Posts Tagged ‘Kevin Spacey’

Baby Driver

Director: Edgar Wright

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

While the trailer is cool and the cast is hip, Baby Driver delivers some cool stunts as a sequential car chase film with its sweet looking leads Baby played by Ansel Elgort and Debora played by rising British star Lily James.

With a fabulous soundtrack, Edgar Wright’s crime caper Baby Driver, clearly inspired by Pulp Fiction is thrilling to watch, with a great fast-paced narrative, transplanting the action from Los Angeles to Atlanta, Georgia it does get weigh down by its own super-cool importance and could have been edited by at least 20 minutes.

Oscar winner Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects, American Beauty) plays crime boss Doc who hires Baby played by Ansel Elgort as a bank robbery get a way driver because of his fast skills behind the wheel. That and the fact that Baby doesn’t get fazed by the traffic, the cops or his fellow henchman. Baby starts re-evaluating his crime driving does when he meets the sweet Southern diner waitress Debora played by Lily James (Cinderella, Wrath of the Titans).

Soon Baby wants out but has to contend with a new and vicious crew headed by the psychopathic Bats wonderfully played by Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (Ray) and equally threatened by the crazy gun-wielding Buddy played by Mad Men star Jon Hamm (The Town, Million Dollar Arm).

Audiences should expect lots of car chases, a really cool soundtrack and a crime caper with as many twists and turns as a Southern freeway. Despite the hype surrounding Baby Driver and its ode to all things Americana – The Cars, The Diner, the Freeway, director Edgar Wright places too much emphasis on trying to encode the narrative with a moral undertone which doesn’t quite work especially towards the end of the film.

Basically, despite all the violence, money grabbing and loads of action, the end result is crime doesn’t pay – which is ultimately a bizarre sentiment to portray in a film such as Baby Driver which glorifies crime, violence and greed, making all three look hip, cool and attainable especially in a fast car.

Baby Driver is a stylish and entertaining ride, but don’t expect the cinematic journey to live up to the hype. Nevertheless its still a fun way to spend an afternoon at the movies.

For the young and the fast, Baby Driver gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and recommended for audiences that enjoyed Pulp Fiction and all sorts of sleazy, pulpy crime thrillers which the Americans are so fond of making. The irony is that director Edgar Wright is British…

The music is the best thing in this action flick!

The  53rd BAFTA Awards /

The British Academy Film Awards

Took place on 9^th April 2000 in London

BAFTA Winners in the Film Category:

Best Film: American Beauty

Best Director: Pedro Almodóvar – All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre)

Best Actor: Kevin Spacey – American Beauty

Best Actress: Annette Bening – American Beauty

Best Supporting Actor: Jude Law – The Talented Mr Ripley

Best Supporting Actress: Maggie Smith – Tea with Mussolini

Best British Film: East is East

Best Original Screenplay: Charlie Kaufman – Being John Malkovich

Best Adapted Screenplay: Neil Jordan – The End of the Affair

Best Foreign Language Film: All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre) Spain

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/53rd_British_Academy_Film_Awards

Horrible Bosses 2

 Director: Sean Anders

Cast: Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Pine, Christoph Waltz, Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx

The original comedy Horrible Bosses was hugely hilarious, so the question begs why spoil it with a sequel?

Especially in light of the 2008 economic recession, Hollywood has increasingly fallen prey to the sequel syndrome as a way of generating additional work for actors and more profits for the main film studios. Not every successful original comedy or action film needs to be made into a sequel. Horrible Bosses 2 and Red 2 are example of this money making cinematic phenomenon which started in the 1980’s. Think The Lethal Weapon, Rambo and Die Hard franchises.

Director Sean Anders’s Horrible Bosses 2 has very little to do with Bosses and a lot to do with three losers Dale, Kurt and Nick played with great glee by Jason Sudeikis, Charlie Day and Jason Bateman who after appearing on Good Morning Los Angeles TV show get conned into selling their shower buddy product to a wealthy but unscrupulous industrialist Bert Hanson played by Oscar Winner Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained) and his spoiled playboy son, Rex wonderfully portrayed by Chris Pine (Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, Star Trek).

So begins a rather lame ploy on the classic Stockholm syndrome plot as the gang of three attempt to kidnap Pine and in a rather strange twist of events gets manipulated by him into extorting a huge ransom sum for his so called release. The dialogue is not that funny, the script lazy, not to mention the appearance of highly talented Oscar Winner Kevin Spacey (The Usual Suspects), who was one of the original Horrible Bosses, is completely underutilized.

Even Jennifer Aniston (We are the Millers, The Bounty Hunter) reprisal of her role as a nymphomaniac dentist Dr Julia Harris, also one of the original Horrible Bosses does not save the blighted plot. The best scenes in the film are actually provided by Oscar Winner Jamie Foxx (Ray) as MotherF*cker Jones and of course Pine who has a field day as the manipulative kidnap victim.

This sequel is really cashing in on the success of the first film and let’s hope that Hollywood does not make a third without there being a more credible and inventive storyline. Audiences who loved the first film, might be disappointed, so save Horrible Bosses 2 for some lazy Saturday afternoon viewing.

72nd Academy Awards

26th March 2000

Oscar Winners at the 72nd Academy Awards

Best Film – American Beauty

Best Director: Sam Mendes – American Beauty

Best Actor: Kevin Spacey – American Beauty

Best Actress: Hilary Swank – Boys Don’t Cry

Best Supporting Actor: Michael Caine – The Cider House Rules

Best Supporting Actress: Angelina Jolie – Girl Interrupted

Best Original Screenplay – Alan Ball – American Beauty

Best Adapted Screenplay – John Irving – The Cider House Rules

Best Foreign Language Film – All About my Mother directed by Pedro Almodovar  (Spain)

Best Documentary Feature – One Day in September directed by Arthur Cohn and Kevin Macdonald

Best Original Score – John Corigiliano –  The Red Violin

Best Cinematography – Conrad L. Hall – American Beauty

Best Costume Design – Lindy Hemming – Topsy Turvy

Best Film Editing – Zach Staenberg – The Matrix

Best Visual Effects – The Matrix

Source – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/72nd_Academy_Awards