Another Movie Thread - Because We Love Them So

[Jim]

This friday @ 4pm I will see: Atlas Shrugged the movie!

Wow! Jim! I hope you will share your impressions. Thank you for the Link, and thanks too, Kan. I watched the trailer. I simply cannot imagine how that film can work and I am amazed that after how-many-years it's finally been made. And it's interesting that the producers chose to put it into the current time.

So Jim, bright and early on Saturday, please make your debut as a film critic?

Hi,

How about a Monday evening review, I just checked ticket availability @ Movietickets,com 6:30 & 8:50pm are sold out. My 4pm is till good but that is a bit far to travel to find it sold out when I get there.

Here is a List of theaters by state that the Movie will play at to date, mostly Art Movie theaters: ATLAS SHRUGGED

Who is John Galt?

[Sabra]

How about a Monday evening review, I just checked ticket availability @ Movietickets,com 6:30 & 8:50pm are sold out. My 4pm is till good but that is a bit far to travel to find it sold out when I get there.

Here is a List of theaters by state that the Movie will play at to date, mostly Art Movie theaters: ATLAS SHRUGGED

Who is John Galt?

Work for me!!!! Thanks Jim.

[LavCat]

What has pleasantly surprised you lately?

My new chair came so tonight I watched Erik the Viking. Most enjoyable.

[Sabra]

What has pleasantly surprised you lately?

My new chair came so tonight I watched Erik the Viking. Most enjoyable.

Which pleasantly surprised you? The film or the chair?

[LavCat]

What has pleasantly surprised you lately?

My new chair came so tonight I watched Erik the Viking. Most enjoyable.

Which pleasantly surprised you? The film or the chair?

Both.

Police Academy is next on my list. I have seen that one before, though only on film, not DVD.

[mspixieriot]

I just saw Erik The Viking for the first time last week, no idea how I'd missed it until now.

It was really fun from start to finish, with some clever one-liners and brilliant Terry Jones moments.

[Jim]

Hi,

Looking foward to the move.

[--Pete]

Hi,

I just saw Erik The Viking for the first time last week, no idea how I'd missed it until now.

It was really fun from start to finish, with some clever one-liners and brilliant Terry Jones moments.

Thanks -- it never hit my radar and looks to be good. Got it cued on my Netflix stream.

--Pete

[mspixieriot]

Pete - Netflix is exactly how I found it! I'd been watching a lot of Fry and Laurie, Ripping Yarns, Michael Palin travelogues, etc, and it jumped up and said, "Hey, you should watch Erik the Viking!"

It's not always right in its recommendations, but 99% of the time it points me to stuff I really, really like.

[LavCat]

Pete - Netflix is exactly how I found it! I'd been watching a lot of Fry and Laurie, Ripping Yarns, Michael Palin travelogues, etc, and it jumped up and said, "Hey, you should watch Erik the Viking!"

It's not always right in its recommendations, but 99% of the time it points me to stuff I really, really like.

I found out about Erik from a patron at the library where I work. It had her recommendation so I checked it out myself. I mentioned this to our DVD person and she told me our copy was a donation. Normally we sell most books and movies that are given to us, but she had taken Erik to her boss to ask if we could add it to our collection. Her boss said Erik was her favorite movie.

[Jim]

This one is about "I Expected to Loathe This Film, But It Was Great."

I finally watched "Avatar" and really liked it a lot. I was expecting another overly long, self-indulgent James Cameron "tour de force," and was pleasantly surprised.

What has pleasantly surprised you lately?

Hi,

I watched Erick the Great & I expected to Loathe this film.....

And I just about did I laughed at most 3 times. I saw this on cable long ago, I stopped watching it @ the 10 minute mark when Mickey Rooney sits with Erick.

Why didn't I like it? I love a good comedy, is it genetic, IQ, no sense of humor? Why does one person enjoy while another dislikes, it has to be more than a personal thing.

I never liked the 3 Stooges, could that be it?

Woody Allen is my favorite, IMO his old movies are all Comedy Classics

Mighty Aphrodite, 1995 R

Years after adopting a baby, a happily married family man becomes obsessed with learning about the child's birth mother, only to discover she is a high-priced call girl in this superior late-career effort from writer, director and star Woody Allen. The comedy also stars Mira Sorvino, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her memorable turn as the object of Allen's infatuation, while Allen's tart screenplay also earned Academy Award honors.

