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Roger Ebert reviews the movie "Atlas Shrugged"

13 points by acangiano 16y ago

edanm 16y ago
Ebert gave the film 1 star. The current user-voted rating is 4 stars. I've never seen such a mismatch between Roger Ebert and the voting of actual users. Now I don't know what to think.
- ugh 16y ago
  Doesn't that usually happen when ideology is involved?
  - jokermatt999 16y ago
    To be fair though, it doesn't seem as if Ebert is panning this on ideology. He's clearly not a fan of Ayn Rand, but he seems to dislike the actual movie more than its message.
    - bradleyland 16y ago
      It would seem to be impossible to dislike Rand's ideology as presented in Atlas Shrugged and enjoy any film that is dedicated to the novel. I read most of Atlas Shrugged, but didn't finish it. I was bored to tears and turned off by the stereotypical nature of the characters. I like many of the ideas presented in objectivist philosophy, but I'm not quite a kool-aid drinker. Still, I'll reiterate, I have respect for the ideas. The problem I had with Atlas Shrugged was that it was rather transparently philosophy first, story second. Have you ever hung out with someone who purposefully complicated their speech? The kind of person who subscribes to every "word of the day" feed they come across. The kind of person who says, "but I digress" more than any one person should be allowed? The characters in Atlas Shrugged all come across like this to me. I kept finding myself thinking, "Who talks like this?" The follow up thought was, "I hope I never meet them." The characters in Atlas Shrugged are vehicles for communicating Rand's philosophy, but the philosophy shines through their actions like the mid-day sun through plate glass. I started out reading Atlas Shrugged and feeling like, "Yeah, damn those government men for getting in the way of progress," but by the time d'Anconia revealed that he intended his mine to become nationalized, all I could muster was an "Oh gaaaaaawd," followed by a lengthy sigh. The story had crossed over in to some strange form of industry-worship. I have no idea how the film will deal with the lengthy inner monologues present in Atlas Shrugged, much less the contrived conversations and scenarios, but I believe even the most skilled filmmaker would have a difficult time crafting this work in to something that a film critic would enjoy.
- jaysonelliot 16y ago
  Well, the release date is TODAY. The first showing here on the east coast isn't for another three hours, if you want to go to a film at 11 o'clock in the morning on a weekday. I'd say it's a pretty fair bet that the ratings are coming from people who haven't seen the movie.
arctangent 16y ago
I tend to use Movie Review Query Engine to quickly find reviews of movies. (The Ebert review isn't there yet, but it will no doubt appear soon.) The link for this movie is: http://www.mrqe.com/movie_reviews/atlas-shrugged-m100058649 http://www.mrqe.com/movie_reviews/atlas-shrugged-m100058649 The Variety review absolutely pans the movie too. I'm a little disappointed.

13 points by acangiano 16y ago

edanm 16y ago

Ebert gave the film 1 star. The current user-voted rating is 4 stars. I've never seen such a mismatch between Roger Ebert and the voting of actual users. Now I don't know what to think.

ugh 16y ago
Doesn't that usually happen when ideology is involved?
- jokermatt999 16y ago
  To be fair though, it doesn't seem as if Ebert is panning this on ideology. He's clearly not a fan of Ayn Rand, but he seems to dislike the actual movie more than its message.
  - bradleyland 16y ago
    It would seem to be impossible to dislike Rand's ideology as presented in Atlas Shrugged and enjoy any film that is dedicated to the novel. I read most of Atlas Shrugged, but didn't finish it. I was bored to tears and turned off by the stereotypical nature of the characters. I like many of the ideas presented in objectivist philosophy, but I'm not quite a kool-aid drinker. Still, I'll reiterate, I have respect for the ideas. The problem I had with Atlas Shrugged was that it was rather transparently philosophy first, story second. Have you ever hung out with someone who purposefully complicated their speech? The kind of person who subscribes to every "word of the day" feed they come across. The kind of person who says, "but I digress" more than any one person should be allowed? The characters in Atlas Shrugged all come across like this to me. I kept finding myself thinking, "Who talks like this?" The follow up thought was, "I hope I never meet them." The characters in Atlas Shrugged are vehicles for communicating Rand's philosophy, but the philosophy shines through their actions like the mid-day sun through plate glass. I started out reading Atlas Shrugged and feeling like, "Yeah, damn those government men for getting in the way of progress," but by the time d'Anconia revealed that he intended his mine to become nationalized, all I could muster was an "Oh gaaaaaawd," followed by a lengthy sigh. The story had crossed over in to some strange form of industry-worship. I have no idea how the film will deal with the lengthy inner monologues present in Atlas Shrugged, much less the contrived conversations and scenarios, but I believe even the most skilled filmmaker would have a difficult time crafting this work in to something that a film critic would enjoy.
jaysonelliot 16y ago
Well, the release date is TODAY. The first showing here on the east coast isn't for another three hours, if you want to go to a film at 11 o'clock in the morning on a weekday. I'd say it's a pretty fair bet that the ratings are coming from people who haven't seen the movie.

arctangent 16y ago

I tend to use Movie Review Query Engine to quickly find reviews of movies. (The Ebert review isn't there yet, but it will no doubt appear soon.) The link for this movie is: http://www.mrqe.com/movie_reviews/atlas-shrugged-m100058649 http://www.mrqe.com/movie_reviews/atlas-shrugged-m100058649 The Variety review absolutely pans the movie too. I'm a little disappointed.