• Young love, down-South-style, in “Beautiful Creatures” 
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Alden Ehrenreich gives a breakout performance as Ethan, a dreamer and square peg in the round hole of rural Gatlin, S.C. A high school junior who longs for the day he can escape his provincial life, he’s an incessant reader — Henry Miller, Ayn Rand, William Burroughs — and that manifests itself in his narration and his take on his town. (“They keep reenacting the Civil War like it’s gonna come out different.”)      View blog reactions

• This ‘Thief’ bungles the job 
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The Fountainhead  | [Identity Thief is] overstuffed with villains, from Sandy’s sneering, Ayn Rand-quoting boss (Jon Favreau) who greedily keeps all the company profits for himself, to the two thugs (Genesis Rodriguez and T.I.) chasing Diane for ripping them off, to those thugs’ imprisoned boss (Jonathan Banks) who wants Diana dead, to the skip tracer (Robert Patrick) determined to fetch her for his bail bondsman client.It’s overstuffed with villains, from Sandy’s sneering, Ayn Rand-quoting boss (Jon Favreau) who greedily keeps all the company profits for himself, to the two thugs (Genesis Rodriguez and T.I.) chasing Diane for ripping them off, to those thugs’ imprisoned boss (Jonathan Banks) who wants Diana dead, to the skip tracer (Robert Patrick) determined to fetch her for his bail bondsman client.      View blog reactions

• • Oscar-nominated animated shorts: Good things in small packages 
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[“The Longest Daycare” is] a Maggie Simpson short, a politically barbed “Simpsons” story of Maggie’s first day at the Ayn Rand School for Tots. She is condemned to the “Nothing Special” wing of the school but finds inventive purpose in defending a caterpillar ready to turn into a butterfly from her creepy kid nemesis.      View blog reactions

• • • ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ and so will most everyone else 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Capitalism  |Image  |Syndicated  | They’ve recast the adaptation of Ayn Rand’s romance novel for the downtrodden rich, using former “name” actors in the leading roles. Thus, D.B. Sweeney is the mythical Galt, the guy luring America’s “I built this” crowd into some sort of Utopia for the 1 percent. But he doesn’t show up until the curtain. Not that this arrival animates this humorless rant.      View blog reactions

• • ‘The Iron Lady’ 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Syndicated  | Talentless conservative filmmakers put so much effort into making Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” into an epic creative and commercial failure last year. If only they’d known those notorious liberals, the Weinsteins, were going to burnish this paragon of conservatism for “The Iron Lady,” they wouldn’t have bothered.      View blog reactions

• 2011: Year of pleasant surprises 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Objectivist author  | "The Undefeated" -- It took an awful lot of creative editing to make Sarah Palin look like a media victim and a smart, credible crusader for the common man and woman. "Atlas Shrugged" was just as bad, but at least it wasn't a lie.      View blog reactions

• • • ‘Atlas Shrugged’ video recall — ’self-sacrifice’ breaks with Rand orth 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  | The moxie orthodoxy of the folks behind “Atlas Shrugged” knows no end. They had a shot at landing a decent director and real stars (Brangelina showed interest), blew that, got it into a limited number of theaters, spent days proclaiming “victory” when reviews were scathing and there aren’t enough Fox News watchers (mostly where it was promoted) to make it a big enough hit to justify doing the second half of the film. Now there’s this. They’re recalling the cover sheets/art because the phrase “self-sacrifice” is used on it. And Ayn Rand, the imperial authoress of this “Let them eat cake” Tea Party-friendly epic, would never have approved. Hilarious.      View blog reactions

• ‘Undefeated’ director on how he’s marketing his Sarah Palin documentary 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  | At the preview screening of “The Undefeated,” the Sarah Palin bio-documentary [...], organizers for this “opinion leaders” showing shared a little of the release strategy for the film. [....] That “bootstrap” will be heavily reliant on the Tea Party crowd that treats Palin as an icon, if the gathering of opinion leaders I saw the film with was any indication. The average age was older — 60ish, though there were some younger folks there. And the crowd was all-white. Very much the “Atlas Shrugged” demographic, in other words.      View blog reactions

• Palin to premiere her documentary in Iowa, but a less flattering one is in the works 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  | Sarah Palin, producers say, will be in Iowa, of all places, for the June 28 premiere of the Palin-approved documentary “The Undefeated.” Victory Film Group says she’ll be in Pella, Iowa, that night. [....] If “Expelled” and “Atlas Shrugged” and “American Carol” are any indicators, they’ll avoid pre-release reviews save for select conservative columnists and Fox News commentators.      View blog reactions

• • Movie Review: I Am 
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Altruism  |Atlas Shrugged movie  | “I Am” is an Oprah-endorsed mashup of thought-provoking ideas and metaphysical mumbo jumbo that is about how every living thing is “connected.” The Oprah endorsement explains how a movie with no “names” attached, thin distribution and no marketing cash still drew 50 people in a Winter Park Village matinee on Friday, where I caught it. I’ll bet the “Atlas Shrugged” folks are kicking themselves for not considering a trip to Ms. Winfrey’s inviting couch. But then, Oprah’s all about altruism, Ayn Rand wasn’t.      View blog reactions

