“Date”?

TBogg, you so funny.

Yep, I’d “Taggart” the actress in movie too.

However, from the looks of most of the real-life Randian women I’ve seen—little cbear would go Galt before I even got him close enough to lay down some track.

And, if my little guy ever got a look at the original Ayn Rand I probably wouldn’t see him for a month.

“…I will ask for volunteers… to ride my train”

DO. NOT. WANT.

Train wreck.

Even the reviewer for the libertarian Reason Magazine hated the movie. Reason‘s editors, however, felt the need to add a note after the review with some desperate fluffing by the mag’s top brass.

The Reason review inadvertently gets to the point: the reviewer describes the movie as a “labor of love.” Except according to the Randian babble, it should only have been made for profit. (Which brings up one of the many conundra of Rand’s crap: why would anyone ever write a novel, or tell a story, or paint a picture, or sing a song?)

I’m a bit confused by the failure of this project. From the Reason review:

He quickly hired Brian Patrick O’Toole, a writer of low-budget horror films, to work with him on the script, and an actor, Paul Johannson (of TV’s One Tree Hill) to direct. He also managed to sign some seasoned professionals for the cast: Graham Beckel (Brokeback Mountain) in the role of oil magnate Ellis Wyatt; Edi Gathegi (from the Twilight movies)

So the talent behind the film is a B grade stew of serial killing, adolescent soap operas, horny pre-pubescent vampires and sheep herders. Sounds like the perfect recipe to bring the true nature of the book to life. Though, as most things libertarian, I’m sure entirely unintended.

Wasn’t Kurt Loder the MTV news guy back in the 80s? Oops, I just dated myself. Funny how Mr. Loder enjoyed Sucker Punch while trashing the hapless Atlas.

Kurt, come out of the dark side!

The film was obviously a labor of love for producer John Aglialoro…last year, with his option running out, Aglialoro decided he had no choice but to make the movie himself. He quickly hired Brian Patrick O’Toole, a writer of low-budget horror films, to work with him on the script, and an actor, Paul Johannson (of TV’s One Tree Hill) to direct….Unfortunately, Aglialoro then cast a pair of TV actors in the key roles of Dagny and Rearden.

Of course he did. What the Reason reviewer fails to understand is that this is perfectly in keeping with Randian disdain for skill, tradition, collective wisdom, and is typical of someone who’s been allowed to rake in a ton of money thinking that this means he’s a genius who’s good at everything else.

Unlike most independent movies which involve someone who’s in love with filmmaking and often good at it but outside the Hollywood system (well or it used to anyway, now it’s just sort of another Hollywood movie style but oh well) this is more similar to Ross Perot thinking that since he exploited being creepy to his employees enough for decades to make billions then he’d be just as good at things like picking a Vice Presidential running mate, except the one he chose turned his hearing aid off on purpose and nearly wandered off the stage during his first prime time nationally-televised debate.

In other words it’s no accident, “Reason” reviewer, that this was a major fail. It’s a great example of what’s wrong with the adolescent philosophy that you peddle for a living.

The rest of them at the magazine will probably lose this review fast, judging by the note at the end, since in many ways the movie sounds like it’s a refutation of Objectivism itself, and the reviewer as much as admits it.

One question, where are the Ayn Rand public union volunteers?

Well, lessee…up to a rollicking 7% on Rotten Tomatoes…Ebert absolutely trashes it: “There is also a love scene, which is shown not merely from the waist up but from the ears up. The man keeps his shirt on. This may be disappointing for libertarians, who I believe enjoy rumpy-pumpy as much as anyone.” Oh, this is going to be good! I was throwing up a little in my mouth this morning, listening to NPR relating how well-received the film was…at a screening at the Heritage Foundation. Yeah, a real unbiased audience there…not.

listening to NPR….. a real unbiased audience broadcasting company there…not.

The “Nice Polite Republicans” nickname is well-earned.

