RE: The Last Movie You Watched
April 19, 2021 at 12:08 am
(This post was last modified: April 19, 2021 at 12:13 am by Rev. Rye.)
This week in the Deep Hurting Project: Atlas Shrugged, Part II. So, the first film was basically just the trade negotiations from The Phantom Menace with all the comic relief replaced by sociopaths we're supposed to root for because Objectivism, with the occasional side order of preposterous proposed laws, and very rarely, something actually happening. So, what changes when they halve the budget and replace the entire cast? Only one way to find out...
- Railroads have become the only reliable means of transport. You know, you'd think you'd have brought that up earlier in the film. And you immediately start the movie with a dogfight. I'm not sure if this is worthy of a Richie Cusack, since the one person we see is obscenely rich.
- That said, I reckon it's nice to actually see something happen at the start and not just some doctored news footage.
- Static electricity from the air? I had to check this up, and it turns out there actually is some research into doing exactly that.
- Somehow, the production values look better with half the budget in this film than the first.
- Jason Beghe? What the fuck was he doing here? Did not being under the watchful eye of David Miscaviage and the Lord Xenu reduce him to this shit?
- "You're my hero!" Said no Quick-Stop Girl to any Industrialist in recorded history.
- Goddammit, that piano concert is making me miss Ravinia.
- The State Science Institute is like a State Institute minus the Science?
- Is John Galt a man? I mean, dragon man? Or maybe he's just a dragon? At least he'd still be TROGDOOOOORRRRRR!
- Taking money from those who produce is a bad thing? I would never have expected Ayn Rand to come up with something so socialistic.
- A mine collapse happened tomorrow?
- Well, this scene about the minefield that is marriage was boring as Hell. Maybe if it's accompanied by shots of an actual mining disaster. Also, I just read Gyo and it's reminding me of one of the bonus stories included in the VIZ hardback edition, the one with the human-shaped holes that compel people to crawl inside them and never come out.
- It's remarkably refreshing to hear that they used the first quarter of the Westminster Chimes as their doorbell. Nobody ever uses it. Except maybe the composer of the Yes Minister theme song.
- And now we get to the meat of why the original book was pretty fucked up: industrialists who come up with something important or popular and destroy it before they let the government get any of it. Even if this means they hurt the market and the rest of the world as a whole. Gee, I wonder if this will become a major running theme for the rest of the series?
- Someone explain to Hank Rearden what Eminent Domain Law is!
- And somehow, Hank Rearden refusing to acknowledge the authority of the court and openly acknowledging his view of his job is that of an unrepentant ENRON CEO counts as giving the people a voice,
- Not even allowed to quit? No new inventions? You have to spend the same amount of money every year? What the shit kind of law is that? And nobody thinks that shit like this might not actually work?
- And that William H. Macy's scrawling a tombstone for his country looks like it'd be in a shitty horror film.
- Gift certificates? How terrifying!
- Nationalising trains is the only way to make them run on time?
- Goddammit, John Galt sounds like a fucking libertarian snowflake.
- You know, what's the point of keeping John Galt in shadow for his final scene when you're just going to recast him in Part III anyway?
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.