Idiocracy Starring Luke Wilson, Dax Shepard, Maya Rudolph Directed by Mike Judge Fox, 2006 "Hollywood used to make great films, with plots! Where you cared about whose ass it was, and why it was farting!" Private Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson), a perfectly average American in all respects, is selected to be part of a top secret suspended animation project for the US Army, along with a hooker named Rita (Maya Rudolph). Intended to be in hibernation for a year, they end up emerging 500 years into the future. Joe ends up crashing on an avalanche of garbage into the window of Frito (Dax Shepard), who just wants to watch the latest episode of "Ow, My Balls!" on the Violence Channel in peace. Joe discovers to his horror that the future is run by complete morons - natural selection has failed, and the dumbasses have out bred the intelligent into extinction. "The greatest minds of the time were too busy working on cures for hair loss and prolonging erections." Trying to find out what's going on, Joe walks past all the corporate advertising everywhere, even on people's clothes, and goes to a local hospital, St God's, where .. well, he ends up in trouble with the law, let's not give away too much of the movie. "Idiocracy" is a caustic, sharp satire of the dumbing down of the world, by the man oft accused of contributing to said dumbing down with the creation of "Beavis and Butthead". There's plenty of scatological and physical comedy in the movie, and I laughed as hard as anyone, but I could also see the purpose behind it, and began to feel a little of the same guilt that Joe does during the course of the movie. Am I part of the problem? Some excellent performances - including Terry Crews as President Camacho, with all the style and bravado of a pro wrestler - offering Joe a pardon if he solves the world's problem of crops no longer growing, or death if he doesn't. Watch out for a rather hilarious "Monday Night Rehabilitation" sequence, and I also bet most of you in the audience will want to go for a 'double latte' afterward. Fox has treated this movie, and no doubt its creator, rather poorly, but considering the subject matter, I'm surprised it was approved in the first place. Good luck trying to find it playing in a theatre, but fortunately the DVD is released in the US on January 9th 2007. A final note: Watch for a rather amusing gag after the end credits.

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Copyright © 2007 Christopher Coleman About the Author