ATL

A story about young people struggling to overcome the darker side of the neighborhood. Rashad Swann (Tip Harris) comes of age and takes responsibility for himself and his brother Antwone (Ross) to move toward getting out of the hood. Rashad meets a great girl named New New (London) with a secret that almost costs them their relationship. Antwone gets involved in dealing and suffers from a boss that isn't very understanding. Rashad and his skating buddies spend their time at the Cascade roller rink competing in skating events in preparation for the annual skating tournament that they've won several times. The main characters are all pretty likable and the dialog was a good compromise between reality and prime time TV. They even had an old timer speaking some Jive. You won't find an abundance of emotion from the righteous characters, but it is well worth seeing. Even with all the daily troubles, it doesn't leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

I just got back from an advance screening of ATL--the movie that cannot be marketed as a roller skating flick because Roll Bounce "didn't make money."

OK, so I guess that's a major spoiler in Warner Brother's eyes. But I think it's kinda cool to see a PG-13 movie set in current times that shows young men and women battling with the process of growing up. If you've seen lots of movies like me, you'll know where ATL borrows it's cues from--the friendships of Juice, the house party from House Party, the fat girl from Cooley High a dash of Purple Rain the broad tapestry of Last Picture Show or American Graffiti and the swagger of Saturday Night Fever. It also owes a lot to John Hughes' early work. That being said, director Chris Robinson, in his feature debut, delivers strong visuals and an excellent soundtrack/score that constantly reminds you that these are real places, people and problems. He gets excellent performances from his cast--a mix of veteran actors and musicians in their film debuts.

The big plot twist in the story (which I won't give away) raises a very interesting question that the movie with as broad a scope as ATL has no way to answer--do these young girls project a "grown-up" attitude because it's fashionable or is it the only way to find love and attention from these young boys who are, in their own way, desperately in search of their own manhood without the guidance of true role models? ATL tels a very familiar story but with interesting hues and nuances that defy the typical "hood" flick. I encourage you to check it out in theaters.

Who's here after watching The Righteous Gemstones?

Wow - this is a surprise. Watch it because it's proof that a lot of IMDBers are really full of crap pawns that care more about peoples' opinions of their opinions than they do about whether or not the movie is actually any good. Stupid sheep. This was very emotional, GREAT characterization, awesome photography, and extremely convincing dialogues. I'm from the ATL, trust me this is pretty accurate. This flick really does a fabulous job portraying what some folks struggle with overcoming stereotypes, growing up, and finding their place in their world. If you appreciate an honest review then go see this sucker - otherwise you probably didn't even read this far.

I really liked this movie. I didn't expect it to be very good because none of the actors are A-list actors and there are several characters played by rappers, including T.I.'s debut as the lead character Rashad. I'm not saying rappers don't act well because some of the best actors are also rappers, such as Ice Cube, LL Cool J, and Tupac. But, it just seems like these days a lot of rappers who can not act are trying to anyway. But, my point is that T.I. and Big Boi are really good in this film. I wasn't even thinking of them as being rappers trying to act in this movie because they just seemed like the characters that they were playing.

I enjoyed the whole movie and was entertained from start to end. It was even quite touching and emotional for those of you like that kind of thing. It was fun and had a great soundtrack too. I would highly recommend checking this one out. In fact, I just saw it yesterday and I'm going to go buy the DVD for my collection. It's one of the best movies I've seen in a while.