Reviews
Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged (2011)
A mediocre philosophy gets a mediocre documentary
This film does a decent job of providing an overview of how Ayn Rand zealots see the work. Seeing the world in black and white is what objectivism appears to be all about. There is no subtlety, externalities, random luck, economies of scale are all swept effortlessly under the table with the heavy hammer of the Rand dogma. One simplistic single sided argument after another tumble out of the mouths of the speakers. Facts are cherry picked and there is just an avalanche of criticisms of Rand's the critics rather than answering the real substantive questions about her ideas. I became quite bored watching a parade of cheerleaders whooping it up for Ayn. Objectivism is anything but objective in its world view. I think the first Harry Potter book sold a lot more copies than Atlas Shrugged and with good reason.
The Force Within (1993)
Moments of genius buried
This was an interesting and funny script. But the movie was entirely mishandled. This should have been treated as a dark comedy in the same vein as "The Whole Nine Yards" or "Get Shorty". The director just didn't get the jokes! Was this really a chop-socky film? The martial arts scenes should not have been made so prominent. There were a couple of scenes that stand out. Stuart Steel was very convincing and evil in the "have some more cocaine" scene. I can't recommend the film as it is. However, it is not without merit and could be remade into something that would be fun. I feel like the audience member in "The Producers" who has to stop her husband from walking out....."Harry...it's funny!"