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Review #233 of 365
Film: Idiocracy (2006) [R] 80 minutes
WIP™ Scale: $11.75
Where Viewed: Regal Cinemas Lincolnshire 20 and Imax, Lincolnshire, IL
When 1st Seen: 1 September 2006
Time: 9:20 p.m.
Soundtrack: Download now from 
Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word or less review of this film]
What does Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, and Office Space, really think of the world right now? Interestingly enough, the famous satirist, who has made a prime-time profession out of his parodies of present day life, has, perhaps, revealed all his cards with his live-action take on the future of America in 500 years. A hugely successful way of pointing to flaws and wrong directions in society today is to create a vision of the future where these flaws have caused monumental problems due to their amplification and cascade effects in the future. Holding no punches, Mr. Judge absolutely skewers Corporate USA, the USA Government, the health care industry, big box shopping giants, pro wrestling, and dozens and dozens of other tiny little idiosyncrasies that have become a part of USA culture not to mention his primary contention that the USA citizenry is selecting for the very 'dumbest' in our population and massively reproducing them at an alarming rate which leads to a general 'dumbing' down of the future population to a point where, basically, all people are idiots—hence his title, Idiocracy.
"…absolutely skewers Corporate USA, the USA Government, the health care industry, big box shopping giants, pro wrestling, and dozens and dozens of other tiny little idiosyncrasies that have become a part of USA culture…"
Mr. Judge does this rather brilliantly with a premise of having Pvt. Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson), one of the most average members of the US military and a very average prostitute named Rita (Maya Rudolph) participate in a 1-year, top-secret, military plan to place people in hibernation cells. The idea being that, if successful, the government could freeze its very best minds for use in the future when they might be needed most. A series of unfortunate events, however, lands Joe and Rita lost for 500 years when there chambers, long forgotten and now buried beneath millions of tons of accumulating garbage, are released in the Great Trash Avalanche of 2553. Joe's crashes through the wall of the apartment of Defense Attorney, Frito (Dax Shepard)--most people in the future have brand names of products for first names--who sits comfortably in his recliner watching a tv wall screen displaying 50 channels at once most bearing ads. When Joe is released automatically from the chamber, he jumps out and immediately tries to figure out what's going on and where he is. Frito, freaks and after telling him he sounds like a homosexual the way he's talking all smart and won't shut up, shoves him out the window and down a pile of trash. From there, Joe ends up at the hospital where he encounters the new green water people drink because it contains the electrolytes we crave and a doctor played by Accepted's Justin Long in a brief cameo where Joe first learns he's not a year in the future, he's 500 years in the future, that people today do not speak English, but a mix of various slang dialects, that everything is controlled by giant corporations, that crops have stopped growing a while ago and people are running out of food, that people are tracked for their own safety and well being by tattoo bar scanners, and that this visit to the doctor is going to cost him millions of dollars he doesn't have. After trying to renig on his hospital bill, he is arrested, tried (Frito turns out to be his defense attorney who does everything he can to get him convicted), and sentenced to prison for a very long time. He is barcoded, accidentally named "Not Sure", and IQ tested to see what prison jobs would suit him best. What he doesn't know is that the breeding patterns of the human population over the past 500 years, has inadvertently made him the smartest person on the planet. So, it's no surprise that he is able to quickly talk himself out of prison to escape and try to get back to the past in a time machine he has only heard about but not yet seen. He reconnects with Rita, convinces Frito to help him for $3 billion he'll pay by going back in the past and setting up a savings acct. in Frito's name that will be worth billions in the future, and the trio head off to the 100-acre Costco to catch the shuttle to the time machine. Unfortunately, scanners at the store catch him and get him arrested again. This time, however, he ends up, not in prison but, due to the results of his prison IQ test which prove him to the smartest person alive, the oval office where the President of the USA, a former pro-wrestler named Comacho (Terry Crews). President Comacho names "Not Sure" his new secretary of the Interior and charges him with solving the problem with the crops not growing—which, at first, he has no clue how to figure out. Truthfully, of course, he was a very average guy in his day, he didn’t do much, didn't know much, and to think that he is now the brain trust of the world frightens him a great deal.
