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Promotional poster for Idiocracy | |
Directed by | Mike Judge |
Written by | Mike Judge Etan Cohen |
Produced by | Mike Judge Elysa Koplovitz Michael Nelson |
Starring | Luke Wilson Maya Rudolph |
Narrated by | Earl Mann |
Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
Edited by | David Rennie |
Music by | Theodore Shapiro |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates | September 3, 2006 |
Running time | 84 min. |
Country | USA |
Language | English |
Box office | $444,000 (U.S. Domestic) |
Idiocracy is a 2006 American dark comedy directed by Mike Judge, and starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. The two main characters submit to a hibernation experiment that goes afoul, and they awaken 500 years in the future, to discover that dysgenics and cultural anti-intellectualism have resulted in a uniformly stupid United States, called "Uhh-merica."
Synopsis
As the movie begins, vignettes and a voiceover illustrate that as unintelligent people enthusiastically out-breed competent people, future society will become inevitably and irreversibly dumber.
In 2005, Army librarian Joe Bauers (Wilson), a completely average man, and Rita (Rudolph), a prostitute who is terrified of her pimp, Upgrayedd (up•grade), are selected as guinea pigs for a year-long secret military hibernation project. The pair are sealed into coffin-like chambers. Unfortunately, after a scandal in which the officer in charge is arrested on prostitution charges, the experiment is forgotten, the military base is demolished, and a Fuddruckers (devolving into Buttfuckers in the future) is built on the site.
Five hundred years later, Joe and Rita's containers (unearthed in the Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505) open, reviving them. Joe lands in the apartment of Frito Pendejo (Shepard), an idiot. Feeling woozy, Joe visits the hospital where Dr. Lexus (Long) diagnoses him as simply "tarded". Lexus panics that Joe has no bar code tattoo and can't be scanned for payment, while Joe panics that 500 years have passed, and the world he sees out the window is falling apart. Joe flees but is arrested at a Carl's Jr. vending booth for failing to pay the hospital bill, and for being unscannable.
Joe's defense lawyer at trial turns out to be Frito, who stupidly helps convict him. In prison, a poorly-designed I.D. machine records Joe's name as "Not Sure" and barcodes him. During a mandatory I.Q. test, Joe realizes just how stupid humanity has become. Easily escaping the prison, Joe returns to Frito's apartment and asks if a time machine exists to help him return to the past. Frito says there is, but will help only after Joe promises him billions of dollars in interest on a bank account Joe will open in the past.
Enroute to the time machine, Joe, Rita and the lawyer enter a city-sized Costco, where Joe is arrested again when his new barcode is scanned. Instead of going to jail, Joe is taken to the White House: President Camacho (Crews) has seen Joe's I.Q. test (which made him the world's most intelligent man) and recruits him to solve the world's food shortages, crippled economy, mountains of garbage, etc. Joe learns that water has been replaced by Brawndo (a sports drink apparently rich in electrolytes), even for crop irrigation, causing the food shortage.
After Joe reintroduces the use of water (now only used in toilets) for crops, the giant Brawndo Corporation's stock plummets, causing massive unemployment. The angry population riots, and Joe is sentenced to a Running Man/Mad Max/demolition derby style "rehabilitation". Meanwhile Rita sees crops sprouting in the fields. To save Joe, she bribes a TV cameraman to show the crops to the world, with Frito going along. But before they reach the field, they are sidetracked by a sale at Starbucks, now a brothel chain. It is only after Frito knocks out the cameraman for calling him a "fag" that he remembers his job. The President sees the thriving new plants on the stadium big screens and pardons Joe just as he is about to be incinerated by a flame thrower. Soon afterwards, Joe becomes the Vice-President and eventually, President. He abandons his plans to return to the past so he can work on saving the future; he and Rita eventually marry and have three children.
At the celebration, Joe learns that the "Time Masheen" is just a bad amusement park history ride where Charlie Chaplin is shown as the leader of the Nazi party, dinosaurs are used as living weapons, and the U.N. is called the "UN", having "Un-Nazied the world forever". After the credits, we see a third hibernation capsule open, releasing a snappily dressed Upgrayedd into the world, intent on tracking down Rita.
