Movie Notes: Idiocracy

September 8th, 2006

Was thinking about seeing a movie tonight, but looked at what was playing and it all looked like a waste of time. I did read about one movie that looks really funny, but it’s not playing in any theaters near me, or anybody else for that matter: Idiocracy.

This film stars Luke Wilson and was written by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead, Office Space, and King of the Hill. The plot is fairly witty sci-fi right out of a bad 70s film (of which I’ve been watching several) like Planet of the Apes: Luke Wilson plays a soldier signed up for a cryogenics-type experiment and wakes up in 2505, when morons have taken over America (now it seems, the United States of China). The President is a wrestler, corporations like Starbucks have taken over the brothels, FOX News is the only news channel, and extreme energy drinks are pumped into the water supply.

I got a few chuckles just reading about the film online, and wanted to check out the trailer, but there isn’t one. So I tried to find some production stills, and those are few and far between. It’s obvious FOX thinks the movie sucks, has given it a really limited release, and it will quickly be shunted to DVD and hopefully make a bit of money there. Meanwhile, a movie like Beerfest is critically panned yet playing at every mall in America. I can understand why a studio might think a movie about morons as heroes would play better than Americans as morons, yet… not even a freaking trailer?

I’m adding this to my Netflix cue today, even before the DVD comes out.

IMDB: Idiocracy