Netflix A-Z: ATM (2012)

A new segment…well, kind of.  I don’t know if you have a little problem like me.  I have Netflix and it takes me probably more time deciding on what to watch than actually watching it.  So this is a little merge of what I used to do when I needed to be economical and stop buying movies with my DVD collection.  I’d set a goal to watch as many movies as I can in alphabetical order.   Now, we’re going to try this out with Netflix.  Instead of doing all As then Bs then Cs (etc.) , I’m going to choose one movie per alphabet from A-Z.  It limits my choices and it’ll empty out a little of My List (which will be primarily where I choose movies) unless its an obscure letter like X. Here we have it: Netflix A-Z! I already have two rounds of the alphabet chosen so unless the movie expires between the time I drafted it and get to it, we should be all set!

Ready? Let’s go!

ATM (2012)

Director: David Brooks

Cast: Brian Geraghty, Alice Eve, Josh Peck

Three co-workers, David (Brian Geraghty), Emily (Alice Eve) and Corey (Josh Peck) leave a office Christmas party.  On the way home, Corey wants to go pick up some dinner but without cash at the late hour, they decide to stop at the ATM. There, they get trapped inside the secluded ATM building fighting to survive as a mysterious masked man watches them and prevents their escape.

 I like these secluded, mostly one set piece sort of movies. I liked Phonebooth and Buried a good bit.  Those were intense and engaging.  What makes these things work is a good story.  There are secrets, and there seems to be a point of why some person would do that. Some guy in their big winter jacket standing at the door while you stand in an ATM machine place doesn’t exactly do that.  Not to mention ATM is pretty much pointless.  I get at the end that this is just a serial killer or a lunatic who gets off on planning these intricate secluded places to trap and mess with their victims.  [in an after thought, spoiler alert]You know, let them and their personality and their distress make them do stupid mistakes and cause their own misery in the end.  Yay, danger in our messed up world.  I already knew about that.  You didn’t?

I’m sorry if this sounds like a rant.  ATM truly felt like a waste of time.  I watched it in two halves and during the first half, I eventually walked in and out of the room while brushing my teeth, packing my stuff, tidying up my desk at home.  The deal is, forget about the crappy story, just forget about that.  It was really predictable. Like you pull out your car keys in a transparent cube in front of a dude observing you and Mr. Lunatic goes to the car and does something.  What could that be? Of course its to destroy the wires so you can’t start the damn thing if you happen to try and make and escape.  But nope, they give that a shot right after.  *shakes head*  That’s just the beginning.  Because these three are so stupid.  I can’t even describe how these characters lack common sense.

I guess now that we’re there, we can talk about these characters.  Other than Alice Eve, who I saw in Star Trek.  Remember that scene that everyone was talking about?

We’ll start there.  Keep in mind, no one in this is good.  Alice Eve’s character, Emily was a little awkward and weird. For a moment, I wondered if she was in on this crazy thing.  Then I quickly realized that this movie is not that movie. Its just not…sadly. We also have the two guys.  One of them, Corey (played by Josh Peck) is ridiculously annoying. Like I wanted the Mr. Lunatic dude to just off him, somehow.  Just stop him from talking, whining, whatever you want to call it.  I guess the main guy, David, is supposed to be the guy we root for. Except he’s kind of a coward and not really sure how to stand up for himself.  He has this hidden aggressive side or whatever but I didn’t really care for his character even if he might have had the most character development.  These characters had no story, no reason to be there.  It was just really bad luck that they ended up in that particular ATM.

I’m about to end this review because that’s enough ranting for one post but has anyone seen an ATM placed in such a location? Is that how ATMs in the USA works? I haven’t seen one in such a secluded parking lot, set aside from everything else before.  For me, I just couldn’t believe that portion to start with so the movie was destined to go downhill from there.

Overall, ATM is a really bad movie.  There was no story.  The characters were unengaging and even slightly annoying and to top it all off, so extremely stupid.  The bad guy feels a little pointless and while he may be aggressive and pretty much a serial killer, he just didn’t seem to have a lot going for him.  Nothing here screams thriller because I definitely didn’t think about it when it ended except maybe the joy that the credits were rolling but then there were cut scenes in between and the end.  I’m not sure how many people will stay to finish this movie till the end credits finished rolling although there wasn’t much to miss.

In the afterthought, this would have made a fantastic Shitfest post.  Probably should have saved it up but fair is fair, with this first review done. Netflix A-Z is officially launched! Can you guess what movie I’ll choose for B (if you do, you are amazing)?

Have you seen ATM? What do you think of movies using mainly one location?