for this kind of action packed musical edit heavy comedy film. But it still isn't because of of one thing: that ending The pen stops mid-page and decides "hey, let's just do something different now to tidy this all up". Well, maybe others liked this idea but it left me kind of bored with the film as a whole. Wright's montages are usually crafty and cute, but this one didn't fool me. I saw safe and uninspired writing being masked by the montage.

I think Edgar Wright as a writer can be just as profoundly detailed as director, as evident with his film Hot Fuzz. Here I just feel that his writing took a back seat to the concerns of orchestrating the visuals with the music. I figure, if you're gonna go all the way with something so ambitious, go all the way and make sure that story is grand. The cringe factor was a bit high in the beginning, and with every great song, perhaps one of the greatest (The Commodores - Easy) is initially enjoyed and displayed nicely in the film, but later on it's butchered as it's done with a folky cover, revealing the importance of the song. The problem here is that this version of the song is done in a typical throat tightened, tongue curled, folky coffee bar annoying way and seems like a really awful choice of a song to butcher. Had the song been different, or better, it would've made the ending better and not pop another cringe moment on the film which was already just barely recovered from the beginning bit of mess. I am sorry but you simple do not transpose The Commodores to Jewel territory. That's ridiculous. Shame on the failed sensibility of Wright for thinking this was a good idea.



I thought this movie was OK. The staging was super and it was brimming with creative moments and composed of some really interesting side elements. but it wasn't anything special to me and I wouldn't feel like watching it again. Mixed bag for sure.

La Grande Illusion (1937)
Director: Jean Renoir

Star Slammer: The Escape (Prison Ship - The Adventures of Taura)
Release: 1987
Director: Fred Olen Ray

Fred Olen Ray is a long time Roger Corman associate. He's worked with Jim Wynorski (Chopping Mall), as well as been the guy who lent Quentin Tarantino a 16mm camera to film Quentin's first film short, back when he worked at the video store. The guy has been around, and he's still making movies. Albeit crappy movies, but there are worse ways to earn a living.



When I think of a bad movie, I think of something so terrible that it's unwatchable on just about every level, but with "Star Slammer" this isn't entirely the case. For what lacks in acting and story construction, there's a lot to appreciate in way of lighting and set design. Prison Ship looks really nice, and is further justified by an incredible new blu ray release that goes back to the original camera negative.


You watch a movie like this and you're definitely not doing it to be impressed by a sci fi movie with a message. The only message here is "we couldn't decide on a name for our movie, so here are three names all lumped into one title card." Even the lead actress has a different hair style from scene to scene. Funny thing is that this movie was shot on a couple weekends so that's some serious professionalism coming from the cast, changing their hairstyles so dramatically. I had to really study the lead's face to make sure it was even the same person.


I can't say that this movie is a lot of fun but I can say that I was entertained with just the design of the picture. I guess Ray borrowed some scenes from "Battle Beyond the Stars", as well as outfits from "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared Syn". He knew people in the low budget industry, so nothing was off limits to make his picture cut together. The lighting is very impressive. It's moody, colorful and has a nice separation and depth, giving off shadows of overhead bars, and really juicing the elements within the frame to stand out as different entities.


I've had the full page Video Review ad since 1988 in a scrapbook (pictures included) and had never seen the movie until last night. I've waited almost 30 years to finally see this. The odd thing is that it far exceeds its poster art and actually looks much better and more expensive. The optical work is beautiful. The lasers start and end perfectly feathered and show no signs of masking. They also have a nice luminance that doesn't blow out highlights and burn in white spots, so you get rich greens and reds.


Yes, there is a bit of nudity. This is a woman in prison film so if it didn't have nudity, it'd be an insult to cinema.

I don't know why I responded so well to a movie this awful. The acting is atrocious and the story has no allegiance to continuity, but I found the backyard aesthetic to be encouraging, and did appreciate the care that went into some of the analog effects and set design (they used big mac boxes to build the ships interiors, as well as dish washing trays from restaurants turned upside down).

People who consider Alien sequels their kind of movie probably won't find anything here, but I can think of at least one person that might enjoy aspects of this, since it is tied in with New World Pictures @Citizen Rules