Tuesday, January 16, 2007

idiocracy

Boy, did 20th Century Fox screw up with this movie. They released it in only six cities, and with absolutely no advertising, allowing it to earn about $300,000 and then die. The problem is the movie's actually pretty good. And because it's a satire about the dumbing down of American culture, when people eventually do see it, and it becomes one of those 'cult classic' sort of movies, the fans are going to decide that Fox buried it because its satire hits too close to home. Well, or because Starbucks and Fuddrucker paid for product placements, and director Mike Judge shows the future Starbucks selling handjobs, and Fuddruckers changing their name to "Buttfuckers".

Basically, the film has one joke: We really are getting dumber. And it follows that conceit to every possible conclusion. It's the old Rip Van Winkle story- an average Joe is frozen and thawed out 500 years from now to find the world is changed. In this case, it's gotten a lot stupider. The most popular television show is "Ow! My Balls!", the most popular movie features nothing but a farting ass for two hours, and he's now the smartest man on earth.

It's sort of a feel bad comedy, and while it's not the greatest comedy of all time, it's a lot funnier than a lot of movies that get wide releases- White Chicks, I'm looking your way! Anway, I recommend it, and actually, I hope more people will see it because it's endlessly quotable, and as of now, nobody but Claire gets it when I say "But Brawndo's got what plants crave! It's got electrolytes!"

1 comment:

historyjen said...

Ha! This is one to file away to see on a rainy day.