Idiocracy
Directed by Mike Judge
By Joshua Ostroff

Though best known for his animated efforts — Beavis & Butthead, King of the Hill — Mike Judge’s first live-action film, Office Space, was a certifiable cult classic that sold tons of DVDs despite dying in the theatres during its ’99 release. Perhaps Fox hoped to recreate that “bomb to boon” story with Judge’s long-awaited second movie by burying the damn thing. Completed over two years ago, last summer it was unceremoniously dumped into just a few markets — Toronto was the only Canadian city to get a screening and even that was restricted to a single cinema — and pulled almost immediately. Watching it on DVD now, it’s hard to imagine why Judge got such shoddy treatment (which also includes almost no bonus features, except a couple deleted scenes), as this dystopian comedy is pretty damn funny despite its almost imperceptible plot. Luke Wilson is Joe, the army’s most average soldier, who gets put into a cryogenic freezer, alongside hooker Rita (SNL’s Maya Rudolph), and is promptly forgotten. They awake 500 years later to discover they’re suddenly the world’s smartest people. Corporate excess and a dumbed-down culture have devolved America into a nation of slack-jawed yokels — the script’s original title was United States of Uhh-merica — who watch the reality show Ow! My Balls!, die in trash avalanches, elect a wrestler/porn star as President, converse in hillbilly hip-hop slang and water their crops with Gatorade. It’s the kind of country where proper grammar gets you labelled a “fag,” a doctor’s diagnosis is, “your shit’s all retarded” and where Starbucks offers hand jobs. In other words, a not unlikely future for an anti-intellectual nation that elected George W. Bush twice and tried to bury this incisive, if slight, film. (Fox)

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