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Revision as of 07:15, 16 December 2007 by Mrblondnyc (talk | contribs) (Rue is not credited; add cat)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) 2006 American film| Idiocracy | |
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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 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25-35 Million |
| Box office | US$444,000 (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 awry, and they awaken 500 years in the future, to discover that dysgenics, rampant marketing, and cultural anti-intellectualism have resulted in a uniformly stupid human society.
Synopsis
A montage of vignettes, accompanied by a voiceover, explains the concept of unintelligent people enthusiastically outbreeding competent people, creating a future society which is irreversibly less functional. Demographic superiority now favors those least likely to advance the interests of society. Consequently, the children of educated elites become overwhelmed in a sea of promiscuous, illiterate, beer-swilling, jet ski-crashing peers.
In 2005, Army librarian Joe Bauers (Wilson), the military's "most average" soldier, 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, but the experiment is forgotten when the officer in charge (Michael McCafferty) is arrested on prostitution charges allied with upgrayedd. The military base is later demolished, and a Fuddruckers (eventually devolving into Buttfuckers in the future) is built on the site.
Five hundred years into the future, Joe's and Rita's containers are jarred open in the 'Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505', reviving both of them. Joe crashes into the apartment of an idiotic citizen named Frito Pendejo (Dax Shepard). (Frito's name is also a reference to his lack of intelligence, as pendejo is colloquially used in Spanish to mean "dumbass". The name is also a reference to Frito Bandito, a short-lived mascot for Frito corn chips.) Feeling disoriented after a brief conversation with Frito, who insults Joe's more advanced manner of speech, Joe visits the hospital where Dr. Lexus (Justin Long) diagnoses him as simply "'tarded" and "fucked up". Lexus erupts into panic when he discovers Joe has no barcode tattoo on his wrist and cannot be scanned for payment, and Joe finally learns that 500 years have elapsed since the Army placed him into stasis. He is disturbed by the sight of the world falling apart outside a nearby window and flees the hospital, only to be arrested at a Carl's Jr. vending booth for failing to pay his hospital bill and not having a standard-issue tattoo.
Joe's defense lawyer at trial is none other than Frito, who stupidly helps to convict him instead of providing a defense. Joe is sent to prison, where a poorly-designed I.D. machine mistakenly records Joe's name as "Not Sure" and barcodes him as such. During a mandatory (and very simple) I.Q. test, Joe realizes just how stupid humanity has become. Easily escaping his dim-witted captors, Joe returns to Frito's apartment and asks if a time machine exists to help him return to the past. Frito claims that there is, but agrees to help only after Joe promises him billions of dollars in interest on a bank account that Joe will open in the past.
Enroute to the time machine, Joe and Frito find Rita. She doesn't realize she's been asleep for 500 years until Joe tells her so, and despite this, she thinks Upgrayedd will find her. After Joe narrowly avoids arrest (the police destroy Frito's car while trying to capture him), he, Rita and Frito enter a city-sized Costco, where Joe is arrested again after his barcode is accidentally scanned. Instead of going to jail, Joe is taken to the White House. President Camacho (Terry Crews) has seen Joe's I.Q. test (which shows him to be the most intelligent man in the world) and recruits him as Secretary of the Interior to correct the world's food shortages, crippled economy, mountains of garbage, and related issues. Joe learns that water has been replaced by Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator (a reference to Rondo, which had the slogan, "The Thirst Crusher!"), a sports drink advertised as rich in electrolytes, even for crop irrigation, causing the food shortage (the salty electrolytes in the Brawndo have accumulated in the soil, killing the crops).
After Joe reintroduces the use of water (now used only in toilets) for crops, the giant Brawndo Corporation's stock plummets, causing massive unemployment without visibly improving the crop situation. The angry population subsequently riots, and Joe is sentenced to a Running Man/Mad Max/demolition derby style "rehabilitation". Meanwhile, Rita discovers that Joe's reintroduction of water to the soil has finally made vegetation sprout in the fields. To save Joe (and with Frito in tow), she bribes a TV cameraman to show the thriving crops to the world. Before they reach the crop field, they are distracted 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 duty, and picks up the camera. The President sees the thriving new plants on the stadium's big screen televisions and grants Joe a pardon just as he is about to be incinerated by a flame thrower.
Joe is appointed Vice President soon afterwards, then eventually President. He abandons his plans to return to the past in order to help save the future; he and Rita eventually marry and have three children, while Frito also marries several wives, and gives birth to multiple children. At the celebration, Joe learns that the "Time Masheen" is just a bad amusement park history ride where Charlie Chaplin is depicted as leader of the Nazi party who used dinosaurs to wage war on the world, and the U.N. is called the "Un", having "Un-Nazied the world forever."
After the credits, a third hibernation capsule is shown opening, 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 Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, porn star and champion wrestler
- Brendan Hill as Secretary of Energy
- David Herman as Secretary of State
- Sara Rue as Attorney General (uncredited)
- Stephen Root as Judge Hank "The Hangman" BMW
- Thomas Haden Church as Brawndo CEO
- Justin Long as Dr. Lexus
- Michael McCafferty as Officer Collins
- Andrew Wilson as Beef Supreme
- Jennifer Vasquez as Camacho's Groupie (uncredited)
- Scarface as Upgrayedd
- Jerry Conerly as Tylenol Jones
According to a radio interview with Mike Judge, he originally offered the cameo role of the Brawndo CEO to Office Space star Ron Livingston, but had to go with Haden Church due to scheduling conflicts. Also, David Herman auditioned for the character of Frito, who was originally named Andrew.
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 34 critics as of September 2007). Praise focused on concept, casting, and humor; the worst of the criticism was directed at the film's release issues, and some special effects and pacing problems.
As with Judge's Office Space, Idiocracy also gained many outspoken fans within the blogosphere, particularly among those bloggers who feel themselves to be on the outside of America's current corporate pop-culture.
Box office receipts totaled $444,093 in 135 theaters in the U.S.
Releases
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. There is speculation that this version is missing several key scenes after being re-edited by FOX. So far the DVD release has earned $9 million, over 20 times the limited theatrical release. On September 1, 2007 the film opened for cable and satellite viewers on the Cinemax premium channel.
See also
References
- "Cognoscenti of the world, procreate" Neo-Cognoscenti: Global Affairs and Culture, "Cognoscenti of the world, procreate," September 14, 2007.
- 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 2007-09-26.
- http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2007/11/08/knocked-up-and-idiocracy/
- Idiocracy Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-02-02.
- Idiocracy - DVD / Home Video Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-06-03.
External links
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