Review: Idiocracy

Title: Idiocracy

Stars: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard

Writer and director: Mike Judge

Quick, referential description: Sharp as Office Space, lowbrow as Beavis and Butthead. Humor for all!

Filmed: Two years ago

In theaters: Now. Honest.

Total amount spent on advertising by Fox (trailers, commercials, print ads, etc.): Approximately zero dollars.

How I found out it had been released: From a guy introducing a movie at the Nuart, who couldn't quite believe he was plugging a movie that wasn't even showing at a Landmark theater.

Pre-release reviews: Are you kidding? If they'd screened it ahead of time, then some careless critic might have given away the movie's existence. And heaven help them if they actually like it.

General post-release review: It's pretty good. It's certainly better than [The Sentinel/Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties/John Tucker Must Die/Just My Luck/Date Movie]. If you have any appreciation for satire then you'll probably enjoy it.


Possible reason for Fox's lack of action number one: The film targets corporations and America's lowest common cultural denominator, suggesting that if things stay on their current trajectory then we might be in trouble in 500 years.

Possible reason for Fox's lack of action number two: Fox's movie marketing division is just plain incompetent.

Rule of thumb: Even if there's some level of corporate intrigue involved, one shouldn't be so quick to attribute to conspiracy what can more easily be explained by mere incompetence.

What I'm sayin': An absolute must-see. You should go see it while you still can, provided you live in one of the seven markets in which it's playing. In fact, you should buy your tickets right now. Go on. Right now. (Just don't be surprised if you don't find the movie listed on moviefone.com. It comes up on Fandango, Yahoo! Movies, and the various theater sites, though.) If you don't live in one of those markets, it should be coming out on DVD... someday... maybe...

What I'd probably be sayin' if Fox weren't apparently trying to bury it: It's fun. Not the greatest, most pointed movie ever made, but still well worth the price of admission. If you're reading my blog, then you'll probably like the movie, too.

Note: If the word of mouth (mouth, internet, whatever) this is getting translates to the movie actually making a little money, someone from Fox will try to take credit from it. Don't believe them.

Show business: Still weird.

Overheard/Inferred

Scene from a Starbucks:

There is a really bad first date ending at the next table.

"It was nice meeting you," she said a minute ago. "But..."

"Sometimes people just aren't compatible," he said with authority.

"I'm sorry I'm so tired. I'm totally crashing."

"It's that apple cider," he said, not joking. "The sugar will make you crash." And he went on about that for a good ten minutes before she could extricate herself.

She will call a friend on her way home. "He seemed okay at first," she will say, "but he wouldn't stop talking! And when I could get a word in edgewise, he had to pass judgment on it."

"I don't understand why she didn't call me," he will say to a friend in a couple of days. "We talked and talked, and I tried to show that I was interested in what she said.

"He was definitely older and fatter than his profile," she will say.

"She was hot! I didn't just come out and say that though. I said I liked that she was girly," he will say. "That's okay, right?"

"I never knew one cup of coffee could take so long," she will say.

"Maybe I shouldn't have told her how I get so crazy when I drink, but that I do like the taste of beer," he will say.

"So finally I got to talk, and he kept going 'uh-huh, uh-huh,' but the whole time he was just looking for a way to get back to talking about himself," she will say.

"Maybe she just got busy," he will say. "She said she goes out with her friends a lot. Like, all the time."

"Screw JDate," she will say to her friend. "Let's go get a drink." And they will. And she will have a fabulous time.

"I don't know why these dates never work out," he will say. "Guess it's time to tweak my profile again. Think I should say I'm a few years younger? Why are you laughing?"