Cast:Mira Sorvino, Woody Allen, F. Murray Abraham, Claire Bloom, Helena Bonham Carter, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Rapaport, Donald Symington, David Ogden Stiers, Jack Warden, Peter Weller, Rosemary Murphy, Steven Randazzo, J. Smith-Cameron, Jeffrey Kurland

Director:Woody Allen Genres:Comedy, Indie Comedies, Romantic Comedies

This movie is: Romantic, Witty

[kandrathe]

I just saw Erik The Viking for the first time last week, no idea how I'd missed it until now.

It was really fun from start to finish, with some clever one-liners and brilliant Terry Jones moments.

Yup. I think you need to really be a MP fan to get some of Terry Gilliam et. al., and some Brit humor. John Cleese is more accessible. I remember showing my mom MP Flying Circus on PBS when I was like 12, and trying to explain to her why the naked man playing the organ, and "The Larch" were hilarious. Time Bandits and Brazil are pretty obscure. But... What I value in a good movie is unpredictability, where I'm unsure where the plot is going. Often, writers (such as David Lynch *cough*) add inane twists and turns just to be intentionally avant-garde, rather than creating a well written, cohesive, unique and believable story.

So applying my filter to a film like Avatar; It was predictable, formulaic, yet enjoyable to see once with the boys on the big screen. I was more attracted to see the movie for the special effects and film making process, than for the story. The science, while far-fetched, was within the realm of possibility. I found the overall plot somewhat inconceivable, in that within the entire complex on Pandora of future humanity (with the hindsight of what they've done to Earth), only a handful of people would stand up against the rampant ecologic destruction and extermination of the indigenous population. Heck, we're afraid of contaminating Mars with microbes, and we are pretty sure it's devoid of life and (whatever side you fall on,) considering how something like oil drilling on a fraction of the 19,286,722 acres ANWR refuge is political suicide. So, I just don't buy into the premise that people would be so immorally complicit just to extract something as unoriginal as unobtanium even if it was worth $20 million a kilo. Beyond that, I was turned off by the cliche' of the gung-ho military eager to destroy and escalate, the greedy corporation only thinking about their short term gains, and the noble science geeks being the only humans exhibiting humanity. I think the most interesting part to me was the society and culture of the Na'vi loosely based on indigenous tribal cultures of earth, but adapted to the unique biology of their planet. I just knew by the end of the film, that given Lt. John Dunbar Jake Sully's predicament, I'd have gone native too. Mostly just to beat down that stupid abusive stereotyped Colonel, and that riding horses and flying on dragons with a brain to brain interface would be pretty cool.

Also, if it was possible to grow brain dead clones and drive them remotely, then why didn't everyone have an "Avatar" whether or not they be Na'vi? Wouldn't that be safer than risking your actual body, or perhaps we just need to buy into the whole premise that military grunts flown a kazillion miles to Pandora are expendable?

[Klaus]

I just saw Erik The Viking for the first time last week, no idea how I'd missed it until now.

It was really fun from start to finish, with some clever one-liners and brilliant Terry Jones moments.

Yup. I think you need to really be a MP fan to get some of Terry Gilliam et. al., and some Brit humor. John Cleese is more accessible. I remember showing my mom MP Flying Circus on PBS when I was like 12, and trying to explain to her why the naked man playing the organ, and "The Larch" were hilarious. Time Bandits and Brazil are pretty obscure. But... What I value in a good movie is unpredictability, where I'm unsure where the plot is going. Often, writers (such as David Lynch *cough*) add inane twists and turns just to be intentionally avant-garde, rather than creating a well written, cohesive, unique and believable story.

