Terrible - ATL

The hosts of a show discuss the movie ATL and why it is popular among their generation. They talk about how the movie resonated with them during their high school and college years. They also discuss some of the inconsistencies and unrealistic aspects of the movie. They praise Big Boy's performance and suggest that he should have had more scenes. They criticize some of the other characters and their actions. They mention the lack of authentic Atlanta accents in the movie and comment on Lauren London's casting based on her looks rather than her acting skills. And we're back, right here on the Unemployment Line, Doc and Larry P. talking about terrible classics, ATL, and in the next segment, we will let you know if this movie is terrible or a classic. But, I feel like we were fairly hard on the movie in critical to start the show, which may have a few of our listeners already ready to argue back with us, as they typically do when we do a terrible classic, but I want to start with this instead. Why do people like this movie so much? What is the appeal of ATL? So, as you said, this movie came out, and like I said, this movie is on a pedestal with our generation. You know, you don't hear our parents saying, oh, ATL, y'all seen that? But our generation put this movie on the pedestal, and I think the reason why, as you said, this came out early, freshman year of college, my senior year of high school. So, I think at that time, we could all relate to this movie. You know, we all had that one friend that had the car, or we had that one girl at the other school that, you know, we really didn't know where she stayed, but we knew, you know, we saw her at a party. We were like, I want to holler. You know, I think none of it made sense because it didn't make sense to us then. As adults looking back at ATL, we're like, yeah, none of this makes sense. So, things not making sense. One of the most dramatic and serious acting scenes from T.I., not in the latter half of the movie, like him being upset about things making a little bit more sense, but there's a scene where they're practicing for the little skating thing at Cascade, and they're skating, and they all trip and fall over one another, and it's like, there's only one rule. You never fall. You never fall. And then you can see T.I. sitting there with the most serious look of all time on his face and disappointment because they fell and tripped over each other at Cascade. Why is this the most serious thing in your life as a high school senior? I don't know, but as a high school senior, that made a lot more sense to me. I was like, yeah, man, I'd be sitting there in serious business, man. Can't trip and fall over skating, right? You know what's terrible about this movie? As you become an adult, this movie makes less sense. You know what movie does make more sense? Roll Bounce. Roll Bounce makes more sense than ATL because Roll Bounce is actually little kids going. These are damn near adults, like, taking skating serious. Well, I mean, Teddy's 21, allegedly. Yeah. A 21-year-old high school student. And he got a job. He got a job. Really? He got a whole job. Brooklyn has a job, too. He keep getting fired. But he's getting more jobs. Yeah. These are grown men. Esquire is about to go to an Ivy League college. And this man is spending his time not working on his portfolio or spending time working on preparing to go over to travel to college. This man is focusing his energy on how to skate better. And, yeah, I think even back then when I watched this movie, that was, like, one of the biggest gripes. I mean, I like the movie ATL, but seriously, yo, taking the skating thing too, too, too serious. So I want to focus some more on the positives, though. OK. Let's go ahead. I'm going to talk about the one reason why I'm struggling with putting this movie in the terrible category. Because of Big Boy. He's the MVP of the whole movie. Big Boy the best thing in this movie. If they would have took some other people's scenes and gave Big Boy more scenes. Yeah. I want to know more about Big Boy, his daily interactions, his life, his story. I want a spinoff or a sequel that only focuses on him. Everybody's inside the skating rink skating. Big Boy's outside beating up people. Just, just, just. And telling stories. Yeah. Outside telling stories. Just beating people up. Like, hey, brother, like, y'all do all that skating stuff. Like, this, this, this, this the real life out here. There are so many, like, every, every scene that he's in. He should have got nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Like, every scene that he is in is like, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, y'all be quiet. Big Boy's on the screen. Right. This is good. He slapped me in the face with money. That's very disrespectful. There's one, uh, he outside beating up his buddy up at the skating rink. Boy, don't you know I graduated with a 3.6. All right. I'm caught. And then the whole scene of, um, him picking up Ant, standing outside of the