Well, that's all of the plot, I'll reveal for now. It gives you enough to see where Mr. Judge has gone and is headed with his phenomenal parody of a future gone wild. This is one of the most detailed and extensive future world creations that gives a gloomy spin to choices the USA is making now when it comes to education, health, corporate control, advertising out of control, and health care costs. The film is as funny as it is depressing that we really could end up this way. Also, there's a strong sense of realization about how close we are already to some of the paths our Judge-future takes us down all the way. Extrapolating into the future based on decisions being made today, probably wasn't as difficult for Mr. Judge as one might initially have thought. My qualms with the film were just a few. I think parodies are fair, I just wish he would have offered us some way in the film to see how to work now to set things on a different course. What solutions and suggestions might he have? Next, sometimes the depth of the main characters and, perhaps even, the actors playing them were strong enough to make the film either as funny as it could have been or as powerful as it could have been. Something was a little off. Lastly, it seemed that no expense was spared in set design. The future looks very realistic. Yet, again, something seems a bit off. It could have been the semi-washed out look of the film.
Mike Judge has taken current USA culture head on in this no-holds-barred approach to helping point out some of the more ludicrous and pathetic aspects of current USA culture though he has not offered concrete solutions for ways to make things any better. Idiocracy is a sad, gloomy view of a desperate future for humanity. Let's do all we can to see that this vision is not our eventual reality.
Well, that's all of the plot, I'll reveal for now. It gives you enough to see where Mr. Judge has gone and is headed with his phenomenal parody of a future gone wild. This is one of the most detailed and extensive future world creations that gives a gloomy spin to choices the USA is making now when it comes to education, health, corporate control, advertising out of control, and health care costs. The film is as funny as it is depressing that we really could end up this way. Also, there's a strong sense of realization about how close we are already to some of the paths our Judge-future takes us down all the way. Extrapolating into the future based on decisions being made today, probably wasn't as difficult for Mr. Judge as one might initially have thought. My qualms with the film were just a few. I think parodies are fair, I just wish he would have offered us some way in the film to see how to work now to set things on a different course. What solutions and suggestions might he have? Next, sometimes the depth of the main characters and, perhaps even, the actors playing them were strong enough to make the film either as funny as it could have been or as powerful as it could have been. Something was a little off. Lastly, it seemed that no expense was spared in set design. The future looks very realistic. Yet, again, something seems a bit off. It could have been the semi-washed out look of the film.
Mike Judge has taken current USA culture head on in this no-holds-barred approach to helping point out some of the more ludicrous and pathetic aspects of current USA culture though he has not offered concrete solutions for ways to make things any better. Idiocracy is a sad, gloomy view of a desperate future for humanity. Let's do all we can to see that this vision is not our eventual reality.
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Click for 'Review Lite' [a 150-word review of this film]
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Other Projects Featuring: Luke Wilson • Maya Rudolph
& Dax Shepard
Other Projects Directed / Written by: Mike Judge
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Idiocracy (2006) Review-lite [150-word cap]
What does Mike Judge, creator of King of the Hill and Office Space, really think of the world right now? The famous satirist, who has made a prime-time profession out of his parodies of present day life, absolutely skewers Corporate USA, the USA Government, the health care industry, big box shopping giants, pro wrestling, and other aspects of USA culture as well as the general dumbing down of America with Idiocracy, his live-action take on the future of America in 500 years. A very average Pvt. Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson), as part of a long-forgotten military human hibernation experiment, awakens in 2553 to find himself penniless, destitute, and, yet, the smartest person alive. Joe's coping with this new world and trying to get back to the present consumes the rest of the story. Unfortunately, Judge offered no solutions or suggestions to get our current society back on track.
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