ATM (2012) Brian Geraghty, Alice Eve, Josh Peck, Mike O'Brian, Robert Huculak Movie Review

ATM (2012)   2/52/52/52/52/5


Josh Peck, Alice Eve and Brian Geraghty in ATM (2012)

Overdrawn

It's the works Christmas party and it coincides with Emily's (Alice Eve) leaving do which means it is David's (Brian Geraghty) last chance to grow a pair and ask her out, or at least that is how his best friend Corey (Josh Peck) would put it. When David offers to dry Emily home Corey ends up tagging along and as he won't shut up about getting a bite to eat they stop off at the nearest ATM to get some cash. But it is in small cash booth that they find themselves trapped in the freezing conditions by a mysterious stranger.

Maybe "ATM" works in America where you possibly find these booths in remote, poorly lit areas but where I live in the UK I have never come across one, just the standard holes in the wall where you just make sure no one is standing watching you put in your pin number. Then again maybe "ATM" ends up the utterly disappointing movie for those in America as it is for me.

The trouble starts with the characters as we have David being a bit of a sad sack, Corey being the annoying friend and Emily being not much at all. You have absolutely zero feelings for any of these characters and as such when they end up trapped, shivering due to the dropping temperatures part of you thinks just blow the booth up so this movie can be over sooner rather than later. And as for the whole hooded mystery man whose face we never see, well yes there is the mystery of who he is and why he is doing this but you quickly don't car.

But then it all starts to get far fetched as we have attempts to run for it, urban legends about pin codes used in reverse to alert security and a whole lot of other nonsense. Of course these elements, far fetched ideas and twists are there to make it exciting but in truth they rarely do. At best these elements do bring out a bit of the psychological nature as we see how these 3 people turn on each other but this isn't that great to be honest.

What this all boils down to is that maybe on paper "ATM" was a good idea which explored more the psychological nature of being tapped in an isolated booth in the dead of a freezing night. But the end product is a dull procession of the increasing contrived series of dramas.


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