So applying my filter to a film like Avatar; It was predictable, formulaic, yet enjoyable to see once with the boys on the big screen. I was more attracted to see the movie for the special effects and film making process, than for the story. The science, while far-fetched, was within the realm of possibility. I found the overall plot somewhat inconceivable, in that within the entire complex on Pandora of future humanity (with the hindsight of what they've done to Earth), only a handful of people would stand up against the rampant ecologic destruction and extermination of the indigenous population. Heck, we're afraid of contaminating Mars with microbes, and we are pretty sure it's devoid of life and (whatever side you fall on,) considering how something like oil drilling on a fraction of the 19,286,722 acres ANWR refuge is political suicide. So, I just don't buy into the premise that people would be so immorally complicit just to extract something as unoriginal as unobtanium even if it was worth $20 million a kilo. Beyond that, I was turned off by the cliche' of the gung-ho military eager to destroy and escalate, the greedy corporation only thinking about their short term gains, and the noble science geeks being the only humans exhibiting humanity. I think the most interesting part to me was the society and culture of the Na'vi loosely based on indigenous tribal cultures of earth, but adapted to the unique biology of their planet. I just knew by the end of the film, that given Lt. John Dunbar Jake Sully's predicament, I'd have gone native too. Mostly just to beat down that stupid abusive stereotyped Colonel, and that riding horses and flying on dragons with a brain to brain interface would be pretty cool.

Also, if it was possible to grow brain dead clones and drive them remotely, then why didn't everyone have an "Avatar" whether or not they be Na'vi? Wouldn't that be safer than risking your actual body, or perhaps we just need to buy into the whole premise that military grunts flown a kazillion miles to Pandora are expendable?

Well, the lack of "clones for everybody" was pretty reasonably explained. Right at the start, they say that Jake's clone was meant for his twin brother, who had died in an accident or some such. The clone was expensive enough (and took enough time to produce), that it was worth it to try to teach an undereducated, washed-up military grunt to drive it instead of discard it.

I can also see a shift in attitudes toward ecological destruction if you assume that Pandora isn't the only other planet we've discovered with life on it. If you can find a habitable planet in every other star system, and getting to them is easy, trashing one for it's valuable minerals doesn't seem so wasteful. I wouldn't want to see it happen, but I could see how people would change their perception of the value of any one planet.

[kandrathe]

Also, if it was possible to grow brain dead clones and drive them remotely, then why didn't everyone have an "Avatar" whether or not they be Na'vi? Wouldn't that be safer than risking your actual body, or perhaps we just need to buy into the whole premise that military grunts flown a kazillion miles to Pandora are expendable?

Well, the lack of "clones for everybody" was pretty reasonably explained. Right at the start, they say that Jake's clone was meant for his twin brother, who had died in an accident or some such. The clone was expensive enough (and took enough time to produce), that it was worth it to try to teach an undereducated, washed-up military grunt to drive it instead of discard it.

I was thinking each person would be grown their own brain dead human clone, or if not too much trouble Na'vi. In the evolution of modern warfare, it seems the size of forces decreases and the value of both personnel and equipment increases. Colonel yahoo is marching around the forest in a billion dollar mechanized suit, but he's expendable? Moving so many people and so much material and equipment toward establishing a beach head on Pandora must have cost much. If the brain dead body out on the front line can be replaced, at least they don't lose the investment in training. The clone would take time, yes, but the cost would be in space used, nutrients and a slight amount of power to run the growth tanks.

I can also see a shift in attitudes toward ecological destruction if you assume that Pandora isn't the only other planet we've discovered with life on it. If you can find a habitable planet in every other star system, and getting to them is easy, trashing one for it's valuable minerals doesn't seem so wasteful. I wouldn't want to see it happen, but I could see how people would change their perception of the value of any one planet.

Good argument. I would contest however that rationally, an individual who has survived ecological destruction on their home planet would grow to value (if not cherish) life everywhere and not casually destroy it, even on a thousand other planets.

Imagine the value of a potato or a carrot, if it where the only living plant matter you ever saw. Then, consider landing on Pandora -- while dangerous, it would be a vision of wonder to anyone who's only ever seen a devastated ecosystem or spacecraft.

[Jim]

I found the overall plot somewhat inconceivable, in that within the entire complex on Pandora of future humanity (with the hindsight of what they've done to Earth), only a handful of people would stand up against the rampant ecologic destruction and extermination of the indigenous population.

So, I just don't buy into the premise that people would be so immorally complicit just to extract something as unoriginal as unobtanium even if it was worth $20 million a kilo. Beyond that, I was turned off by the cliche' of the gung-ho military eager to destroy and escalate, the greedy corporation only thinking about their short term gains, and the noble science geeks being the only humans exhibiting humanity.