school, taking him over, having to feed the dog, and telling him that it's grown man. This is, it's the most important, it's the most compelling thing in the entire film. Yeah. Now, Big Boy, Big Boy is definitely the, um, the MVP. Also, Teddy. Teddy? Teddy. I was like, so, Big Boy is the MVP. Teddy is, Teddy is, uh, is J.R. Smith in this movie. Like, he, he coming in off the bench, every time he coming in, he coming in hot. Yeah. Like, from the moment, from the fact that T.I. is clearly talking to Nunu, and Teddy keeps trying to holler at Nunu in his face the whole movie. I was like, oh, this is, this is hilarious. Yeah. But yeah, Teddy, Teddy is the J.R. Smith. Brooklyn is, um, Tristan Thompson. Yeah. We could have done, we could have done with Les Brooklyn. We could have did Les Brooklyn. Like, his only, like, good scene, really, is when he gets fired from the pizza place and tries to act like he quit, and old buddy came up behind him. Like, you need to go, right? Yeah. No. Yeah, and I don't understand why he had that cast on his arm the whole time, and was trying to, like, scratch underneath. And then he get up for the skating battle. Yeah. Um, Esquire is, he's a necessary character, but I don't understand his, his character art. Like, he just comes across like a hater. The whole movie. He's just a hater. Yeah, like, when you, when you watch Esquire in the movie, like, you, you kind of question yourself, like, why are you hanging with them, Esquire? Like, why? Like, you, I, I, you probably feel that you could do better than them. You probably feel that you are better than them. Mm-hmm. You probably are going to be better off than them. But you know you're not better than them, because that's your ride. Right. Like, man, you know, I, you know, I'm, you know, but, you know, at the same time, that is my ride. Yeah, like, it's like, why are you with them, Esquire? You could probably find better friends. Now, why is it that, I know why, but, like, you couldn't just hang out with people at your school? Yeah. Like, it's like, well, you know, I need to go to school over here, but, you know, I'm still over here in the hood. Like, that makes sense. That'll make sense to me. He could have definitely been hanging out with, like, whatever guys, because he definitely was running with the people on campus at the end of the movie. Uncle, Uncle George. Anybody could have been Uncle George. I feel like they could have better cast Uncle George. And I think they probably did attempt to, but they didn't have it in the budget. Here's my recasting moment. If Uncle George is Don D.C. Curry from Next Friday and Friday After Next. Mm. Much better film. It's like, basically, they got a cheaper version of him, but that's what they needed. That's probably what they were thinking in their heads when they wrote the character. And you have a stand-off between Uncle George and Nunu Daddy? Ooh! Now you're talking! Yeah. Now, Nunu Daddy didn't get enough seats. He needed more seats, too. You know my favorite scene from Nunu Daddy? When they're in the house and Nunu's talking back to him, and he says, what? Why am I explaining myself to you? Like, that was like the classic moment. Like, why am I explaining myself to a little child? Take yourself upstairs. Come on, girl. Nunu was good, but I need us to talk about something very important. Now, Larry, you lived in the Atlanta before. Mm-hmm. What were your thoughts on the accent? The voice. You know what? I don't think there really wasn't a lot of Atlanta accents in there. I don't know what accents they were attempting. Yeah, there wasn't really a lot of Atlanta. Like, really, if you go there, you may have an Atlanta accent. You may have just like a lot of just regular versions of talking people like myself. But if you go there, you may have an Atlanta accent. But, like, if you really want to imitate an Atlanta accent, they all kind of have the same dialect. Like, the way T.I. talks, that's your Atlanta accent. But T.I. was just talking like T.I. Exactly. And that's your Atlanta accent. Like, if you really get down there and listen to Atlanta people talk, you'll be like, oh, he sounds like T.I. Oh, he sounds like him. Oh, he sounds like him. It's just like the words. It's not more so the accent. It's just the way the words are said or how quickly. It's just the way the words are said or how quickly they're spoken and whatnot. You know, it's really like the, I don't know how to explain it. The way Lauren London was attempting to speak in this movie, I didn't understand what she was going for. I think many, many people, and I can speak for myself, you just more so cared about what she looked like versus what she sounded like. Like, Lauren London came on the scene and they were like, dang, she's fire. What happened to her career? Like, what went wrong? I mean, she fell in love. No, no, no, no. She's been in other movies. It's just, I cannot name you a movie that I'm like. This Christmas. Is she good at This Christmas? I mean, she's Lauren London. Lauren