Idiocracy (2006)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Mike Judge

Writers (WGA):

Mike Judge (story)
Mike Judge (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 January 2007 (Germany)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Future Is A No Brainer

Plot:

Private Joe Bauers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.

Plot Keywords:

Hibernation | Experiment | Army | Soldier | Arrest

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Luke Wilson	...	Joe Bauers
Maya Rudolph	...	Rita
Dax Shepard	...	Frito
Terry Crews	...	President Camacho (as Terry Alan Crews)
Anthony 'Citric' Campos	...	Secretary of Defense
David Herman	...	Secretary of State
Sonny Castillo	...	Prosecutor
Kevin McAfee	...	Bailiff (as Kevin S. McAfee)
Robert Musgrave	...	Sgt. Keller
Michael McCafferty	...	Officer Collins (as Mike McCafferty)
Christopher Ryan	...	Hospital Technician
Justin Long	...	Doctor
Heath Jones	...	Cop #1
Eli Muñoz	...	Horny Guy
Patrick Fischler	...	Yuppie Husband

Also Known As:

3001 (USA) (working title)
Untitled Mike Judge Comedy (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for language and sex-related humor.

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Australia:MA | Finland:K-13 | Germany:12 | USA:R (certificate #41505) | Argentina:13 | Italy:T | New Zealand:R13 | Netherlands:12 | South Korea:15 | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Austin Convention Center - 500 E. Cesar Chavez Street, Austin, Texas, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The "chase" music in the movie--fast tempo staccato violins and drums--is homage to the iconic music themes used for chase scenes in Planet of the Apes (1968), also about being pursued in a dystopian future, and also produced by Twentieth-Century Fox.

Goofs:

Continuity: At the cut to the close shot during the motorcade down Pennsylvania Avenue, the buildings along the street vanish, leaving Pres. Camacho's bike and the bus against an empty sky. They reappear at the cut back to the long shot.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: 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 than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man...

Movie Connections:

References "The Simpsons: The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace (#10.2)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Star Spangled Banner

This is the beginning of a marketing mystery

There's no other word for it...Fox dumped this out, with NO marketing of any kind. Nobody in the country, other than those who have been looking forward to this film, know anything about it. All the red flags have flown. It has to be a mess, it can't be anywhere near as good as Office Space, right? Wrong. Though Office Space it ain't, this film definitely has satirical bite and wit. It's a misfire on certain levels, but who's to blame is left to mystery.

Based on what is currently showing in theatres, I can say IDIOCRACY is a good movie. It's funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny. It's effective, sometimes ingenious. What it isn't as far as I can tell, is finished. We will see something come of this film again, whether it's an extended cut or reshoots. Alone it can be hilarious. It's ballsy at times.

Leaving the theatre, looking around at the mall, I was surrounded by advertisements and billboards, commercialism and stupidity. It's not quite as damning a dystopia as 1984, but this movie paints an ugly future for our culture. And there doesn't seem to be much anybody can do about it. Anyway, go see this if you can and try to find out what happened that it was so specifically buried.