Idiocracy (DVD, 2006, Rental Ready)

Idiocracy gives new meaning to the term "dumb comedy."

In 2005, the somewhat dim but kind-hearted Pvt. Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson, My Super Ex-Girlfriend) takes part in a U.S. Army experiment testing out a process for putting people in a state of suspended animation. His companion in the project will be a common streetwalker, Rita (SNL's wonderful Maya Rudolph), whom Joe accepts at her word when she tells him she's an artist and her pimp is her boyfriend. That's the kind of nice guy Joe is. He wants to believe the best in everybody.

Joe and Rita are supposed to sleep for a year, but budget cuts leave the pair forgotten, and instead they wake up in 2505 to discover a United States that has completely lost its way intellectually. Corporate sponsorship has taken over everything, an Ultimate Fighting champion is in the White House, and people are as stupid as they can possibly be--so much so, that Joe has now become the smartest man in the world. Led by his court-appointed "lawyer," Frito (Dax Shepard, Punk'd), Joe goes looking for a time machine, navigating an absurd society and jumping from one fantastically ludicrous frying pan to hilariously ridiculous fire after another.

There's not much more explanation needed than that. Idiocracy is the latest film from Mike Judge, the creator of "Beavis & Butthead" and the director of the comedy classic Office Space, so there's no better man to helm a film about a future overrun by morons. His entire career is built on mining the stupidity of North America for laughs. As with his TV work and his other film, the genius of his technique is the fact that he is able to pull off two levels of entertainment: the straight-up comedy on the surface and the subtle social satire that is underneath. You can watch his programs and laugh a lot, and then when you're done, if you want to think about what Judge is saying about modern man, you can. His approach is almost insidious, the way it hides a message in an amusing wrapper.

Inexplicably, 20th Century Fox has up until this point tried to act like Idiocracy doesn't exist. Though highly anticipated by the legion of Mike Judge fans, this movie never got a proper release. Allegedly, it had a limited roll out last September, but did it play anywhere near you? I know Idiocracy never hit my town. It's a bizarre move, because Idiocracy is really funny. I laughed a lot, which I can't say about most studio comedies I saw this year. Unlike other "bad boy" comedies, like the limp School for Scoundrels, Idiocracy doesn't wuss out either. It maintains its edginess through and through, right up to the hidden scene after the closing credits. Beyond the silly jokes and toilet humor, I even enjoyed some of the wordplay. It actually takes a very smart writer to create dialogue for someone who isn't too bright.

So, rest assured, if there's anyone stupid in the Idiocracy scenario, it's whoever at Fox decided we wouldn't want to see this movie. Together we can show them we're not as dumb as they think we are, and we know a good comedy when we see it.


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