I think the most interesting part to me was the society and culture of the Na'vi loosely based on indigenous tribal cultures of earth, but adapted to the unique biology of their planet. I just knew by the end of the film, that given Lt. John Dunbar Jake Sully's predicament, I'd have gone native too.

Mostly just to beat down that stupid abusive stereotyped Colonel, and that riding horses and flying on dragons with a brain to brain interface would be pretty cool.

Hi,

Avatar was nothing more than an old fashion movie about "Cowboys and Indians" instead of the plains of South Dakota it takes place on "Pandora" instead of extracting Gold, they extracted Unobtanium. Maybe Avatar2 could be about Oil?

I liked Avatar.

[Alram]

This weekend I watched "Being John Malkovich" on cable TV. It is not incredibly good. I wouldn't watch it again. It is unique, however, and does not really fit neatly into any genre. It is worth seeing once.

[Jim]

Hi,

Looking foward to the move.

Atlas Shrugged Audience Reactions video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...WNn_y8z9zU

Hi,

I got to see Atlas Shrugged today the 2:45pm show. I noted an unusually large mixed age turn out for this time of day, since most people are at work.

I read a few reviews before I saw the movie mostly bad, yet I was able to leave the negative baggage at the box office, maybe I just wanted to love this movie for selfish reasons.



And love it, I did

I understand it was a low budget movie, I guess that's why it's not a period piece they cost more...or...2016 will be more like today's political climate or what's left of it.

If you haven't read the book, this movie would be alittle hard to follow, it's not an action movie it is a movie of Words. I am looking forward to Part 2 & 3, I'm going to read the book again thanks to the Movie.

Favorite Quote: Ellis Wyatt's Sign on his property: "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours"

[Sabra]

Hi,

Looking foward to the move.

Atlas Shrugged Audience Reactions video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pla...WNn_y8z9zU

Hi,

I got to see Atlas Shrugged today the 2:45pm show. I noted an unusually large mixed age turn out for this time of day, since most people are at work.

I read a few reviews before I saw the movie mostly bad, yet I was able to leave the negative baggage at the box office, maybe I just wanted to love this movie for selfish reasons.



And love it, I did

I understand it was a low budget movie, I guess that's why it's not a period piece they cost more...or...2016 will be more like today's political climate or what's left of it.

If you haven't read the book, this movie would be alittle hard to follow, it's not an action movie it is a movie of Words. I am looking forward to Part 2 & 3, I'm going to read the book again thanks to the Movie.

Favorite Quote: Ellis Wyatt's Sign on his property: "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours"

Jim, I'm so glad that you finally got to see it and that you enjoyed it.

I cannot imagine making that book into a movie, nor finding an audience for it today, but Atlas Shrugged will always remain one of the few books I read for its language alone.

[kandrathe]

And love it, I did

I understand it was a low budget movie, I guess that's why it's not a period piece they cost more...or...2016 will be more like today's political climate or what's left of it.

If you haven't read the book, this movie would be alittle hard to follow, it's not an action movie it is a movie of Words. I am looking forward to Part 2 & 3, I'm going to read the book again thanks to the Movie.

Favorite Quote: Ellis Wyatt's Sign on his property: "I am leaving it as I found it. Take over. It's yours"

My wife and I were able to get away on Saturday to see it too.

