ATL (2006)

-- WARNING! This film review contains spoilers. If you haven't seen this film, you may want to before reading this review -- ATL is a coming-of-age story concerning Rashad and his friends in their final year of high school and on the verge of adulthood. Rashad and his brother Ant lives with Uncle George and works with him as part of his custodial company. When not working, he spends time with his friends: Esquire, also known as, Benjamin Gordon, Teddy and Brooklyn at the Waffle House and they are not as a team call "The Ones", at a skating rink called Cascade.Meanwhile, no longer under the watchful eyes of Rashad, Ant begins to become involved with a drug dealer named Marcus and begins to sell weed for him. He also starts dating a girl named Tondie, who takes a liking to him only after he begins to make money through drug dealing.Things began to soon fall apart: Ant is arrested for selling weed, in which Rashad grabs Ant, pushes him in the house, tells him to get in the room, but Ant yells at him saying, "You ain't nobody's dad!", after Rashad tells him, "I ain't playing with you, bro.", and also beats his brother until Uncle George gets Rashad and tells him to let him go in his room and tells him that, "Ant is gonna do what he wants to do. A few extra dollars in the house ain't gonna hurt nothing." He also finds out the real truth about Erin once Esquire tells him about her.That's the plot of this movie.The editing is really good, it can get a little awkward at some points, but I still love the editing by David Blackburn.The film's budget was at $20 million dollars and it was really a challenge to make this film, but this film went on and make just $21 million dollars, but they are doing a sequel because T.I. has announced it and it shows with a picture of him and Lauren London.The acting is just incredible. T.I., as the main protagonist and narrator of the story, Rashad Swann, is really amazing and very good in his first feature film.ATL was the first film debut for the director, Christopher Robinson, and the majority of it's cast including Evan Ross, as Anton Swann, the younger brother of Rashad, he said that this made his first film debut easier, since it was also his co-star's debut.Lauren London as New-New / Erin Garnett, the love interest of Rashad and the daughter of John Garnett.Jackie Long as Benjamin Gordon / Esquire is really amazing in his performance, and the other two boys: Albert Daniels and Jason Weaver, as Brooklyn and Teddy, just really shines and they really do shines out.Antwan Andre Patton, also known as Big Boi, who plays the drug dealer and our main antagonist Marcus, the drug dealer that Ant begins to work for. He also plans to lure Anton from Rashad for his own profit. This was also his film debut and he pulls off his portrayal of Marcus wonderfully. Keith David, Mykelti Williamson and Lonette McKee as John Garnett, Uncle George and Priscilla Garnett may have a little bit of scenes, but they still shine out, especially Mykelti Williamson, who performed the role of Uncle George wonderfully, even in the scenes with T.I. and Evan Ross are beautifully written and when he says to T.I. in the first conversation about Ant's drug problem, "A woman does not want a man with two dumb-ass kids and no money.", was really well written.I will give credit to Chris Robinson and Tina Gordon-Chism, who directed and wrote the screenplay, from a story written by Antwone Fisher.Now, I get to the musical score by Aaron Zigman. It is really well-done and also the song choices that they made for this movie was really cool.The one song that was really cool for me to hear was T.I.'s song, "What You Know", and also the other two songs I really did like to hear was K-Rab featuring D4L's "Bubble Gum" and "Money in the Bank", performed by Lil Scrappy featuring Young Buck.So, overall, with ATL, I can't hate it, but it does make a good feature film debut for TI and Evan Ross, as well as Big Boi and Lauren London, who would all later play in other movies.Big Boi would play in Idlewild, Lauren London would later play in Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family, This Christmas and the main lead role in The Game, which will end with season nine on BET, Evan Ross, who would later play the producer of this movie, Dallas Austin in CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story and in the movie Pride, and for T.I., who would go on to be in American Gangster, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington as Frank Lucas and Russell Crowe as Detective Richie Roberts, go on his own TV show, "T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle", which is on VH1 and in the upcoming 2015 Marvel Studios' film, "Ant-Man", and I can't wait to see all of them in the upcoming sequel, ATL 2, which does not have a release date yet. The movie also has cameos by Jazze Pha and Monica, some really good memorable quotes and a good hip-hop soundtrack that will get you wanting to go out to the club and turn up.

Honestly, this movie was one of the best movies i seen. its something the whole family cold sit back and enjoy. The actors in this film did not over act they did an excellent job on acting this out. The thing the caught my attention the most is how you teens such as myself can connect to this movie. Its not one person i know that would mind watching ATL for a second time. Overall i loved this movie and i see why it won best film in 2006 on the BET Awards. Atl is a suspenseful movie ,but funny at e same time not only did this movie have a moral too it, but it was also enjoyable too watch. I think the film wasn't perfect of course everyone could use some critiquing but it was not the worse film either. Lauren London becoming a new actor had did a great job at this movie. i couldn't even tell she was a rookie and T.I being a rapper also brought fans too this movie.

This movie is much better than I thought it would be. It was very sweet and sincere. It tried to honestly portray real people with both comedy and drama. It both played on stereotypes and also shattered them. I think this movie did poorly because it was not easily categorized. People probably thought it would be a gangster movie and when it didn't fall into that category, people got confused. I think the poor ratings on this movie prove that most critics go into movies with a preconceived notion about whether they are going to like the movie or not and don't give most movies a fair shake. The acting in this movie is very straight forward and sincere. Not a lot is put on top of this movie and maybe that is why some people don't like it. Its pretty straight forward and sincere. I found it refreshing.

I rather enjoyed this movie. The performances were decent and the characters were likable there was a good story line and well developed characters. The movie had a positive message with out being over bearing. As for the characters, Laura London is really cute, hopefully she'll get a chance to showcase her talents in the future. T.I. maybe the next rapper that makes the jump from music to movies. Jason Weaver has come a long way since playing little Michael Jackson. This movie is better some of its contemporaries and deserves a look. The low rating is unfair so check it out and see for yourself and if you think is good then vote for it.