Idiocracy (DVD)

...him again with the comedy IDIOCRACY starring Luke Wilson. As I suspected, there were a lot of crude jokes, though I was surprised at how the film was able to reach a level of social satire; the film is set in the future, which is an easy target, though the film manages to be funny and outrageous. However, depending upon whether you are a fan of Judge’s work or not, it will mostly depend on you personal point of view if this sounds appealing.
...goverments, athletic events---in other words, IDIOCRACY is politically incorrect in every way, just like the movie BORAT and “Little Britain.” If that is not your type of thing, than I would advise you to stand clear.

Mike Judge wrote the script with Etan Cohen, his primary collaborater on “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill.” Probably what I like best about their script is that even know they are sorting out all the jokes ... more

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TITLE: Idiocracy

RATING: ****

CAST: Luke Wilson, Maya Randolph, Dax Shepard, Anthony Campos, David Herman, Sonny Castillo, Kevin McAfee, Robert Musgrave, Ryan Melton, Justin Long, Heath Jones.

DIRECTOR: Mike Judge

SCREENWRITERS: Mike Judge & Etan Cohen

STUDIO: Twentieth Century Fox

RUNNING TIME: 87 min.

RATED: R (US) & 15 (UK); for language, as well as plenty of crude, sexual, and scatalogical humor.

DVD AVAILABILITY: 12 GBP from Amazon; ASIN #B000N3T2CQ

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INTRODUCTION
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As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest reproduced in greater numbers by the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now favored different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent…but as time went on things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction. As the years past, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes that the genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.

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HOW WOULD YOU LIKE AN EXTRA BIG-ASS FRIES???
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When you sit down to watch a movie by filmmaker Mike Judge, you know its not going to be subtle; the former chemist had directed the show “Beavis and Butthead” in the early 90s. In 1996, he then released BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD DO AMERICA on Christmas Day; it was shortly after that he created a new animated series, called “King of the Hill.” Then, in 1999, he released the hilarious and inspired OFFICE SPACE, a live action movie about the hardships working in cubicle offices. Even those who didn’t like his animated series loved OFFICE SPACE, and now it’s become one of the biggest cult films of all time.

We haven’t heard from Judge in awhile, and in 2006, we finally heard from him again with the comedy IDIOCRACY starring Luke Wilson. As I suspected, there were a lot of crude jokes, though I was surprised at how the film was able to reach a level of social satire; the film is set in the future, which is an easy target, though the film manages to be funny and outrageous. However, depending upon whether you are a fan of Judge’s work or not, it will mostly depend on you personal point of view if this sounds appealing.

Luke Wilson plays Joe Bauers, a man who works for the U.S. Army; because of his average intelligence, he gets chosen for a Top Secret experiment in which he will be frozen and wake up in a certain number of years; however, the real reason is that his superiors just want to get rid of him some how. Joining him will be Rita (Maya Randolph), Army girl by day, prostitute by night, who has a black pimp named “Upgrade,”; Joe thinks that it is her Dutch boyfriend because of how his name sounds. Anyway, they both wake up in the year 2505, and are stunned at how much the world has changed.

Joe wakes up in the bedroom of Frito (Dax Shepard), a guy who is so lazy that he has a toilet installed in his chair, just so he won’t miss a second of the new reality show “Ow! My Balls!” on the Violence Channel. When Joe then gets on the streets of what used to be his home, he is shocked at how filthy and ugly the city has become; what is worse, when he tries to talk to a few people to get help, he is just made fun of because Joe sounds “pompous and faggy” to them. When a misunderstanding lands him in jail, he must then get a tattoo stamped on his arm (the federal identification), and the system gives him the name “Not Sure.”

In a nutshell, the world has basically been so dumbed down by commercialism, and fast food marketing that the intelligence factor has dropped so low the average I.Q. is no doubt below zero. As a result, Joe is named the smartest man on Earth and is appointed by the President (a former wrestling smackdown champion) to solve the problem of no crops---it resulted when water everywhere was replaced by Brawndo, the thirst mutilator (psst…its got Electrolytes)! Even worse, prostitition is not only legal but everywhere; you can pick up a hooker by just walking into Starbucks, H.R. Block or a McDonalds!

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STOPPING AT STARBUCKS FOR A “FULL BODY” LATTE
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I’m sure that after reading that plot synopsis you think it sounds either really stupid or really funny; wait until the quotes and I think you will make a better judgment. I like Judge’s work for the most part, and while this is not nearly as memorable as OFFICE SPACE, it still amused me and I did laugh. I’m a huge fan of satires in general and this was certainly one, as it poked fun at pop culture, racial stereotypes, ethnic slang, conservative politics, fascist goverments, athletic events---in other words, IDIOCRACY is politically incorrect in every way, just like the movie BORAT and “Little Britain.” If that is not your type of thing, than I would advise you to stand clear.

Mike Judge wrote the script with Etan Cohen, his primary collaborater on “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill.” Probably what I like best about their script is that even know they are sorting out all the jokes in a futuristic setting, they are actually satirizing society now as we know it. In all honesty, I think our society---the American society at least---has been dumbed down by advertising, a greedy government as well as stupid movies in general. One of my favorite jokes in the film is when Wilson goes to see the #1 movie in the world; it is called ASS, and all it shows is a guy’s ass farting for ninety minutes. That’s all it was…and it also swept all the Academy Awards that year! Well, it certainly sounds better than AMERICAN WEDDING and THE DUKES OF HAZZARD, lol.