London was casted as Lauren London. I don't think Lauren London was ever casted because of her acting skills. You know, like, she's just casted because of the way she looked. Correct. Because I think everybody's like, ooh, look at Lauren London. And I think all, like, when she hits the screen, you know, everything stops and everybody just like pays attention to her beauty. They don't really care about what she's saying. I can't quote you any Lauren London lines other than, give me back my candy. That's about all I got for you. Well, now that we're there. Let's just go ahead and get there. We're going to get there eventually. Why he passed that girl's chain off her neck like that? I know, right? Like, what is he going to do with that chain? Like, I feel like in that scene, in that scene. Let's talk about this. We need to just go into that scene. What was this character's name? Rashad, right? Rashad. Rashad needed therapy. Well, that's obvious. His parents had died in a car crash like three years prior to this. And he was constant. Rashad had a very controlling, but like in that scene, Rashad, like, I think, he, whatever hurt he had in his life and pushed it through Rashad. Because in that moment, Rashad was just doing some reckless stuff, like snatching Nunu's chain off. He didn't have to do that. But we know it's going to hurt her. I'm going to snatch her chain off. You know what I'm going to tell Esquire? I don't want to kick it with you, chill with you, hang with you, skate with you. Like, did you have to do the skate with your part, bro? Like, that hurt to the core. Like, I felt that one. That was like, damn. You don't even want to skate with us. I said, damn, you didn't even have to do the skate with your part. Like, that, he went through his whole life. And like, I want to make it clear of everything that I do not want to do with you. And don't forget about skating. In his head, he was like running through everything that he could say to hurt everybody. Chill. Don't forget about skating. Don't do that with me. He didn't go on the porch. Bust a move, partner. You just got mad at everybody. As soon as he saw that car, he got mad at everything. It just triggered everything. Like I said, I don't know where T.I. pulled all that anger from. But he pushed it through Rashad. And that's when you realize Rashad needs therapy. And here's where it starts. Because he was holding into that mad pull. Wow. Right. Because her daddy pulls up, snatches her up off the skating rink. He slowly skates out the door. Which, if you know skating rink etiquette, security is not about to let you do it. Correct. You are not about to just skate out the door. He just slid out the door real smooth. Slid out the door real smooth. It doesn't say nothing. Just sadly watches her daddy put her in the car and drive away. And this is like the next day or something that they're sitting on the porch. This man has been sitting here thinking about this for a while. I've been spewing on that. Just spewing. Why you been saying that to your friends the whole time? Did you not tell them, I'm kind of sad about Nunu getting snatched by her daddy. Or I'm a little disappointed that she's not who I thought she was. You ain't going to talk about this? That's why I told them. So, I'll say this. Nunu tried to tell her. He cut her off. And Nunu had threatened Esquire. And Esquire was thinking about the long term plans. Do I really want to jeopardize my future because my homeboy's mad that his old lady lives on the other side of town. But he didn't know. So this is the question though. But this is the question. When he found out, she looked at him and said, I'll tell my daddy when you grow up. It was like, true. I guess I ain't going to say nothing. But then does your friendship. Because I mean as an adult. Opportunities. Opportunities. Opportunities will come. He's talking about a college scholarship and you're a high school senior. I mean he probably still had to come out of his pocket for some. I mean but if somebody come to you and tell you, listen. Hey, you can be on a full ride or you can be cool with Rashad. I mean I made other friends at college. That's messed up. How many people you still talk to on a regular basis that you were cool with in high school? So if it was you it was six. That's different. No it's not. That's different. They was friends. That's different. They was best friends. That's different. No it's not. He would understand. I think you probably right. He would understand. He would understand. Yeah you know I get it bro. So now T.I. is in the wrong. I think that's right. Which is why I think that you know they ended up being that cool that day. He realized he was wrong. Now that also speaks to my other grievance with this movie is the entire way that it ends. This movie just like puts a bold happy ending on all of this as if T.I. and Big Boy were not involved. And Fist of Cups that also involved a gun. What happened? When we come back. We decide this movie is terrible at classics. It's honestly.