Baby Driver

In a revved-up reworking of traditional car chase and heist movies, Ansel Elgort stars as Baby, the barely-past-adolescence but whizzkid getaway driver for crime lord Kevin Spacey and his psychotic crew of thieves (Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal). It's a life Baby wants to leave behind for a loved-up future with perky waitress Lily James, after the obligatory "one last job" settles a past debt to the perma-scowling Spacey. Director Edgar Wright cut his teeth paying hilarious homage to pop culture on TV's Spaced and the big screen's Shaun of the Dead, but that fan-boy charm comes unstuck when there's a bigger box of toys on offer. The presence of a brace of Oscar winners in the cast is only an occasional distraction from the sense that we've seen it all before, and never quite so wink-to-the-audience smug at that. The bravura action sequences are undeniably well choreographed, accompanied by a constantly surprising and eclectic soundtrack (mostly filtered through Baby's ever-present iPod earphones), so it's a shame the disjointed plot of this fast and spurious jaunt frustrates at every corner taken in fifth gear.