Movie Review: Idiocracy

Title: Idiocracy
Director: Mike Judge
Starring: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shephard
Release: January 25, 2007
Country: America
Genre: Comedy
Rated: R
First Viewing: June 5, 2009

Plot Synopsis: Joe Bauers wakes up 500 years after agreeing to participate in a government cryogenics-style project to find that the human population has devolved dramatically.

My Thoughts: The movie was alternately hilarious and saddening. First, the funny. The language being spoken by the population is dumbed down English. Second, the sad. Some of my students sound like this. The funny: people spend all of their time having sex, drinking, and watching people get kicked in the balls. The sad: is that any different from now? So while I was laughing during the movie, I was also extremely uncomfortable as I wondered if this dystopian version of the future is more correct than Orwell's, Huxley's, or Bradbury's.

The highlight of the movie for me was the first ten minutes in which the viewer is treated to an extremely believable and logical look at how humanity degenerates into the infantile idiots of the future. The exposition begins with two couples:  One pair is an intellectual upper-middle-class couple who are seen discussing the logic of having a child: financial and career difficulties, etc. The other is a lower class family who discover they are pregnant again; they already have three children.  To top it off, the lower class husband has been sleeping around and has fathered more children, and his eldest son, the football star, is on the same path of prolific childbearing.  We then see these two couples' family trees.  Zero for the "smart" couple, and as time goes on hundreds for the lower class couple.  After these first ten minutes, I began seriously considering the viability and necessity of putting birth control into our water supply. And this theme is what carries the film.

I do think my enjoyment of the film was partially hindered by the fact that I was watching it on Comedy Central and the film was certainly edited for time and content. Still, my overall judgment is funny but a bit depressing.