ATL roller-skating dance party

March 18, 2006 1:26 PM

In the roller-skating comedy-musical ATL, rapper T I channels Olivia Newton-John, strapping on the skates and shaking it in an 80's styled roller-rink. Directed by noted video director Chris Robinson and with a screenplay by Tina Chism (Drumline), the self-appointed King of the South shakes his felon image and plays a teenager who leads a skate crew in this coming-of-age saga set in Atlanta. This closes the circle started by the teeny-bopper band Sugar Hill Gang with "Rapper's Delight" in 1979.
posted by mischief (18 comments total)

Didn't they already make this movie?
posted by TunnelArmr at 1:32 PM on March 18, 2006

This is You Got Served on wheels, right?
posted by mathowie at 1:35 PM on March 18, 2006

Uh... what?
posted by maxreax at 1:45 PM on March 18, 2006

Yes, but what you're forgetting, TunnelArmr, is that we can't have too many roller-disco movies. I had much higher hopes for "Roll Bounce" in terms of sales -- truly expected it to crack at least $50M, but it grossed only half of that.
posted by davidmsc at 2:27 PM on March 18, 2006

Wow, at first I thought you were talking about some trailer mashup or something.

All the previews I've seen for this trade almost exclusively on TI's whole street bangin' persona. There is no indication whatsoever that anyone is going to be doing any skating, just a hood-based drama with TI and Big Boi. Interesting! If he's truly "shaking his felon image" here, they're certainly not selling it that way. Oh well, I don't know him.
posted by First Post at 2:32 PM on March 18, 2006

"they're certainly not selling it that way"

I know. heheh Note also that two of the producers are T-Boz and Will Smith.
posted by mischief at 2:49 PM on March 18, 2006

In the roller-skating comedy-musical ATL,

Really? Cause i didn't get that at all.
posted by quin at 3:40 PM on March 18, 2006

The original title was Jelly Beans; Untitled Rollerskating Comedy Project.
posted by mischief at 3:53 PM on March 18, 2006

Wouldn't take much to beat Starlight Express...
*shudder*
posted by disillusioned at 3:57 PM on March 18, 2006

I too saw a trailer and there was no hint that any portion would contain funny.
posted by damehex at 5:21 PM on March 18, 2006

The Thuggin' Edge.
posted by VulcanMike at 6:10 PM on March 18, 2006

This doesn't really look like another roller-skating movie – It actually looks like a pretty good gangster movie.

Reminded me a little bit of Fresh, one of my favorite movies.
posted by blasdelf at 7:50 PM on March 18, 2006

I'd also have to take exception to the characterization of Sugar Hill as a "teeny bopper band".

Wondermike, Big Bank Hank, and Mastergee were poets ushering in a new era of musical creativity, over a bumpin' Chic riff.
posted by First Post at 8:31 PM on March 18, 2006

Probably explains the record covers and all the middle school girls dancing with themselves on the gym floor. heheh

I know they are marketing it as a gangsta movie, but when I started digging into its production, a whole different movie surfaced. Read the last half of the Production Notes from the official site.
posted by mischief at 5:32 AM on March 19, 2006

Sugar Hill had never met before the day they recorded Rapper's Delight. Jus' sayin'.
posted by jmgorman at 6:35 AM on March 19, 2006

Oh, note as well the rating: PG-13. Can't say muthafucka too many times to get that, and what's a gangsta who can't say muthafucka?
posted by mischief at 6:37 AM on March 19, 2006

True, jmgorman, they were amateurs put together with some decent musicians to make a novelty record so their record company could try to cash in on a new underground movement. It worked and the largest demographic that put rap's first hit on the charts was white high school girls.

Tiger beat, not gangsta beat.
posted by mischief at 6:45 AM on March 19, 2006

"Rubberband-man / Wild as the Taliban / 9 in mah right / 45 in my other hand..."

This is going to do wonders for TI's street cred, ya heard?
posted by SweetJesus at 4:19 PM on March 20, 2006