Cast
- Luke Wilson as Army librarian Private Joe Bauers (Not Sure), an average guy
- Maya Rudolph as Rita, a prostitute working for Upgrayedd
- Dax Shepard as Frito Pendejo, public defender
- Terry Crews as President Camacho, porn star and champion wrestler
- Brendan Hill as Secretary of Energy
- David Herman as Secretary of State
- Sara Rue as Attorney General
- Stephen Root as Judge Hank "The Hangman" BMW
- Thomas Haden Church as Brawndo CEO
- Justin Long as Dr. Lexus
- Andrew Wilson as Beef Supreme
- Jennifer Vasquez as Camacho's Groupie (uncredited)
- Scarface as Upgrayedd
Critique of modern society
Apart from being a comedy, the movie also criticizes modern society. For example, product brands are everywhere. Clothes are entirely covered with brand prints. The view of one street is completely taken up by flashing neon advertisements. Furthermore, most of the characters in the film have brand names as first names such as Frito Pendejo, Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, Hormel Chavez, Formica Davis, Hank BMW, and Tylenol Jones.
Modern garbage management is criticized as well, as 'junk avalanches' are one of the main problems in their society. In addition the handling of presidential elections and the judicial system are heavily criticized. Both are reduced to spectacular but superficial events. If there is a problem, the president simply starts 'rocking' or fires his gun and people don't bother to complain any more as they are having a good time. Also, the judicial system is merely a show in an arena to entertain the people.
Reality television and gross-out humor also come under heavy criticism. In the year 2505, the most popular program on television is a show entitled Ow! My Balls!, which features Hormel Chavez, the "star" of the show, getting repeatedly injured in the crotch, and the top-grossing movie is Ass, a film that shows 90 minutes of a man's buttocks farting from time to time. Ironically enough, Jackass Number Two was released in the same month as Idiocracy and became a huge blockbuster hit.
Contemporary cultural references
Aside from the contemporary brands featured, contemporary fictions and quirks have been transformed, by stupidity, into fact in the film's future. In an early scene, Clevon says, "Shit! I got too many damn kids!" while holding a "Penn Pavel's Beer", a fictional brand seen in the film The Truman Show. At the end of the film, the "Time Masheen" historical ride features Charlie Chaplin as the leader of Nazi Germany and the cause of World War II, interpreting Chaplin (who played a Hitler-esque role in The Great Dictator) literally as Hitler.
Production
Early working titles included The United States of Uhh-merica and 3001. Filming took place during 2004 in and around the cities of Austin, San Marcos, Pflugerville, and Round Rock, Texas. Test screenings around March 2005 produced unofficial reports of poor audience reactions. After some re-shooting in the summer of 2005, a U.K. test screening in August produced a report of a positive impression.
Release issues
As of February 2005 the film's scheduled release date was August 5, 2005, according to Mike Judge. In April 2006, a release date was set for September 1, 2006. In August, numerous articles revealed that release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Idiocracy was released as scheduled but only in seven cities (Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin), and expanded to only 125 theaters, not the usual wide release of 2500-3000 theaters. According to the Austin American-Statesman , 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, did nothing to promote the movie — while posters were released to theatres, no movie trailers, television ads, or press kits for media outlets were provided. The film was not screened for critics. Lack of concrete information from 20th Century Fox led to speculation that Fox may have actively tried to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation for theatrical release prior to a DVD release, according to Ryan Pearson of AP. In the New York Times Dan Mitchell argued that Fox might be shying away from a cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics. John Patterson of The Guardian suggests it is a result of the film's anti-corporate message, noting that in the film Starbucks now delivers handjobs, and the motto of Carl's Jr. has devolved from "Don't Bother Me. I'm Eating." to "Fuck You! I'm Eating!" Also in the film, a Carl's Jr. vending machine cheats a customer, Fuddruckers' name gradually morphs into "Buttfuckers", the fictional Brawndo corporation buys the F.D.A. and the F.C.C, and the Fox News Channel is depicted in unflattering newscasts (20th Century Fox, which distributed the film, and the Fox News Channel are both owned by the Rupert Murdoch-controlled News Corporation).
Reception
Despite a seasoned cast, a script by award-winning writers Judge and Cohen, and extensive use of CGI special effects, the film was not made available for preview by critics, its much-delayed release received no publicity, and it was finally distributed to only 130 screens.
