Idiocracy

Decent movie. I'm becoming a bit of a Mike Judge fan -- King of the Hill in particular is a fantastic show, and Office Space was good as well, if overhyped. I'm surprised that Judge is still struggling to obtain financing for his projects: Idiocracy was nearly abandoned by Fox before it was finally released in a small number of theaters.

Idiocracy centers around Private Joe Bauer (Luke Wilson), a likeable everyman whose only ambition in life is to obtain his pension from the army: When his superiors tell Joe to lead, follow, or get out of the way, he invariably chooses the third option. Unfortunately, Joe's utter normality makes him an attractive guinea pig for army scientists working on a top-secret cryogenisis project, and thanks to the requisite series of mishaps, Joe is accidentally frozen for five hundred years. Upon awakening, he discovers that humanity has literally bred itself stupid. (Harvey Danger was right!) With the help of a fellow test subject (Maya Rudolph), Joe attempts to find a way back to the past, while coping with the hazards of being the only intelligent man in a world of morons.

For the most part, this movie lives up to its premise. The people of the future are a sorry lot, completely dependant upon a rotting infrastructure left to them by their more intelligent ancestors. They live as hedonists, but without creativity -- stuffing themselves on fast food, breeding like mad, and gaping mindlessly at the TV. Judge fleshes out his vision of the future with some great little details, satirizing pop culture (thrill to the hit TV show "Ow, My Balls"), commerce (marvel at "Brawndo," the sports drink/crop waterer that's "got what plants crave!"), and politics (laugh at President Camacho, the ex-wrestler who has taken power by virtue of sheer machismo!) Of course, Joe's interactions with these nitwits provide most of the movie's humor. My favorite scene involves his long, painful attempt to convince the President's Advisory Council that plants might actually crave water instead of electrolytes. Their response: "Water? Like from the toilet?"

Sadly, Idiocracy is a little thin on plot. The movie sometimes seems unsure of where it's going (will Joe and Maya get together? Would anyone care?), and it falters at the finish line, with a predictable "hero-in-peril" scene followed by a preachy monologue. Still, I'd give it a solid B+. It's got a lot of laughs, and that's all I'm really looking for in a light comedy like this.

Holt sh*t, it Beef Supreme!