I just watched Mike Judge's movie Idiocracy on DVD. I would have checked it out at the movie theater last year but it never came here to DC (as far as I know) or if it did play here, it was for a tiny bit of time and not with much advertising (otherwise I would have heard about it/would have had a chance to check it out). Who knows what happened? But the movie is very funny, a smarty Hollywood comedy, well made, & well acted by the lead Luke Wilson & the rest of the cast.In Idiocracy an Army librarian (Wilson) is placed in hibernation and he wakes up 500 years from now to find out that he is the smartest man on the planet. Then he must first try to stay out of jail and then try to win a presidential pardon by solving all of mankind's problems (the authorities find out that he is the smartest man alive). There are lots of small funny things to discover in this movie - including a time traveling prostitute role played by Maya Rudolph, but nothing too controversial - although, thinking too much about the movie may lead some audience members to not so happy conclusions about the current world and where things may be headed. I did not see any technical problems with the image or the sound. Tech problems were one of the reasons mentioned by a couple of writers in '06 for the limited theatrical release of the movie. Maybe Fox corrected the tech issues for the DVD release.
If you want a well made, intelligent and silly, and most importantly an actually funny Hollywood comedy, check out Idiocracy. I am sure, in time, Idiocracy will come close to being as big a home entertainment hit as Office Space - the other theatrically under appreciated Judge movie. The Idiocracy DVD should be available now through all major rental & retail outlets.
Further reading: Village Voice on Idiocracy, including the suppression controversy (but be warned, the Voice article takes the movie a little too seriously).
- Sujewa
