Also watched Atlas Shrugged, part 3 (it’s available for rent)… which is obviously the third movie based on the massively long Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. You know, that non-controversial book everyone loves :-p

Before I say anything about this third part, I want to point out they changed the cast again for this movie. Part 2 had different actors and I guess they couldn’t even get those guys back for their final act. I’m not sure if that says something about the quality of the movies that the earlier actors wouldn’t return or about a declining budget that they couldn’t even afford the JV squad any longer.

Let me just begin by saying that I like the book Atlas Shrugged… maybe not because it’s wise and philosophically deep but because I think it’s an interesting almost sci-fi look at the decline of society. Whether the reasons for that decline are silly or not is beside the point. You can make a good book (and movie) about the silliest thing because it’s not what it’s about, it’s how it’s about it. So I’m not coming at this movie with an ax to grind…

That said, this is one stink pile of a movie. I mean, really bad. The first two movies were decent… obviously stymied by low (cobbled-together) budgets and not the best actors for the job, but they were actual honest-to-god movies. They were trying. They were full of speechifying Ayn Rand’s unique philosophy but they were trying.

This new one is barely even a movie… it is full of the most low-energy and bored narration that tells us how bad things are going in these really poorly inserted and seemingly random asides that left me going, “Ok… thanks for telling me that?” Meanwhile, it really seems to want to be this this REALLY cheese love story. Yeah, the movie is 75% romance between billionaire industrialist Dagney Taggert and rugged He-Man stereotype John Galt. And then 5% are actors who randomly pop into scenes to make dire pronouncements and another 20% is the most laughably hilarious torture scene followed by Jr. High School play level commando rescue squad. It’s so bad it’s hilarious.

I can’t even say the acting is good, bad, or indifferent because largely there’s no scenes in the movie… just actors who pop up on screen, make dire warnings, ominous speeches, profound pronouncements, etc. Except when the movie is trying to be the world’s worst romance. I guess there’s acting going on there but the film seems to have lost the plot by that point… or the budget is so far slashed all they can do is film on location in a forest, insert cheesy sweeping majestic music, and avoid having to actually be about what the book (and parts 1 and 2) were about.

Not that you were gonna see it, but don’t.

Score: 57