• • Family movie guide 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Individualism  | ATLAS SHRUGGED: PART 1. [....] What it’s about: Visionary titans of industry fight to assert their individuality in the face of competitors who don’t want to compete and their government lackeys. The kid attractor factor: Some teens mayhave read the Ayn Rand novel and be curious. Good lessons/bad lessons: Greed is good; unions, government safety regulations bad.      View blog reactions

• • • ‘Atlas Shrugged’ in ‘1,000 theaters?’ uh, no. 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | All week long, I’ve taken abuse for posting a link to box office analysis from Box Office Mojo that deemed “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1,” a flop. It’s made about $2 million since opening, and even though it only opened on 299 screens, that’s not all that. Not hanging on to audience share, etc. Selling about 40 tickets per theater per day. And that’s brought out the right wing crazies.      View blog reactions

• • ‘Atlas Shrugged’ officially declared a flop 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Image  | Rushed into production as the rights to the book were about to expire, starring a mostly no-name cast and divided, in a most unwieldy way, into a trilogy (the novel wasn’t, though it was long enough to be), “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1″ was championed by those who feel the need to champion its Randist Russo-conservative values. It made $5,000 per screen on just 299 screens. The reviews were dismissive. Mine included. But any way you cut it, says the straight-shooting Box Office Mojo, it’s a flop.      View blog reactions

• • Box office winners; Rio, Soul Surfer, but Scream 4 does OK too 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  | “Atlas Shrugged: Part 1″ had a decent per screen average– but was only in 299 theaters, so no way it was going to crack the top ten. It’s in the top 12, though, over $1.6 million. Only promoted on arch conservative media, no name cast, not an awful showing.      View blog reactions

• • • Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, a few other thoughts… 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |We The Living  |Image  | I liked that the film gives an overview of Ayn Rand’s big themes, sort of connects the non-fan to what the folks who never outgrow her embrace. I read “We the Living,” so I appreciate the psychology at work there. Yeah, she lost a lot to the Commies in Russia and her hatred for any system that preaches to each according to his or her needs seemed to be what drove her. I also read “The Fountainhead” and found it as arch and stiff and preachy as the Gary Cooper/Patricia Neal movie. “Atlas” I started and had to put down, laughing. A couple of times. Always urged to read it by some fanatical fan or other. Seriously, this tome is weighty in bulk only. It’s “Gone With the Wind” for the Barry Goldwater “I don’t want my money going to the gummint” crowd, people sentimental for a system or way of life they see as passing.      View blog reactions

• • • Atlas Shrugged: Part 1—Movie review 
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Altruism  |Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |The Fountainhead  |Capitalism  |Personal life  |Image  | As a primer on the cult of Rand and its members, “Atlas Shrugged” occasionally approaches engrossing. She spent her career inveighing against the evils of the system that chased her and her family out of Russia. Her fans seem to be still fighting that war, resisting tyranny by a government with too much power, blaming that tyranny for the way their lives have turned out and the country they claim to fear for as they find tyranny in every tax, every social program, every regulation that protects the weak from high-handed heroines like Dagny Taggart, an Evita of the boardroom, a Norma Rae speaking up for the oppressed and exceptional Monied class.      View blog reactions

• • Weekend reviews: Rio, conspirator endorsed, scream 4 not so much 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | I hope to get to [Atlas Shrugged, Part 1] tonight or Friday. That’s the long-announced Ayn Rand novel adaptation that’s being sold to conservatives and conservative Christians (ironically, since Rand was about as anti-Jesus as anybody you could name). Hard to believe at one time Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were involved in this. Now it stars and was directed by a “One Tree Hill” guy and Taylor Schiller. Whoever she is.      View blog reactions

• • Movie preview: Atlas Shrugged 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  |Video  | What’s the old joke, “Atlas Shrugged,” and he wasn’t the only one? This “Atlas Shrugged” adaptation, the one Angelina wanted to make with Brad at one point, has “names” — if Michael Lerner and Jon Polito count. “Part 1″ or not, it looks direct to DVD, and that’s leaving out its Ayn Randishness.      View blog reactions

 No stars, no-name director, Atlas shrugs its way to the screen 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | The much discussed, oft-delayed film of Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged may start shooting June 11, with the exercise equipment mogul who owns the rights footing the bill, a no-name director and none of the prominent names–Brad and Angelina, etc. — we’ve heard tossed at it over the years on board. They’re talking about making four films out of the 1100 page novel. Say what? There is a way to market this property, and you’d think, considering Ayn Rand’s sainted place among conservatives, they could line up say Jim Caviezel and a few other Hollywood true believers to see that this gets made.      View blog reactions

• Leo D. and Ridley Scott to tackle Brave New World 
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Atlas Shrugged movie  |Atlas Shrugged  | Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is one of those seminal books that every so often somebody makes noise about adapting for the silver screen, but never gets around to making. Like say, Atlas Shrugged.      View blog reactions