Release Date: April 6, 2012
MPAA Rating: R
Director: David Brooks
Film Pulse Score: 5/10
ATM, David Brooks’ first feature, has everything that a first feature should have. One moderately big name actor, a moderate budget, and a storyline that is “cute” as a first attempt. ATM brings Nickelodeon’s own Josh Peck further into the adult acting world (not XXX) and shows that with a little bit more practice, Brooks might be able to make a name for himself.
The film starts off cross cutting someone’s hands drawing on blueprints of the aforementioned ATM and our protagonist, David, played by Brian Geraghty, walking to work. As he continues his walk there is a different timeline (the ‘future’ for our active audiences) being spliced together as well. It has some remnants of Se7en itching to get out and the campy Christmas music doesn’t help it one bit. As the intro fades out and we see that David is a young, not very successful stockbroker of some sorts, we are introduced quickly to Josh Peck’s Corey, a cocky, shallow coworker that seems like fun.
After being coerced into sticking around for a Christmas party in the office, David eventually asks Emily, played by Alice Eve, if he can drive her home. Corey, much to my lack of surprise, decides to join. The movie then turns into what I like to call a ‘bottle movie’, where the rest of the movie, due to lack in budget and/or creativity stay in one location (see Abed from Community talking about bottle episodes and you’ll understand). David, Corey, and Emily are then terrorized by a hooded psychopath who is deciding to try to freeze them in an ATM in the height of the winter.
The lack of knowing that the characters demonstrate of why they are being terrorized mirrors the quality that Saw made so famous and it serves as a point of thought for the audience to dwell on and an argument for the characters to have throughout the night. The scares and thrills however, are no more than cheap Halloween-esque scares, loud noises, the hooded man coming from a corner, and some excess blood that they wanted so desperately to garner their R rating.
The ending, for me, was extremely disappointing and I won’t spoil it for you (god do I hate spoilers) but it was a cop-out for everyone in not digging deeper into the material they had. They could’ve gone in a certain direction and make up for the weak moments in the rest of the film but they chose to take an easy way out. Very disappointing indeed.
I think in order to truly enjoy this movie, you should watch it by yourself, at night, and don’t think too much about what you’re watching. If you give it too much thought, this movie will not take you by surprise and you will be severely disappointed.
