ATL Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's not like I think Hillary Duff is a bad actress (although I think the NYT might have something to say about that particular statement), it's just that she's hasn't had the chance yet to break out of the 'Lizzie McGuire mode' -- unless you consider the mountains of gossip surrounding her over the last two years...very "un-Disney". Duff will get her first shot at a slightly more serious role in Greta. The Hollywood Reporter announced that Duff will star in Nancy Bardawil's drama about "a waitress who falls for an ambitious cook at the restaurant where they work. But as their summer romance heats up, she has to overcome the concerns of her grandparents about her boyfriend's criminal past". Joining Duff are Ellen Burstyn and Michael Murphy as Duff's overprotective grandparents and ATL star Evan Ross will play the cook with a shady past.

The film was written by Michael Gilvary, who is making his feature debut along with director Nancy Bardawil. A music video director by trade, Bardawil has made videos for The Goo Goo Dolls, Dixie Chicks, and Hole -- but no Duff appears on the list, so at least Bardawil wasn't playing favorites when choosing her lead. Duff is still working on being one of the voice talents in the CGI family flick Foodfight! But, along with her debut in War Inc. (a sequel of sorts to Grosse Point Blank with John Cusack) she has already signed to star in Safety Glass, yet another drama that surrounds the Challenger disaster. Aww, our little starlet is finally growing up.

Confession time: I really liked ATL. I thought it was sweet, well-made, and acted with surprising skill by a bunch of people who had very little screen experience. Apart from young Evan Ross (who, by dint of being the spawn of Miss Diana Ross, was surely made for the spotlight), the person who impressed me most was T.I., an Atlanta rapper whose real name is Tip Harris. He was incredibly natural in front of the camera and brought a real vulnerability to his character -- how often can you say that about one of the zillion rappers who is trying to move into acting?

So, it comes as no surprise that T.I. has scored another acting gig, this time in a project he and partner Jason Geter just pitched to New Line. The untitled film will star T.I. as one of the salesmen at an run-down Atlanta used car lot (Comedy? Drama? No idea.), and will be the first made by Grand Hustle, the previously music-oriented production company owned by T.I. and Geter.

Ice Age: The Meltdown demolished the box office competition this weekend, coming in with just over $70 million - a total that gives it the second-biggest non-summer open of all time. While the fact that the film was released on such a massive number of screens (almost 4000, the fifth-highest total ever) certainly contributed to the numbers, the total is nevertheless impressive and, depending on the final totals, could leave it tied with The Incredibles for the-second biggest animation debut. Whew.

Spike Lee's hit Inside Man held onto second place, its total of $15.7 million a dropoff of a not atypical 45% from last week's numbers. Finishing a surprising third was (the awesome) ATL, which made a very respectable $12.5 million on only 1602 screens, the second-lowest exposure of any film in the top ten. The fourth and fifth biggest earners this weekend were the still-strong Failure to Launch ($6.6 million) and V for Vendetta, which drew $6.5 million in its third week of release.

Slither, the weekend's third major debut feature, made a disappointing $3.7 million, despite strong reviews and a very wide open. Lucky for Slither, however, it was released in the same week at Basic Instinct 2, which was such an unmitigated disaster ($3.2 million on about 1500 screens) that no one will ever talk about how badly the movie about the slugs did. The full top 10 is after the jump.

Four big new releases this week, and every last one of them was screened for critics. What is the world coming to? A couple of the movies earned surprisingly good reviews (hooray for ATL!), while one in particular is just as awful as we had hoped/feared/expected. In brief: ATL is surprisingly solid, Slither rocks, Ice Age: The Meltdown has a really funny squirrel in it, and Basic Instinct 2 is a huge, insulting, boring pile of crap. Read on for details.

• ATL: I'm not the only one who noticed with pleasure how gentle - no drinking, no juvenile drug use, hardly any swearing - ATL is. Not only does it not follow the expected Urban Drama path, but a lot of critics actually think it's pretty good. The handful who don't like it are are more "meh" than hateful, and generally acknowledge that the film's slew of debut performances are promising.
  

• Slither: Everyone pretty much agrees with Scott on this one: if you're a horror geek, you'll love it. The rest of us, however, probably shouldn't bother - not because it's bad, but because we're not really equipped to appreciate either the movie's clever gore or its references to the genre's illustrious past. (Or, as Robert Ebert put it, "If the name Troma means nothing to you, what are you doing reading a review of Slither in the first place?")
  

• Basic Instinct 2: Shock of shocks, the movie sucks. Suffering alongside James, few critics were able to wring any pleasure whatsoever out of this one, even in the old reliable "so bad it's good" sort of way. I mean, you know things are bad when a critic calls your Sexy-with-a-capital-S movie "unforgivably dull" (it's amazing how many reviews use the D-word), particularly when that's one of the kinder descriptions offered.
  

• Ice Age: The Meltdown: It's a bad sign when virtually every review (including Kim's, which is really the only one you need to read to know what the film is like) talks in glowing terms about a squirrel doing battle with a nut, a bit that is totally unrelated to the movie's plot and takes up minimal screen time. Very, very bad. That said, there are a few critics who disagree with the disappointed masses and think the film outdoes its predecessor - parents, you may want to limit yourself to these reviews, since you're likely to be seeing the movie 700 times.
  

There is a wonderful, unexpected charm to ATL, a charm that belies its unoriginal story and cliched characters. In the hands of video director Chris Robinson, the film’s well-worn tale of growing up poor and black is given new life through a refreshing youth and an almost irrepressible joy that make the film a pleasure to watch.

ATL is primarily the story of Rashad (played with effortless charisma by Atlanta rapper Tip “T.I.” Harris), a high school senior whose parents were killed in a car accident three years before. Since then, along with his little brother Ant (the impressive Evan Ross), Rashad has lived with his janitor uncle (Mykelti Williamson) and quietly saved money in the hope that, though he expects to work alongside his uncle for the rest of his life, he’ll be able to help Ant get out of Atlanta, and live a better life. Despite his fierce exterior, there’s something fanciful to Rashad, from his meticulous cartoons to his reoccurring fantasies about being alone and free, with no problems and no responsibilities.