I keep thinking about how implausible the basic premise of the movie and book are. The basic McGuffin is that a character invents a metal which is an incredible awesome replacement for steel and they start using it fir railroad tracks. But railroad tracks are a pretty undemanding application and steel is already pretty optimal, and cheap as hell. There’s no way to make money off replacing it with another metal!

Now, it might be possible to come up a better metal for making bridges and other structures, but in the movie, they don’t even have engineers to validate and/or test the structure. Some galtian genius just fuching erects the structure and dares idiots to risk their liives by running trains on it. None of this shit is ever going to be remotely close to happening in a real world.

I know part of science fiction is suspension of disbelief, but the author needs to motivate it somehow, and also reward the reader for their sacrifice. Fail on both accounts for Rand and the filmmakers.

I have an online personal ad up that states that I think libertarians are ridiculous and not to be trusted. One of my matches on this site, with a very high score, stated that his favorite author was Ayn Rand. I checked his profile when I got the match, saw this, and decided to just move on.

He, on the other hand, kept looking at my profile (the site lets you see who’s been checking you out). It was as if he were trying to search my profile for something that he could use to talk me out of the libertarian thing. He keeps popping up occasionally, but never actually contacts me.

I keep hoping he will, so I can firmly dash his little objectivist hopes.

The only Libertarians i trust are Penn and Teller. And I only trust them to give me a good magic show.

Atlas Shrugged is that rarity, a 1,000 page comic book with no art. PLUS, a pre-rigged display of special pleading and deck-stacking, in which science fiction inventions play central roles in a book that openly and repeatedly announces that it deals with “reality.”

I knew the movie would be ludicrous, but it only dawned on me two days ago that it will strike (n.p.i.) those who haven’t read the book as INCOMPREHENSIBLE. Talk about a cult: this is what it’s like when Scientologists who have made their peace with the Xenu “myth” find themselves out in the real world, surrounded by normal people all saying, “Wait–you believe WHAT?”

The movie of A.S. literally makes no sense unless you’ve read the book. (Or so I assume. I haven’t seen it yet.) And the book literally makes no sense as a depiction of the real world, which it continually and proudly proclaims itself to be.

Looking at pictures of Taylor Schilling gives me a Reard-on!

First we must determine if our intelligence levels are equally ginormous enough to mean that we should even be together.
Then we can play with trains.

In my re-write, the main characters are Rank Hardon and Tagme Bagger.

From the Ayn Rand Institute FAQ:

Q. How do you pronounce “Ayn”?

A. “Ayn” rhymes with “mine.”

Reason‘s editors, however, felt the need to add a note after the review with some desperate fluffing by the mag’s top brass.

The oh-so-obvious, but nonetheless feeble “fluffing” by the editors after the mildly critical review is really a hoot.

Yeah, as if big gubmint bureaucracy could ever have gotten us to the moon.

Oh, wait. Never mind

I wanted to download Atlas Shrugged-The Movie’s soundtrack from iTunes, but high demand for classic ’50′s porn-background loops has crashed the server farm (apparently cheap, antibiotic-resistant, servers mass produced by multinational-corporate-owned farms are to blame)….

The Market said it would happify the issue……..

Ah, what a relief. Always wondered./s

Actually, this afternoon in a used bookstore heard a young woman ask about A.S. by Ayn (rhymes w/ mine) Rand, and get corrected to “Ann.”

The best part? “I really don’t want to read this book, I totally disagree with all the philosphy but I have to …” and couldn’t hear the rest. I was tempted to ask her why she had to read it, but decided just to enjoy the fact that some young people are smart enough to see through the Rand crap.

The picture is priceless.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Best laugh in several days. I needed that.

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Ayn Rand walk into a bar…

The bartender says, “get the fuck outta here.”

*rimshot*

Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Ayn Rand walk into a bar…

This bar?

They might as well have called this turd “Atlas Sucked.”

Everyone else will.

bland as water

In a rightard production they’d consider that a virtue.
I’d expect the whole movie to be blander than nursing home food.

And, fittingly, Ferengis! (Armin Shimeran is in it too.)

datacine wins the thread