Baby Driver appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This wasn’t a flawless presentation but it looked good.
For the most part, sharpness satisfied. A couple of interiors suffered from a minor decline in delineation, but the majority of the film seemed accurate and concise. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I saw no edge haloes or source flaws.
Colors went down the stylized path, with a trend toward teal and amber. These seemed perfectly satisfactory given the visual choices.
Blacks appeared rich and taut, while low-light shots displayed nice clarity and smoothness. Overall, I remained pleased with the image.
Similar thoughts greeted the involving DTS-HD MA 5.1. As expected, action scenes fared best, as those used driving and gunfire to create a vivid sense of the material.
Music also created a more active than usual presence, as the nearly constant array of songs and score filled the speakers to the film’s advantage. All of these factors formed a lively soundscape.
Audio quality worked well, too. Music was dynamic and full, while effects appeared accurate and dynamic. Speech seemed distinctive and concise, without edginess or other issues. The soundtrack added to the movie’s effectiveness.
We find a bunch of extras here, and we open with two separate audio commentaries. For the first one, we hear from writer/director Edgar Wright. He presents a running, screen-specific look at the movie’s origins and development, story/characters, sets and locations, visual design, cast and performances, influences, stunts/action, and related areas.
A veteran of the format, Wright knows his way around a commentary, and that experience shows during this excellent chat. Wright digs into a wide variety of topics and does so with verve and charm. He makes this a thoroughly enjoyable and informative track.
By the way, Wright mentions that the film’s ending can be viewed as either fantasy or reality and states that he knows how he feels as the person who wrote it. However, Wright decides not to tell us which way he leans, as he prefers to let the viewer decide.
Which would be fine – except he immediately makes a remark that strongly implies his position. Whoops!
For the second commentary, we find Wright and director of photography Bill Pope. Both sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion of cinematography as well as sets/locations, music, editing, stunts/action and other areas.
While more technical than Wright’s solo track, this one remains lively and enjoyable. We get a nice array of topics and the energy stays high. This commentary isn’t as good as the prior one, but it’s still solid and very informative.
11 Extended/Deleted Scenes occupy a total of 20 minutes, 28 seconds. In these, we tend to get elongated versions of existing sequences, and the footage usually focuses on additional musical material.
To my surprise, little of it seems meaningful, so these cut segments lack much impact. I like the extension to one of the film’s climactic moments, but otherwise, the footage feels superfluous most of the time.
Under Behind the Scenes, we find six featurettes. With a total running time of 45 minutes, 15 seconds, these offer notes from Wright, Pope, production designer Marcus Rowland, supervising location manager Douglas Dresser, choreographer Ryan Heffington, costume designer Courtney Hoffman, 2nd unit director Darrin Prescott, 1st unit stunt coordinator Robert Nagle, stunt driver Jeremy Fry, picture car coordinator Sean Ryan, special effects coordinator Mark Byers and actors Jon Hamm, Kevin Spacey, Lily James, Ansel Elgort, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Jamie Foxx, Jon Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez and Lanny Joon.
“Scenes” covers the project’s origins and development, storyboards and pre-planning, audio design and the use of music, sets and locations, production and costume design, stunts and car sequences, and cast and performances. With 45 minutes available, “Scenes” gives us a lot of good information. Some of this leans toward happy talk, but more than enough substance comes along the way.
Eight Selected Scene Animatics go for a total of 35 minutes, 42 seconds. These show the crude animation used to plan out various scenes. They’re fun to view.
Within Rehearsals & Pre-Production, we get three elements. This area includes “Ansel Elgort Audition” (4:39), “Annotated Coffee Run Rehearsal” (3:27) and “Hair, Make Up and Costume Tests” (8:56).
“Audition” shows Elgort as he works through the scene with the Commodores song, while “Run” offers a glimpse of a trial run for the opening choreographed sequence. Finally, “Tests” give us a look at Elgort, James, Spacey, Foxx, Hamm, Gonzalez, and actor CJ Jones as they try out various guises. None of these feel great, but they add texture to the package.
Discussed by Wright in his commentary, we find the Music Video for Mint Royale’s “Blue Song”. Directed by Wright in 2003, it offers a clear stylistic foreshadowing of Driver. A good video in its own right, its historical context makes it a fine addition to the set.
Next comes a Complete Storyboard Gallery. This provides a slew of stills and divides into four thumbnail sections. I like the thoroughness of this feature.
Under Promos & More, we locate a mix of materials. We get three trailers as well as a music video for “Chase Me” by Danger Mouse Featuring Run the Jewels and Big Boi.
“More” also tosses in a “Mike Relm Baby Driver Remix” along with 13 short movie promos. These all offer a nice view of the attempts to market the film.
The disc opens with ads for Spider-Man: Homecoming, Rough Night, Life (2017), T2 Trainspotting, November Criminals and The Dark Tower.
Ambitious and flashy, Baby Driver often connects with its lively sense of action. However, it drags too much in the middle, and that makes the whole less satisfying than I’d like. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and audio as well as a strong selection of supplements. Though it occasionally sputters, Driver becomes a mostly engaging effort.