If you like Luke Wilson, then you will surely want to check this film out as well; while it is by no means a great perfomance, the guy is certainly likeable, as he has been with many of his other films like LEGALLY BLONDE and MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND. Some of his facial reactions are just priceless, and that is one of the key ingredients for any comedy to work. Unfortunately his female co-star (Maya Randolph) is badly miscast, as she walks around not really understanding her character; Dax Sheperd as Frito is funny, but only in small doses. The only other actor I recognized was David Herman, who played Michael Bolton in OFFICE SPACE; otherwise the cast is largely unknown, and I think that was a wise choice on Judge’s part because I think the casting of big stars in the futuristic society depicted would have been too distracting to the viewer, considering all the verbal and visual jokes flying around.

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GETTING A TAX RETURN WITH A “HAPPY ENDING”
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What is so devastating that what I learned about IDIOCRACY in terms of its history; Mike Judge actually completed the film in 2004, and reportedly due to disastrous test screenings it was shelved for at least two years. It was finally released in only 20 theaters in the US, in August of 2006; it made only a half a million dollars. Then, it would find its way to DVD for the first time many months later, including the UK. What happened? Did Judge piss someone off at the studio? Did people just not “get it?” 20th Century Fox did significantly better with BORAT, even though they are both satires attacking stupid people of our present society; personally, I think the idiots took offense and didn’t take it as a joke.

You all are free to believe that the future depicted in this film seems rather exaggerated, though the way Judge presents it to us it is rather scary. The setup is particularly disturbing, with the yuppie intellectuals of society waiting until the “right time” comes to have children while football players, lowlifes, and the general scum of society who are receiving no education whatsoever, are the ones constantly having sex and having so many children. Those children, in turn, because of their parents living on welfare, doing drugs and such are the ones who are continuing the trend. They become lazy as hell, fail to get an education and do nothing but watch reality shows and having sex. And the worse thing is that these are people who will eventually take control of society! Maybe that is why this film didn’t do well in terms of the test screenings: maybe people felt like they were being attacked because of their own lifestles…when they should be the ones embracing Judge’s morals and messages. Whattever the reasoning, I’m just glad the morons at Fox decided to release it, one of the most underappreciated movies of 2006 hands down.

The DVD of IDIOCRACY was released in the UK on March 17, 2007; it is available at most video shops and from Amazon for 12 GPB. I admit that is a bit pricey for a film that has almost no special features, I was hoping for at least a commentary by Judge, Cohen, and Wilson. Alas, what we have is only five deleted scenes, which may have been cut to avoid a harsher censorship rating; some of them just have the same jokes expanded, and I think Judge made a wise choice to let them go. I think IDIOCRACY is worth seeing, particualary if you are a fan of Judge as well as satires, though I’m worried that the comedy is “too Americanized” (like SUPER TROOPERS) for anyone in the UK to enjoy. However, give it a shot and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading and take care! Chris :)

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QUOTES FROM JUDGE’S SCREENPLAY
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1) “Well, unfortunately Trevor passed away while trying to masturbate to produce sperm for our artificial insemination. Luckily, I had some eggs frozen so as soon as the right guy comes along…” --- Yuppie Wife

2) “Clevon is lucky to be alive after jumping a jet ski from a lake into a swimming pool and impaling his crotch on an iron gate! Thanks to advances in stem research though, he should regain full reproductive function again!” --- Doctor “Hey, man! Get off my junk!” --- Clevon in background

3) “Welcome to Carl’s Jr…how would you like to try our Extra Big-Ass Taco? Now with more molecules!” --- Fast Food Announcer

4) “Well, it says here that you robbed a hospital…why did you do that?” --- Dax Shepard “I’m not guilty!” --- Luke Wilson “Well, that’s not what the other lawyer said!” --- Dax Shepard

5) “Man I could really go for a Starbucks right about now!” --- Luke Wilson “Ok, yeah, I don’t think we really have the time for a handjob, Joe!” --- Dax Shepard

6) “Hey, is she putting out?” --- Secret Service “Uhhh…yeah, we just finished, its cool!” --- Luke Wilson “Ok, good…hey we were wondering if we could go family-style on her?” --- Secret Service

7) “I know shit is bad right now, with all that starving bullshit and the duststorms, and we are running out of french fries and burrito covers!” --- President of America

8) “Excuse me, I took a sip from this fountain and this tastes like a sports drink…I just wanted some regular water!” --- Luke Wilson “Water? You mean like from the toilet?” --- Hospital Janitor

9) “You mean you like money and sex? Oh, man, you are tripping me out!” --- Dax Sheperd

10) “There was a time when reading wasn’t just for fags! And neither was writing! People wrote books and movies! Movies that made you care about whose ass it was and why it was farting…and I believe that time can come again!” --- Luke Wilson

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CRITIC’S CORNER
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CRITIC’S QUOTE #1: “Judge has a gift for delivering brutal satire in the trappings of low comedy and for making heroes out of ordinary people whose humanity makes them suspect in a world where every inch of space, including mental, is meditated.” --- Carino Chocano, Los Angeles Times

CRITIC’S QUOTE #2: “Working on a sprawling canvas, Judge fills the screen with visual jokes, throaway gags, and incisive commentary on the ubiquity of advertising!” --- Nathan Rabin, Onion A.V. Club

CRITIC’S QUOTE #3: “There are some genuine laughs to be had here, and Judge’s vision of the future dominated entirely by morons is memorably bizarre!” --- James Sanford, Kalamazoo Gazette

CRITIC’S QUOTE #4: “Judge’s wicked satire here is so pointed, so undismissable, so clearly so close to where we could be headead as a civilization that there’s no laughing it away as meanly, angrily funny it is!” --- MaryAnn Johnson, TheFlickFilospher 

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