Mike Judge’s cutting comedy finally finds its way to a wider audience, no thanks to the studio that greenlighted it.
In 2005, Private Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) has the perfect job. He sits in the unused Army library and watches TV all day. What he doesn’t know is that the Army has determined that he’s perfect for a little experiment that they happen to be conducting. Joe is literally the average Joe since he falls in the exact middle of all of their tests. The Army is conducting experiments in human preservation.
Joe and Rita are part of an Army experiment
The idea is that they’ll be able to preserve their best and brightest military minds for future wars. Joe is “volunteered” to check out their new process and be preserved for a year. A female guinea pig was harder to find so they just buy Rita (Maya Rudolph), a hooker, from her pimp. Tragic (but hilarious) events lead to both Joe and Rita being forgotten about and dumped in the local landfill. In 2505 accidental events lead to Rita and Joe being released from their hibernation.
What they find is a far different world than the one they left. The more intelligent members of society used their brains when it came to making babies, so they didn’t make babies if the stock market was bad, etc. The other side of the coin is that the less intelligent members of society were sticking their baby making equipment into everything that moved (although movement wasn’t entirely necessary). 500 years of this has resulted in a world populace that are basically idiots
Idiocracy is from Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill and director of Office Space. His comedy pedigree certainly is sound and could never predict the trials and tribulations that his film would go through. These events are chronicled in a September 2006 Time magazine article entitled “Dude, Where’s My Film?”
To make a long story short, the studio felt that the film didn’t test well and basically buried it. They gave it a token released in just over 100 theaters and it quickly disappeared – that is until now. Now this was the same studio whose PR department determined that Borat’s name recognition was nowhere near Santa Claus’ recognition (the Borat movie was opening the same week as Santa Clause 3) and that jolly old St. Nick was going to clean Borat’s clock.
Borat was supposed to open in 1,200 theaters and the studio dropped it to 800 from fear of the fat man. The rest is box office history since Borat went on to make so much money that even the caterer is suing Sacha Baron Cohen to try and get a piece of it (it cost 18 million to make and as of December 2006 has earned 122 million – caching!).
The President is more prowrestler than politician
Speaking of lawsuits, one of the reasons of Idiocracy’s burying might’ve been suits by the various businesses that the film relentlessly and effectively skewers (Welcome to Costco. I Love You.). I’m not sure that Idiocracy would’ve gone on to such box office numbers as Borat, but we’ll never know since it was not given the chance.
Idiocracy is hilarious, both in the comedic aspects of the film as well as the basic concept that smart folks will be bred out of existence by the hornier stupid people. The film is damn funny and one can’t help but think that a certain studio’s PR department might be a product of two idiots coupling in the back of a pickup truck near the railroad tracks.
Idiocracy is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features are only about 5 minutes of deleted scenes, but they’re really of little consequence.
Unfortunately, that’s it. A commentary by Mike Judge would’ve been most welcome, but I bet that the studio really doesn’t want the history of Idiocracy to come out. You never know, this film might be a big hit on DVD and follow along the lines of Office Space. Office Space’s popularity on DVD eventually led to a more special edition down the road. I just hope that we don’t have to wait till 2505 to see Idiocracy: the “Ow! My Balls!” edition.
Idiocracy is hilarious and you should check it out, behind Borat it might’ve been one of the funniest films of 2006. It is too bad that it wasn’t give a wider release. DVD now gives you a chance to give it a look. Do yourself a favor and buy or rent this one.
Welcome to Costco, I Love You
Idiocracy is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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