Edgar Wright's movies are perfectly designed for the nerdy crowd. Here's a British director known for nerd genres including zombie movies, action flicks, killer robots, and a graphic novel where life is a video game, whose films are easy talking points for geeks, but have never truly pushed into the mainstream. And yet despite all of the quickfire humor, rapid-cut montages, and foundation in British culture, Wright has also crafted some phenomenal action scenes. So with his latest movie, an action extravaganza called Baby Driver hitting theaters this Wednesday, I'm picking five of his best action packed scenes.
#5 "Don't Stop My Now" from Shaun of the Dead
This fight isn't exactly thrilling but I had to choose it because it feels like a perfect precursor to Baby Driver, a film set entirely to a soundtrack. After matching their way to their beloved pub The Winchester, Shaun and company are beset upon by the owner and attempt to kill him as Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" blares in time with pool cue strikes. It's hilarious stuff.
#4 Battle of the Bands from Scott Pilgrim vs the World
This is easily one of my favorite movie scenes, not only because it's absurd video game logic come to life, but because thrashy grunge music is Scott's weapon against two DJs. In a literal battle between two acts, Sex Ba-Bomb is initially blown away, literally, by the Katayanagi Twins who summon twin dragons. Not easily deterred Scott summons a beast of his own, a greenish sasquatch-type, and spaces the two dragons and the Twins into oblivion as the song "Threshold" slams power chord after power chord into the audience's ears.
#3 Bar Brawl from The World's End
You'd think after discovering that their former town has been run over by alien robots Gary King and company would run away. Not to be deterred the group continues until working their way through the Golden Mile pub crawl and fighting along the way including this phenomenal mixture of fighting styles. In it the fully assembled group finally lets loose spilling blue blood all over the place. Nick Frost operates as one man wrecking machine two bar stools, the rest get into regular scraps, and in an excellent homage to Jackie Chan, Simon Pegg's Gary King uses Chan's drunken boxing moves as he attempts to down his next pint.
#2 Final Fight (Round 1 and 2) from Scott Pilgrim vs the World
There's a lot of excellent fights in this movie and the finale doesn't disappoint. A two parter, one a slice and dice battle against Gideon's henchmen and then the boss battle, Scott loses the first time around via distraction but ultimately triumphs by pairing with Ramona and Knives. Flaming swords, light sabers, point counters, insane martial arts, and some nice commentary about self-respect in relationships.
#1 The Final Twenty Minutes from Hot Fuzz
While there are a couple of noteworthy flashes, Hot Fuzz doesn't truly become an action movie until the finale when Nicholas Angel and Danny finally team-up in a massive shoot-out against the town. Not only is the end-result Bad-Boys level excessive, featuring gun fights, fist-fights, and car-chases, but it also goes down the checklist of things Danny wanted to do (aka fire two guns while diving through the air, be in a high chase pursuit etc.)
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