Despite these troubles, the film received generally favorable reviews by critics. It received a 68% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes (though it was only reviewed by 31 critics as of April 2007). It received a 6.4/10 rating on the Internet Movie Database. Praise focused on concept, casting, and humor, while some special effects and pacing problems, and the film's release issues received the worst of the criticism.
Box office receipts totalled $444,093 in 135 theaters in the U.S.
DVD release
The movie was released on DVD on January 9, 2007 with fullframe and widescreen aspect ratios, deleted scenes, English and Spanish spoken language tracks, and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French. So far the DVD release has earned $9 million, over 20 times the limited theatrical release.
See also
- The Marching Morons C.M. Kornbluth, 1951. Science fiction story about dysgenic breeding.
- Futurama episode The Day the Earth Stood Stupid
- Sleeper (film)
- Harrison Bergeron (Kurt Vonnegut short story in Welcome to the Monkey House and TV movie)
- Spirit of '76 (1990 film)
References
- The Truman Show Mother Jones. Leslie Weiss, September/October 1998. Retrieved 2007-04-19.
- So What Idiot Kept This Movie Out of Theaters? NPR. Thomas Pierce, January 11, 2007. Retrieved February 9, 2007.
- Texas Film Commission Filmography (2000-2006) Office of the Governor. Retrieved 2007-04-27.
- Mike Judge's Idiocracy Tests! (etc.) aintitcoolnews.com Eric Vespe for anonymous contributor, August 22, 2005. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
- Mike Judge Still Not In "3001" Dark Horizons. Garth Franklin, February 28, 2005. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
- MTV Movie File MTV.com. Larry Carroll, August 30, 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
- Was 'Idiocracy' treated idiotically? Austin American-Statesman. Chris Garcia, August 30, 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-09.
- Idiocracy (review) The Onion A.V. Club. Nathan Rabin, September 6, 2006. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
- The mystery of 'Idiocracy'. Associated Press. Ryan Pearson, September 8, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
- Shying away from Degeneracy. New York Times. Dan Mitchell, September 9, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
- Stupid Fox. Guardian UK. John Patterson. September 8, 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-25.
- Idiocracy Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
- Idiocracy Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
- Idiocracy - DVD / Home Video Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
External links
Scenes
Scenes from the opening of the film, from Fox Home Video website: Two family trees,
- Clevon's family grows, Joe gets a new job, Project meeting, Joe & Rita enter hibernation. WMV format.
Release
- Open Letter to Fox re: IDIOCRACY!!! Ain't It Cool News. Eric Vespe, September 2, 2006. On the film's mishandling.
- Mike Judge Is Getting Screwed (Again) Esquire. Brian Raftery, June 1, 2006. Interview with Mike Judge about the film's mishandling.
- Time for Mike Judge to go Indie Cinematical. Jette Kernion, Oct 22nd 2006. On the film's mishandling.
- Dude, Where's My Film? Time. Joel Stein, September 10, 2006. On the film's mishandling.
- A Paucity of Publicity for 'Idiocracy' NPR's Day to Day. Nihar Patel, September 8, 2006. Audio report on the marketing of the film. Includes comments by a veteran Fox marketing employee.
Reviews
- 3001 Screenplay Review FilmJerk.com. Edward Havens, January 29th, 2004. Positive review of the "3001" screenplay.
- Idiocracy Review FilmJerk.com. Edward Havens, September 4, 2006. Positive review of the film.
- Idiocracy Review Scifi.com. Mike Szymanski, September 1, 2006. Review of an early edit; refers to the year 2974.
- Idiocracy Review Reel Film Reviews. David Nusair, September 1, 2006. Positive review.
- Idiocracy Review Not Coming to a Theater Near You, Rumsey Taylor, January 2007. Positive review.
- Idiocracy Review Cinematical. Jette Kernion, Septembe 2, 2006. Positive review.
- Idiocracy Review Austin360.com. Sarah Lidner, September 1, 2006. Mixed review.
- Idiocracy Review LATimes.com. Carina Chocano, September 4, 2006. Positive review.
- The Movie Hollywood Doesn't Want You To See Slate Magazine. Reihan Salam, September 29, 2006. Positive review.