Benefit
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2002
- Messages
- 5,193
From Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butthead, Office Space and King of the Hill) comes Idiocracy, a black comedy satirizing consumer culture, globalization and a society of freefalling IQs. The basic premise is that two very average people are put into hibernation for 500 years, only to wake up in 2505 and find themselves in a world imploding from extreme stupidity where they are the smartest people on Earth.
Trash is piled in huge mountains (causing the Great Trash Avalanche of 2505)because society doesn't know what else to do with it. Crops are watered with Gatorade and everything has a corporate tie-in; the denizens of 2505 Earth are basically all mentally retarded and the number one show on TV is called "Ow My Balls!" So basically, not too different from modern society. My verdict?
Concept: Good.
Delivery: Poor.
The pacing and special effects are choppy and inconsistent. The satire is good and Mike Judge's track record obviously speaks for itself, but the film relies a little too heavily on poop and fart jokes. Almost certainly a lot of these problems with production can be attributed to the studio, 20th Century Fox, which sat on the film for over a year before releasing in only 7 cities (New York was not one of them) with virtually no marketing. At some point Fox obviously balked and wanted to distance itself from the project; had Mike Judge had the full support of the studio I think a lot of the problems the film has could have been ironed out.
This same concept in the hands of a master satirist like Terry Gilliam would really be something to behold; as it is, Idiocracy is merely a poor man's Brazil.
Trash is piled in huge mountains (causing the Great Trash Avalanche of 2505)because society doesn't know what else to do with it. Crops are watered with Gatorade and everything has a corporate tie-in; the denizens of 2505 Earth are basically all mentally retarded and the number one show on TV is called "Ow My Balls!" So basically, not too different from modern society. My verdict?
Concept: Good.
Delivery: Poor.
The pacing and special effects are choppy and inconsistent. The satire is good and Mike Judge's track record obviously speaks for itself, but the film relies a little too heavily on poop and fart jokes. Almost certainly a lot of these problems with production can be attributed to the studio, 20th Century Fox, which sat on the film for over a year before releasing in only 7 cities (New York was not one of them) with virtually no marketing. At some point Fox obviously balked and wanted to distance itself from the project; had Mike Judge had the full support of the studio I think a lot of the problems the film has could have been ironed out.
This same concept in the hands of a master satirist like Terry Gilliam would really be something to behold; as it is, Idiocracy is merely a poor man's Brazil.
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
