MOVIE REVIEW: Idiocracy (2006)

Sitting at the bar with one of my friends, he turns to me and goes "Have you seen Idiocracy?" I shake my head "No". "You should, because I'm convinced this is what our world will ultimately turn into, the way things are going". So I did. Obviously, or else I wouldn't be writing this. In any case, any comedy with a socio-political bent must immediately go up on my queue. But why, did this film become so little-known, despite having been directed by Mike Judge of Office Space and starring people like Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph? Perhaps the studio got cold feet after seeing all the jabs taken at consumerism, with the use of actual companies (upon further research, this turned out to be pretty much the case, and I am ever the wiser). But hey, for all it's bleakness, Idiocracy is pretty funny, too.

After a brief lecture on the topic of dysgenics (out-breeding the intelligent, due to a lack of consequential hindsight on unprotected sex for stupid people, and a lack of sexual initiative on the smart people), a group of government agents elaborate on a plan to put an "average Joe" military worker (named Joe, ha ha) and a prostitute named Rita in an experiment on human hibernation. When they are accidentally neglected after a SNAFU, the two emerge in the year 2505 and find the world totally changed. Society has regressed into a tasteless, classless, lawless, and even brainless atmosphere while consumerism has apparently taken control. Needing to find a way home, Joe, Rita, and their new friend Frito look for a way to locate a supposed "time-machine" that had been invented, recently.

What I enjoyed about Idiocracy was the fact it took a clever idea about the regression of modern society into something so dystopic yet possible, given the conditions, and combined it with the traditional Mike Judge sophomoric humor that I know and love. Some of the supporting performances were a little obnoxious, but many of them do shine, thanks to the script. I had trouble accepting the fact that things were rather bleak for the main characters, and that the film didn't do a whole lot to have the main characters make any effort to have the future society try and think for themselves. Perhaps that was deemed a futile idea, as many of the new society's denizens are pretty incorrigible as it is, I just thought there could have been more possibilities explored in the alloted time the film had. Still, I enjoyed Idiocracy for all it's dumb humor and strangely thought-provoking story.

7/10

Peace,
- Jon