Mike Judge’s latest film is a black comedy in the same vein as his legendary Office Space. It’s funny in a subtle yet very painful way as it “hurts” to watch at times because there are numerous real-life examples of human idiocy surrounding us every day.
Luke Wilson is Joe Bowers, the Army’s perfect guinea pig for its top-secret hibernation project. He’s completely average: his IQ, his stress levels, his age, etc. The plan is to have him in stasis for one year, then measure the results. Joe goes along with it because it puts him closer to his pension and he always has been the type who believes that going with the flow or getting out of the way makes his life easier. Unfortunately, circumstances cause him to be forgotten and one year becomes 500 (not 1000 as the taglines say).
Meanwhile, the human race as a whole has become collectively dumber as the stupid reproduced in droves while the intelligent died out. This is explained in a hilarious bit showing the tales of two families: A yuppie couple who put off having any children until it’s too late and a tribe of white trash headed by a patriarch who doesn’t have the brains to use birth control let alone have any fidelity; a trait passed on to his equally pathetic brood. Science also declines because all its energies are redirected toward curing baldness and sexual performance. The ‘dumbening’ cascades into the world’s infrastructure decaying from neglect: mountains of garbage, dust storms and English devolving into a hybrid of hillbilly- and ghetto-speak sprinkled with a level of vulgarity that would make Tarantino’s scripts high art. Fox News surviving in this ignorant dystopia is no surprise though.
Joe is accidentally awakened to this horrible future when his hibernation “coffin” is swept away in a tidal wave of trash. Disoriented at first, Joe and this society’s crumbling institutions quickly realize he is the smartest person in the world. However, being smarter than the dumb masses will always earn you their hatred, not their respect. See the biography of Adlai Stevenson.
I enjoyed this dark movie too much. Mike Judge did a great job showing what civilization would be like if the ruling clique of dumbass jocks and cheerleaders from high school were always in charge. It was all the little details that helped too; the food products, the furniture (practically every chair has a built-in toilet), the low-brow TV, etc. The actors and script were excellent at showing a bully’s logic involving force, threats, name calling, repeating the same slogans constantly or dismissing facts with “whatever.” Also known as the Republican Party’s Talking Points regurgitated on Fox, MSNBC, CNN and C-Span. Maybe Idiocracy is a cautionary documentary about the horrible path the US is on now.
I know it’s only a movie, a comedy and fiction but it definitely makes a strong argument for eugenics.
Final notes. There was some noise (namely on the Internet) about Judge ripping off Futurama while this movie was in production. Although both involve a Rip Van Winkle premise, their executions are entirely different which makes them both enjoyable. Other examples to buck this criticism; Dexter’s Lab and Jimmy Neutron or Superman and Captain Marvel. This movie was also completed last year but Fox shelved it until now. Why? No one really knows other than the Fox people and Mike Judge. It won’t matter anyway. Much like Office Space, Idiocracy will zip through theaters, be a theatrical failure and live on as a cult favorite through cable and DVD rentals.
I understand the change in colors somewhat. The Rampage has the same owner(s) as the Spurs and they’re only affiliated with the Phoenix Coyotes (this is a year-by-year situation) so going with the brick red would be unwise if the Rampage became the AHL team for another NHL franchise. However, they should’ve flipped a coin or made a better argument to have these colors exclusively in their division because it’s hard to tell them apart from Milwaukee. They did borrow a note from UT’s look with “just the head snorting out steam.” I guess in hockey, black, white, gray and silver are the new teal, turquoise and purple.