Aldous Huxley has Brave New World.
Mike Judge has Idiocracy.
While BNW is considerably smarter, both share a strikingly similar dystopian vision of the future.
Mike Judge has built his career on stupidity, from his earliest creation of redneck simpleton, Inbred Jed, to the wildly popular MTV phenomenon that was Beavis And Butt-Head, to his cult hit Office Space (with the best ever use of the phrase "ass clown"). Idiocracy remains true to Judge's twit-themed criterion in its apocalyptic vision of a world gone dumb, based on the simple theory that people with lower IQs breed faster than eggheads. It's actually a plausible hypothesis to indulge. It's become all too common in society to hear that upwardly mobile cultural elites are postponing their plans to start a family until they get settled in their career, until they are financially more secure, or until the housing market stabilizes. Such factors don't seem to be influencing the middle to lower-class and thus, they continue to produce offspring at an alarming rate. It's Darwinism at it's purest. As the unintelligent begins exponentially outnumbering the intelligent, the fittest become the masses and thus, they are the ones that survive.
Luke Wilson's outstandingly average army man is at the center of Idiocracy as he is cryogenically frozen and wakes up 500 years in the future -- as the world's smartest man. He awakens to a world of digital clock towers, sofas with built-in toilet seats, a Gatorade-type sports drink that's bought out and replaced water, and the fast food and sex industries have merged (naturally).
The premise pretty much gives Judge free rein to attack anywhere he sees standards dropping and stupidity creeping in. He rips reality TV (with a show called Ow! My Balls! in which the central character's family jewels are repeatedly bludgeoned to a cacophony of laughter and cheers). Costco is a warehouse city, bigger and more stocked than could ever be necessary. And the President of the United States is sponsored by Mountain Dew. It's a rare thing when films feature anti-product placement.
Although the film itself doesn't even do the concept justice, it is a clever and gutsy comedy with something to say. I mean, how far off is this supposition, really? As audiences lap up 'comedies' such as Epic Movie, and Paris Hilton is glorified in all her folly, and people tune in intently to watch other people (with no apparent redeeming qualities to offer society) live out their lives on camera (and foolishly believe that it's 'reality'), are we not screaming toward a world gone dumb? I don't know that society will ever actually reach the depths of stupidity that sees entire irrigation units replace water with a power drink, but we are rapidly approaching a society that celebrates the deficient and abhors all things that don't include systematic neurological jolts that keep our adhd in check.
It's far from great, but depending on your mood, you'll likely find it at least mildly entertaining and thought provoking.
McRating: 6.0
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