Film #193 - Idiocracy (2006)
Idiocracy is Mike Judge’s long-awaited followup to his cult hit film Office Space. And while, expectedly, it does not live up to the level of quality of that earlier film and there are many problems with the film as found, there are still some nice touches that make it worth watching at least once. And that’s too bad, because it starts with a decent premise, it just never quite delivers.
We start by meeting Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), a soldier who is deemed by military brass to be exactly average (height, weight, intelligence, etc.), and therefore perfect for an experiment in suspended animation. He, along with a call girl named Rita (Maya Rudolph), is to be frozen for a year to check the effects. But a disaster leads to the two being frozen for 500 years instead. When he wakes up, he finds that, thanks to years of society dumbing down, he is the most intelligent man on the planet. He has to learn how to find his way in this strange new world and maybe show them hope for a better future.
I’m not sure how much the finished product reflects Judge’s original vision, but the muddled nature of the narrative would seem to indicate interference from one source or another. The principal indicator of this is a narration that is entirely extraneous to the film. Maybe the inclusion of a narration that explains the most obvious aspects of the script was meant to be a meta-joke tied to the central theme, but I doubt it.
And the film never seems to settle on whether its a wacky over-the-top comedy or a comedic look at the real problems of the world. It goes from jokes about Fuddruckers morphing over the centuries into Buttf****rs and then Joe is making speeches about the nature of society. It just doesn’t flow.
The saving graces for Idiocracy are Wilson and Rudolph. Wilson displays his usual amenable persona. He is the perfect choice to play an “average guy” and it’s easy to get on his side. Rudolph’s hooker character is not as well defined, but she’s so naturally funny that she can find the best in even weak material. The only other notable character, a man from the future named Frito (Dax Shepard), is such a good example of the film’s future that he lacks anything approaching a real personality. Everyone else is just too ridiculous to mention.
The script by Judge and Etan Cohen ultimately fails, not only because of the wonky plot, but because it lacks the courage to fully embrace it’s notions. Despite all the crude jokes and silly parodies, life 500 years in the future is far too similar to modern day. Given the implied massive changes to society, more should have changed. There are good jokes to be found, but not enough to overcome the script’s deficiencies.
In the end, Idiocracy will never engender the kind of affection that Office Space achieved. That earlier film was a nearly perfectly executed work of art. Perhaps because expectations were non-existant, Judge was able to deliver the goods. With his sophmore effort, more was expected and it may have been overthought to the point where it simply fails.