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Directed by: Mike Judge Starring: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard In 1987, Paul Verhoeven came out of nowhere with his sci-fi action blockbuster “Robocop”, a grim yet entertaining portrayal of a future where large corporations have taken over almost every aspect of our lives and where the entertainment industry works only to dumb down the masses. The picture was a critical success and earned Orion millions at the box office, going on to being one of the most celebrated and recognized pictures of the 1980’s and even earning a spot on the Criterion Collection. Fast forward now to 2006 where Fox Studios has released “Idiocracy”, an equally, if not more so, grim and entertaining portrayal of our future. “Idiocracy” is Mike Judge’s long-awaited return as director since his 1999 favorite “Office Space” and is arguably is smartest work yet. However, Mike Judge and his film must have rubbed Fox Studios the wrong way (there is, alas, a Fox News joke in the film) and “Idiocracy” has been granted only a diminutive release in a mere seven cities in North America. Truly a shame since it is one of the best films released this year and easily the funniest. “Idiocracy” begins with Private Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson), an unusually average and painfully naïve everyday man, who is chosen by his government to partake in a military experiment involving cryogenics along with Rita (Maya Rudolph), a beyond-obvious prostitute who only seems to be involved with the whole experiment for the money. The experiment is set for only one year, but is quickly forgotten and the two are left in freezing for 500 years. As they nap, human society as a whole becomes more and more ignorant as intelligent people fail to reproduce and the idiotic masses spawn relentlessly. By the time both Joe and Rita are accidentally awakened, they find themselves living in a world where people are too incompetent to know how to properly dispose of garbage, where sports drinks have replaced water almost entirely, and Fuddruckers, for some strange reason, is now known as Buttfuckers. The people of this bleak future no longer concern themselves with art, culture, or politics as they spend their days eating buttery goop while watching television programs such as “Ow – My Balls!”, a possible “Jackass” parody, and films such as “rear end”, which is 90-minutes of a man’s bare behind (somehow, I can’t help but think Andy Warhol has already made the exact same movie). As Joe scrambles about his hopelessly dim future, desperately trying to understand how everything came to be, he discovers that even such things as speaking intelligibly has been outmoded by some sort of quasi-redneck, quasi-urban slang drawl (when Joe is arrested for escaping from “St. God’s Hospital” without paying his medical bill he is charged with the crime of “loving poo poo Up”). However, society soon comes to learn that Joe is, alas, the most intelligent man on the planet with an unheard of IQ of 100. Now, the society that has resented Joe for his “pompous and faggy language” looks to him to answer all of their problems, most of which can be solved with the application of pure common sense. One could almost easily accuse a film like “Idiocracy” of being self-satisfied with its own humor. Mike Judge is relentless in his attack on the entertainment industry, the food industry, and the retail industry as he practically lays the blame on them for the disastrous state that the future is in (the sports drink company in the film outlaws water because it “cuts into their profits”). His portrayal of our government is as equally flattering as he shows our future White House, now transformed into seedy white-trash hovel complete with boarded up windows and an unused above ground swimming pool in the front lawn, being run by professional wrestlers, ditsy blonde bombshells, and preteens who got their secretary positions only because they won some sort of contest. “Idiocracy” is, alas, going to ruffle the feathers of almost anyone who lives within or is somehow responsible for our society as it is today. However, all can be easily forgiven due to the fact that the “Idiocracy” is so drat right. As unsettling and comical as our dimwitted future is portrayed in “Idiocracy”, when I left the theatre, I somehow felt that it was a rather feasible one too. I’d love to tell you to run out right now and catch “Idiocracy” as soon as possible, but I somehow fear that this may not be an option for many of you. Fox, possibly due to pressure from the many different companies that Judge has criticized in his film, has put “Idiocracy” on a grossly limited release, offering it no real promotion whatsoever. It almost seems as if Fox would much rather lose any money they invested on the film than have it released to the mainstream public. Like our present represented in the film, “Idiocracy” is at a crossroads. On one road, “Idiocracy” is heading into obscurity where it will fade away from the public eye and not resurface again until its quick DVD release where it may only impress a few new people. On the other, “Idiocracy” becomes a sleeper hit and Fox decides to do a complete 180 on the film, giving it a full 2000+ theatre release. The road the film goes down lies solely in our hands. If “Idiocracy” is playing anywhere near you, I urge you to go and see it, and don’t forget to drag your friends to go and see it too. Like our future, all that is required for it to succeed is common sense and genuine effort. RATING: 5.0 PROS: Incredibly funny and extraordinarily intelligent CONS: No real significant flaws ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
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Sep 5, 2006 21:41
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