Baby Driver

"All you need is one killer track..."

James and I went to see Edgar Wright's latest movie, Baby Driver, last night and were blown away by its turbo-charged thrills and too-cool-for-school soundtrack. It was great to see all Wright's familiar visual flourishes ( plus plenty of new ones ) exploding from the big screen again, but this time in a dazzling, heart-racing thriller instead of a comedy. The cast were uniformly excellent, with old hand Kevin Spacey making a chilling villain ( well, kind of ) and the young leads, Ansel Elgort ( "Baby" ) and Lily James, bringing some charming chemistry to their star-crossed lovers amidst all the chaos. And what a soundtrack! Most scenes were cut exactly to the sounds of the tracks playing on Baby's ever-present iPod  -  all the squealing tyres, crunching metal and gun shots in sync with the beats. The soundtrack was dominated by classic soul and funk ( Nowhere To Run, Every Little Bit Hurts, B.A.B.Y ) and hip hop, with diversions down some rockier roads by Queen, Golden Earring and even The Damned.

But don't just take my word for all this  -  here's James's review of the movie from his own blog,
I Criticise Because I'm Not Creative. Now, I may be biased  -  okay, I obviously am biased  -  but I think James has an excellent prose style and I always find his reviews well thought out and witty. Check them out and drop him a comment or two if you like...

Randomiser XII

Let's get random...

Wheels of steel

Picked up my new car today! Yeah, booooyeee!!

Just need to load up the rocket-launchers, power up the atomic turbines and head out across the mutant-infested, radioactive wasteland to search for survivors and/or hot babes. Oh, hang on...

...I need to tax it first.

Soundtrack: Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen

"It's a town full of losers, we're pulling out of here to win..."

Cats, cars and crutches?

There is an old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Hmmmm.....

This Tuesday my Mum was in hospital for a blood-transfusion. Sarah took her in that morning and I was supposed to pick her up in the evening, six units of the red stuff later. But somehow I managed to injure my leg at work ( not too badly ) and had to be taken to A&E. We both ended up in the same hospital at the same time, me hobbling around on crutches and her emerging with some colour in her cheeks for the first time in ages. A bit of a mad day :)

And that same day Sarah and James went to pick up the newest addition to our family, an eight-week old Tabby kitten we've named Jasper. He's probably the cutest thing in the history of cuteness and is pictured above in super lo-fi quality. No doubt there will be better pics to follow. After an initial Mexican stand-off he's getting along fairly well with Hero who so far hasn't packed his bags and left, luckily. Jasper is very affectionate and energetic, and will certainly keep Hero on his toes, or paws.....

I've now been off work for two days, the first time I've been off sick in 6 or 7 years, feeling like a total waster. The leg's a lot better so I plan to go back to work tomorrow, ready for the inevitable piss-taking from my considerate fellow-workers. I haven't been wasting my time, though. I've been today to put a deposit on a new car: a silver Toyota Avensis, 2003 diesel. My old Renault Laguna has been patched up enough and is now ready to be put out to pasture. The Avensis may not be the sexiest car going but is ideal for what we need and is a good price. Should pick it up next week and take it for a burn.....

Things that make you go "Aaaaaaarrrrrghhh!!!!!"

I don't know about people, but they certainly eat into your bank account. After paying the local Renault dealer £70 last week to not fix my car, I'm taking it to another garage tomorrow to see what they can do. Hopefully they can sort it so it has a bit more power than an arthritic snail and doesn't churn out fumes like a 007 gadget car's smokescreen. And this is after all of Keith's attempts to fix it on the cheap for me. Old cars: can't live with them, can't drive them off a cliff for the insurance money and live to tell the tale.



Soundtrack: I Get Along, The Libertines
That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate, Mission Of Burma