Review of Idiocracy (2006) by Joshua B — 30 Apr 2010

I was disappointed with this Mike Judge ("Office Space", "King of the Hill") comedy since I've enjoyed so much of Judge's other work. This film had such potential considering the premise of the world being overrun with dim-witted people. This is about an average guy being frozen to show the military that it can freeze elite soldiers to preserve their talent for a time when they are needed. The military also froze a prostitute before having the experiment shut down and forgotten for 500 years. This average guy awaken in a world that is littered with trash, run by corporations, and is incapable of doing much on its own. I get the commentary Judge is trying to portray, I just don't think it was done very well. I also didn't find that funny. The film tries to hard to be funny and it falls flat.

There's a good cast in this that makes me really disappointed that I didn't like this more. The movie is lead by Luke Wilson (2010's "Death at a Funeral", "The Royal Tennenbaums"). Maya Rudolph ("SNL", "Away We Go") and Dax Shepard ("Parenthood", "The Freebie") are also featured in this. There are also appearances from Justin Long ("Drag Me to Hell", Mac from those Mac/PC commercials) and Thomas Haden Church ("Sideways", "Spiderman 3"). I know Wilson and Shepard are capable of better work than this.

Perhaps this film gets better after another viewing, but I'm going to be good for a while. For this stage in Judge's career I expect more from him. I've seen my share of "Beavis and Butthead", "King of the Hill", and "Office Space". The film didn't look very good and the story felt uneven. The acting wasn't very good. It's very frustrating for me to watch this, knowing what Judge is trying to do and not quite accomplishing it. 1/5 stars. (5/1/10).