Idiocracy

[Sal]

It was funny but it didnt go all the way with its cool premise.  When the climax is someone videotaping plants growing, there's a problem.  That was funny but the gatorade/water dilemma should have been just one of the problems Luke Wilson had to face.  A great try, worthy of a viewing (blasted or not), but it almost feels like it should have been an animated film.

[modage]

Title: Idiocracy
Released: 9th January 2007
SRP: $27.98

Further Details:
Fox Home Entertainment has announced the Mike Judge sci-fi comedy Idiocracy which stars Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. The disc will be available to own from the 9th January, and should retail at around $27.98. The film itself will be presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, along with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track. The only extra material will be deleted scenes (Babies/Trashy Guy & Girl in Truck, Girlfriend #1, Girlfriend #2, Museum of Fart, and Joe in Whitehouse Looks Out) and forced (yes forced) trailers for Little Miss Sunshine, Borat, and The Marine. We've attached the official artwork below: http://www.dvdactive.com/news/releases/idiocracy.html

[Kal]

the dvd cover sucks.... is this worth it? i really wanted to see this, but is it any good?

[modage]

i really wanted to see this, but is it any good?

it looks like a rental.

[MacGuffin]

DAX SHEPARD PONDERS FOX'S IDIOCRACY

Dax Shepard knew CHUD when I walked in for our one on one for his new film, Let's Go to Prison, opening this weekend. "You're from CHUD," he said. "CHUD's been intermittently mean and nice to me – they can't decide if they like me or hate me."

The fact of the matter, and I told this to him, is that we tend to like Dax Shepard here at CHUD, but we can't always agree with his film choices. He seems to make the kind of movies where all you can say is, "Well, Dax Shepard was good in it."

One choice we agreed with was appearing in Mike Judge's Idiocracy, a comedy about a not that bright guy who wakes up a thousand years in the future to discover that America has been so dumbed down that he's the smartest man alive. Mike Judge earned a massive cult following from Office Space (to say nothing of Beavis and Butthead), a movie that had been mostly dumped by the studio. This year Fox did the same thing with Idiocracy, completely shitting on the film, releasing it into a tiny handful of theaters. I had to find out what Dax thought about it all, and what Mike Judge's reaction was – after all, Office Space, a movie that got a better (though still shitty) release, almost made him quit directing.

Nobody could go see Idiocracy because Fox totally shit on that movie. What happened?

Shepard: I don't know. There are all kinds of conspiracy theories surrounding it now, but there are a couple of issues. One is that it tested poorly, and they base all their P&A funds on how well it tests. But what they didn't step back and think about is that the people who go see a free test screening on a Saturday night are the people being made fun of in the movie, so of course it didn't test well. And then I think there are also issues with all the corporate attacks and Rupert [Murdoch] being a very immersed guy in the corporate world, globally. That has to do something to do with it.

Because they did more than dump it – they sabotaged it. They intentionally listed it wrong on Moviefone, in my opinion.

They didn't let Mike Judge finish the picture from what I understand.

Shepard: We finished shooting and they did a reshoot.

I mean post.

Shepard: Yeah, they did not fund the special effects the way it should have been. I know [Robert] Rodriguez donated some shots; he and Mike Judge are friends.

Can you really test comedies, especially non-mainstream ones?

Shepard: That's the thing. But I get it – Fox is not in the business of making boutique comedies that appeal to you and I. Searchlight can do that, but big Fox doesn't do that. They don't know how to market that kind of movie.

The only perplexing thing about the Mike Judge movie is, why did they make it? The ballsy thing, in my opinion, was making the movie. The movie was the script – they knew what it was going to be. I don't understand them making it in the first place. It doesn't shock me that they didn't know how to market it, but I'm shocked they made it.

How is Mike Judge taking the whole thing? I know that after the problems he had with Office Space he said he would never make another movie.

Shepard: I think he had a similar knee-jerk reaction to the whole thing, and he's certainly done working with studios. But I don't think it's put him off directing. He still wants to direct, but he wants to do it on a much smaller scale. This was an infinitely bigger movie than Office Space was – it was a 30 million dollar movie, it was set in the future, there were huge sets. I don't think he loved that aspect of it.

[Kal]

When you realize the amount of shit they release every year + The amount of movies that test horribly or that dont even test at all. They skip reviews and criticts and everything. And so many of them tank.

At least this was from a guy that is admired by a lot of people. and Office Space became a cult hit. And this wasnt a fucking stupid remake. Studios are retarded.

[modage]

just noticed in the credits, co-written by Etan Cohen, which i thought was probably Ethan Coen with a misplaced h perhaps to distance himself from the movie, but i think this other guy actually exists. 

[matt35mm]

just noticed in the credits, co-written by Etan Cohen, which i thought was probably Ethan Coen with a misplaced h perhaps to distance himself from the movie, but i think this other guy actually exists. 

It's a real other person.  He works on King of the Hill with Mike Judge.  He also works on American Dad.  It is most definitely not an alter ego of Ethan Coen.

[adolfwolfli]

This movie is great, and will be definitely enjoy similar cult status to "Office Space".  It's not as eminently quotable as Office Space, since most of the gags in Idiocracy are of a very intricate, background visual nature (you can freeze frame almost every frame of this movie and have a blast just reading all the silly ads and whatnot on the walls of the buildings).  It's really no wonder it was barely seen in theaters and that the powers that be want to bury it: I mean, in the future Fuddruckers has been rechristened Buttfuckers, and Starbucks is depicting as having abandoned coffee to sell hand jobs using various degrees of foamy milk as a lubricant.  The whole thing is a big F-YOU to large corporations.  It's pretty nasty and acerbic and borders on bleak and depressing, even thought there are many laugh-out-loud moments.  I think what's made a lot of people nervous is that the future depicted here does not seem so far off. 

[Pubrick]

I think what's made a lot of people nervous is that the future depicted here does not seem so far off. 

yeah, i'm sure that's it. mike judge's prescient vision of the future was too much for people to handle.

[Redlum]

I took a gamble and rented this. I was prepared to be dissapointed but throughly enjoyed it. The effects, despite being unambitious were extremely well done and more often than not - integral to the comedy (e.g. the pile up of crashed cars at the foot of the destructed highway). Most importantly they felt like they were part of a Mike Judge film, not just transplanted. Really rich in detail for such a low budget. So much so that not seeing it on the big screen is a big loss.

The future gags were evenly spread and paced throughout the film which is really impressive for something as high concept as this (I was expecting it to tail off quit severely).

I knew it must be pretty good when Bob Maplethorpe appeared.

[Ghostboy]

I watched this tonight and thought it was pretty damn funny. Then again, I was painting while watching it, so maybe it helped that I wasn't paying attention to it 100%. But the approximately  84 to  92% that I did watch was thoroughly enjoyable.

[©brad]

despite being a tad long, i thought it was really funny too. this line in particular had me on the floor:

"What do you paint?"
"I don't know... people and fruit and shit."