I agree that having read the book makes the film more understandable, but part of that I think is due to some misunderstandings with the characters. I think Dagny is a bit miscast although Taylor Schilling did an admirable job. It was other things like hair styles and costuming her in extreme high heels and tight skirts. From the novel, I envisioned her to be practical in almost all things. At the bridge scene especially, she should have been in at least some stylish overalls. In the novel, it was her take charge chutzpah, confidence and practicality in leading the building crews that made Hank fall in love with her. And, what is with the "saunter"? A practical Dagny would wear shoes that allow her to get her job done. I imagined that although she was born to a privileged class, that she remained unpretentious, and oblivious of haute couture. Dagny is described as more of an obvious diamond in the rough, where all but the discerning would find her somewhat plain. She would be out of place at an elegant dinner party, unless she was in the study with a gaggle of guys talking shop. Again, Hank was close to accurately acted too, but I would have made him more clearly a "stud". In the 50's he walked to work, in 2016 he'd have a treadmill in his office. In the novel, Lilian, his wife, often described him as her trophy husband, kept merely to lavish her with an excessive lifestyle. I imagined him to be more of an athletic type individual, but one extremely focused on the successes of his businesses. I think they nailed, Ellis Wyatt and Wesley Mouch though. I liked was they did with the "fast film" technique at the beginning, sort of inundating the audience with images and information to give context to the story so far... high energy prices, failing corporations, government bailouts, the pirate Ragnar Danneskjöld, the trouble with the airline industry, the prominence of Taggert transportation, etc. I had a little trouble with the 2nd 20 minutes of the film, where they were trying to introduce all the characters. I found myself trying to figure out and keep straight who the 8 to 10 secondary characters were. I think the growing relationship between Dagny and Hank could have been more obvious. Each scene should have shown they as professional, but letting their guard down just a little each time. For Francisco D'Anconia I thought immediately of an Antonio Banderas type character while I re-read the book. He needed to be much more suave (not smarmy), and oozing with effortless charisma. I don't think Jsu Garcia pulled that off.

I guess my biggest critique is that I'm uncertain the "philosophy", and therefore character motivation, is coming through clearly enough. The film could have done much to help expose the strong link between freedom and consumer choice. Either by monopoly, or by excessive government, its the removal of choice that crushes freedom. It's worse when politicians, and thereby government drive corporations toward monopoly (*cough* GE *cough*).

I did enjoy it, and it was a worthy low budget effort. But, I would have made different choices in adapting the screenplay, casting, wardrobe, hair, cinematography, etc. It's not an over polished "Hollywood" blockbuster, but I didn't expect it to be. I'm just happy it's coherent, and true to the book even if the *real* story remains obscured.

[Jim]

I guess my biggest critique is that I'm uncertain the "philosophy", and therefore character motivation, is coming through clearly enough.

I did enjoy it, and it was a worthy low budget effort. But, I would have made different choices in adapting the screenplay, casting, wardrobe, hair, cinematography, etc. It's not an over polished "Hollywood" blockbuster, but I didn't expect it to be. I'm just happy it's coherent, and true to the book even if the *real* story remains obscured.

Hi,

About 2 or 3 years ago at an Any Rand web site we had a thread dealing with all of your concerns.

We wanted a TV version of AS like Roots, we all agreed a movie could not be true to the book in only 2 to 3 hours. That at least six 2 hour episodes would be needed to get the book's philosophy across.

Casting: John Galt = Robert Redford or Brad Pitt. Dagny = Debra Winger or Sigourney Weaver.

I giggled about 4 times during the movie, because "I GOT IT" well I read the book as many times so you get to a point like seeing the same movie 4 times, you know the dialog & what will happen next.

The one I remember was the scene with the Hugh Akston who is already in Galt's valley lightning a cigarette...it had the Gold emblem from Galt's valley, it went by so fast but I think it was a Dollar sign $

What was missing was when Dagny in the book describes the vacant eyes of the people she would encounter, and their countenance without emotion.

I want to see this movie again, I might have missed something.

EDIT:

Cigarettes with Gold Dollar Sign:

Cigarettes stamped with a golden dollar symbol $ (instead of a brand name) turn up from time to time in the story. Rand used cigarettes as a metaphor for humanity's conquest of fire. To Rand, cigarettes are a symbol of humanity's first great technological achievement. In Atlas Shrugged.

He produced a package of cigarettes and extended it to her [...] It was a plain white package that bore, as a single imprint, the sign of the dollar [...] There was no printing on the package, no trade name, no address, only the dollar sign stamped in gold. The cigarettes bore the same sign.

Ayn Rand chose a cigarette to represent money and capitalism partially because of its connotation of fire, and the significance of that to themes of Atlas Shrugged.

In the early 1970s Rand’s health began to give way. An enthusiastic smoker, she was diagnosed with lung cancer. For Rand, smoking was a Promethean symbol of creativity, inventiveness, profit-making, all she most admired: "When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind – and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression," one of the goodies explains in Atlas Shrugged. [After her death] a six-foot-high floral dollar sign was erected by her open coffin in the funeral home.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged/Things