Talk about a sleeper hit. This movie wasn't promoted at all. It was given the minimum contractually obligated theatrical release. Not because it's bad, but because of how devastatingly it targets major corporations, including the one that distributed it. I have not laughed that hard at a movie in years. There are enough sight gags going on in the background to make at least two repeat viewings worthwhile.

The premise: survival of the fittest is thwarted by modern medicine so that now the people who breed the most are the stupidest ones. Intelligence plummets so that when an average Joe army guy frozen in a hibernation experiment wakes up 500 years later, he is by far the smartest guy on the planet. The most popular movie is 'Ass': 90 minutes of a shot of buttocks farting. It wins 8 Oscars, including best screenplay. The most popular TV show is 'Ow! My balls!' I was in tears.

Trawling the net for comments, I see several people saying that they came out of the theater and were unsure from their surroundings whether the movie had ended. Brilliant. A cult classic for sure.

Man, life is turning into a rehash of this movie every day. I called Bank of America credit card services today - not their front line, but the fraud department - someone you'd expect to be on the ball, right? - and the guy who answered sounded less capable than your average McDonalds order-taker. He was clearly reading from a script, and just as clearly didn't understand the meaning of many of the words he was saying.

And if that's not scary enough, try the prospect from recent headlines of two words: President Palin.

More evidence... see http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/07/ ... index.html . Not the part about the federal buildings' security being lax - if someone wanted to blow up one they would have by now - but the part about a guard who allowed a baby to be sent through a baggage X-ray. He was dismissed, then he sued for wrongful dismissal because he hadn't been given X-ray training, and won the suit because it couldn't be proven that he had been trained.

Apparently DON'T PUT BABIES THROUGH X-RAY MACHINES cannot be considered common sense any more.

Apparently DON'T LET IDIOTS RUN X-RAY MACHINES can't be considered common sense any more either.

I do note, with somewhat more positive feelings, that Judge Larry Naver in Denver, Colorado, refused to order the University of Colorado to rehire Ward Churchill and did not award him any damages for loss of his job. Just in case anybody here is unaware of this case, Churchill is the guy who referred to the people killed at the World Trade Center as "Little Eichmanns". :/ After the article in which he did so became a public issue, the University of Colorado investigated some old and long-ignored allegations of academic fraud against Churchill, and found numerous instances of plagiarism and academic fraud. Apparently Churchill's claim to be American Indian is also false, which would be a sad little bit of reverse snobbery except that Churchill used his alleged ancestry to claim credibility as a pundit on American Indian issues.

In an earlier hearing before a different court, that court concluded that the school had erred, not in investigating Churchill, but in doing so only after being pressured to get rid of him because of his comments above. The court awarded him damages: one dollar. In his ruling, Judge Naver cited this damage award, and Churchill's failure to seriously look for a new post, as grounds for denying him compensation for loosing his tenured position at the University of Colorado.

Churchill has already announced plans to appeal. Of course. :/

Exhibit B: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/07/1 ... index.html - the lead story on CNN at the moment, thereby proving that CNN is just as idiotic. The depressing thing is that if you read the comments, they run about 50-50 on the question.

I've always said that the Constitution guarantees anyone the right to be a barking idiot, but it wasn't crafted with the expectation that they would form a majority voting bloc.

I have an Atlas Shrugged-type fantasy that the smart folks could start their own country somewhere, and the immigration officer would merely ask arrivals questions like, "Do you believe Elvis is still alive?" etc.

Funny we actually DO ask people things like "Do you believe in alternative/holistic/herbal/wiccan/crystal/aromatherapy/chiropractic/ therapy? when we interview them.

We are looking for people to apply a SCIENCE here.....

It is astonishing how many are weeded out by that. With degrees.

And the literacy test.

I do not even try to weed them out by if they can write.

Sometimes I really wonder if I am really all that smart or am I just surrounded by so many idiots my perspective is skewed - how would one know the difference?

Um... wow: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/

Double wow: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480239/faq

*fans self*

I hope you're right, Jim. Atlas Shrugged isn't my favorite book of Rand's, but it was her magnum opus in every sense of the word. It deserves better than to be pulled apart. :/ And any attempt to tell that story in a single, two-and-a-half hour movie *will* contain at best an abortion of the original story. Rumint on the FAQ indicates that they were talking about dropping the characters Robert Statler and Cheryl Taggart from the movie, which would be to tell a different story than the book tells.

I think doing the job properly would require someone of Peter Jackson's talent and at least three long movies to cover the story. The book isn't (remotely) as good as Lord of the Rings, but it has its own unique style, pace, and substance. I doubt that there is someone of that degree of talent who loves it enough to do it right.

"This girl said, 'Hey, T-Bone, what's your sign?'
I blink and answer 'Neon!' - I thought I'd blow her mind."

- "Existential Blues," T-Bone Stankus

My stock answer used to be "Yield."

Buck Henry's stock answer was, "I think I'm several. I was born very slowly."

You could always give the questioner a dead stare for a moment, then answer,
"Zodiac."

Or you could just say that Jeff Foxworthy didn't give you one. ;P

Or, carrying that further, you could work yourself up into a panic, mutter, "Oh, my god, I knew I forgot something!" and rush off. Then start a convo with someone sensible.

the trailer and some snarky comments about it.

I love the visuals. Hard to say whether it'll be watchable. I don't know how you could carve AS into three pieces and make each one satisfying in itself.

I have to agree with one of the Youtube commenters who said that the actors looked exactly like how he had pictured all the characters.