Baby Driver

Review by Bob Ignizio

While it's certainly a thrilling car chase/heist/action film, Edgar Wright's BABY DRIVER is also very much a musical. The actor's don't sing, nor do they dance. But every scene is tightly choreographed –  the movements of the actors, the camerawork, the editing – to perfectly match the beat of whatever song happens to be playing on the ipod of getaway driver Baby (Ansel Elgort). And there isn't a time that Baby doesn't have his ipod on, as he uses music to drown out the constant ringing in his ears, the lasting effect of a car accident when he was a child that also took the lives of his mother and father.

This being a movie, Baby is, of course, the best at what he does. The reason he does it is because he owes crime boss Doc (Kevin Spacey) for a past mistake. But Baby is only one job away from making good on his debt, and naively believes he'll be able to walk away. He even thinks he has a chance at romance with a diner waitress named Debora (Lily James). But as Bats (Jamie Foxx), one of the criminals Baby drives for, says, "The moment you catch feelings is the moment you catch a bullet."

The World's End

Review by Matt Finley

THE WORLD’S END, the final entry in director Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto Triology (named for the uniquely British tri-colored ice cream treat fawned over in the series’ first entry, SHAUN OF THE DEAD), is a daft, artful, beer-soaked caper of a film, boasting a bigger heart, fewer self-conscious genre homages, and just as many laughs as the trilogy’s prior entries (the aforementioned SHAUN, and HOT FUZZ).

The film tells the story of Gary King (Simon Pegg, who shares writing credit with Wright), an unrepentant party animal who, 40 years into the downward spiral that’s become his life, decides to reconvene a group of four childhood friends in hopes of conquering the Golden Mile – an infamous 12-tavern pub crawl that their childhood selves left drunkenly unvanquished.

31 Days of Halloween 2012: Shaun of the Dead (October 20th at the Capitol Theatre as part of the 3rd Annual 12 Hours of Terror)

[SHAUN OF THE DEAD screens sometime between 10:00 pm Saturday October 20th and 10 am Sunday October 21st at the Capitol Theatre as part of the 3rd Annual 12 Hours of Terror.]

Review by Charles Cassady Jr.

In the narrow realm of British zombie-gore comedies SHAUN OF THE DEAD probably takes the lead, if it weren't for the fact that most American trashhounds probably lump this UK release in with all the zombie-gore satires from Australia and New Zealand (Peter Jackson's DEAD/ALIVE chief among them). SHAUN OF THE DEAD does have its own twisted angle, though, at least for the opening act. Imagine if you will a sort of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead," as filmmaker Edgar Wright puts a couple of dimwit characters into an unfolding George Romero zombie apocalypse which, due to their narrow horizons, they can barely notice is happening.

Shaun of the Dead (March 19th at the CWRU Film Society)

[SHAUN OF THE DEAD screens Saturday March 19th at 7 and 9 p.m. at the CWRU Film Society, Strosacker Auditorium]

Review by Charles Cassady Jr.

In the narrow realm of British zombie-gore comedies SHAUN OF THE DEAD probably takes the lead, if it weren't for the fact that most American trashhounds probably lump this UK release in with all the zombie-gore satires from Australia and New Zealand (Peter Jackson's DEAD/ALIVE chief among them). SHAUN OF THE DEAD does have its own twisted angle, though, at least for the opening act. Imagine if you will a sort of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead," as filmmaker Edgar Wright puts a couple of dimwit characters into an unfolding George Romero zombie apocalypse which, due to their narrow horizons, they can barely notice is happening.