Idiocracy

Have you heard of 1984? Children of Men? The Matrix!! Well, what I have to tell you, is that Mike Judge's recent outing in live-action film has produced perhaps the most depraved, disgusting, terrifying vision of mankind's future yet. That, and it's damn amusing. Mike Judge's previous outings in film include the classic Office Space and Beavis and Butthead Do America. Just from looking at his previous work in film and then looking at the title of his recent one it becomes readily apparent that Judge seems to be interested in the varying types and stages of what could only be called...stupidity. To some it might be mind blowing that the same guy who created Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill created the fairly intelligent and funny movie Office Space. Yet, the one thing they share is a fascination with the types of people and the culture of various places and the rise of seemingly incompetent people.

Idiocracy is an excellent continuation of the Judge tradition by being so different from everything else before it. Judge tries to do something different with the idea of stupidity and incompetence every time and after having incredibly low brow humor and then redneck humor followed by intelligent and amusing office humor, it's quite a surprise that he could find anything different from his previous incarnations. For the most part, Idiocracy is something new and fresh regarding this theme, although in all fairness I feel he was relying a bit too much on his old Beavis and Butthead days for a lot of the comedy which likes to center around sex, hookers, farting, and just straight stupidity. It has a good mix of other humor too, but it feels a little trite at times by doing something adventurous and then being scared and turning to a tried and true joke like farting. Outside of the themes of the movie, the necessary social commentary is also present and makes a pretty good point early on that as an elite son of a ***** I have a hard time arguing with. Perhaps the best way to summarize it is that mankind has degenerated to the point of using a Gatorade type product to water plants and a previous professional wrestler is now President of the United States. The plotline and the twists and turns make the movie a very fun and amusing look at our potential future even if it can be hard to swallow at times. It is non-threatening material with a message most people can get behind. The real problem is that the characters are not well defined.

Luke Wilson, the better Wilson, plays the main character in the film named Joe Bauers (Although his second name given later is a hoot!). Luke is a pretty good actor but he rarely gets parts in anything except something his brother is in or as a romantic lead because he has a so-so face. Truly though, in this case, his Everyman looks make it him perfect for the part. Judge does an excellent job of casting and it becomes more obvious with each line uttered by Wilson and his co-hort Maya Rudolph. Maya looks like and talks like a present day stereotypical hooker and she isn't glorified with some outstanding body or great hairdo. The probem is that both of these characters are one-note. She's afraid of her pimp despite being in the future. He just wants to go back in time but he still isn't smart enough to realize she doesn't paint. Of course, the people they meet make them look like geniuses but still, so much stupidity even in the main characters makes it difficult at times to process and follow. Sometimes, laughing while watching all the characters die did pop into my mind. The real breakout role in the film belongs to Terry Crews who plays President Camacho. He is stupid enough to do some crazy things, but he has enough humility, panache, and intelligence to know how to use people to get what he wants. He is scary and yet somehow comforting in an idiotic sort of way. His performance is done just right where it makes sense that he was elected president and still maintains the believability in the stupidity of everyone in America. Perhaps my least favorite performance is Frito played by Dax Shepard. I can't explain why except that his delivery of everything he has ever done in every movie he has been in has always been sub-par to unimpressive. He usually reminds me of a sub-par Dane Cook. Although he does say my favorite line in the film (I like money), On the whole, the cast does a good enough job of bringing their characters to life, but sometimes the characters are just too flat by design and should have been spruced up a little bit.

Judge's directing in this film is spot on. Like I mentioned before, the humor is a different style from his previous endeavors and it is certainly NOT for everybody and requires some adjustment. It ca easily feel like a steel bat on your head if it isn't careful. But Judge walks a fine enough line, even if the ending is fairly foreseeable. It's amazing the sort of graphics and special FX Judge pulls off with such a low budget. It's too bad that Fox decidedit had no confidence in the film and released it into theaters with little to no publicity and then put it directly to DVD hoping to make up the loss of releasing it in theaters. Is there an audience for a film like this? Probably. Do I know how to market to it? No. But did they mess up the distribution of this film? Oh hell yes. I highly recommend seeing this film if you have seen Judge's earlier endeavors as this is a fully realized messed up world. It has some high and low points in all categories, but it's great for a fun brainless evening that still has a basic message. And if you decide to buy it then you are providing the possibility of more Judge films, because studios like money too!

3.4 out of 5

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