IDIOCRACY ... spoilers

[Dr Doran]

Has anyone seen this film? I just rented it. It ridicules a great many things that the sorts of people who are attracted to the fedora lounge hate as well.

Or perhaps there has already been a thread on this already?

The film depicts an America of the future, an exaggerated version of the more repellent aspects of our culture now. People have a toilet in their living room and sit on it while watching violent reality TV and entertaining guests. The average IQ has gone down to 70 due to the absence of natural selection. (A fine lesson in demography is given.) The cities are all falling apart and poorly planned. Politicians cannot figure out how to do basic things because they are too stupid; they mug and make faces on TV and talk about "kicking ass." No one is interested in history, in how things got the way they did. People have become too stupid to do anything but wander around making jokes about bodily functions. Anyone who speaks in complete sentences is ridiculed as "gay."

Not too different from the "culture" I often see around me in public in 2007, sadly.

 

[Rooster]

WOW! You just described my trip to the local Mall last night.....

 

[BeBopBaby]

A great movie and a very astute social commentary directed by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead fame.

You forgot to add that it's a time travel movie of sorts as well. Luke Wilson plays a very average/borderline stupid man who get's caught up in in a hybernation experiment with the military. He and Maya Rudolph (who plays a prostitute trying to escape her pimp) are put into suspended animation, events happen and the military stops the experiments and forgets about Luke and Maya's characters. They finally wake to in a world that has de-evolved - everyone is a complete idiot and Luke's character is literally the smartest man in the world.

Judge really put a lot of thought (and sarcasim) into this movie. It really does remind me of the reasons why many of us are dissatisfied with society today. It hits very close to home.

 

[Dr Doran]

A great movie and a very astute social commentary directed by Mike Judge of Beavis and Butthead fame.

You forgot to add that it's a time travel movie of sorts as well. Luke Wilson plays a very average/borderline stupid man who get's caught up in in a hybernation experiment with the military. He and Maya Rudolph (who plays a prostitute trying to escape her pimp) are put into suspended animation, events happen and the military stops the experiments and forgets about Luke and Maya's characters. They finally wake to in a world that has de-evolved - everyone is a complete idiot and Luke's character is literally the smartest man in the world.

Judge really put a lot of thought (and sarcasim) into this movie. It really does remind me of the reasons why many of us are dissatisfied with society today. It hits very close to home.

I left the time travel aspect out of my description so as not to give away the plot and not to distract Loungers from the aspects of the film that I thought they would find the most interest in. The plot was very funny, though, I agree.

 

[ShortClara]

Excellent movie! Mike Judge once again displays his ability to make dead-on social commentary entertaining. He's also responsible for King of the Hill, one of the best (and, sadly, gone) shows on TV.

 

[MrNewportCustom]

I have this movie, and I've already watched it a couple of times. Very funny, and I honestly believe that the world, if not just the United States, is headed in this direction. Maybe not to the extreme depicted in the movie, but we're already well on our way. Regardless, it's an extremely funny movie.


Lee

 

[Lady Day]

Its been in my Netflix queue for a time...perhaps I will bump it up.

LD

 

[dr greg]

detail

I reckon the mise-en-scene is funnier than the actual script, the shop signs and background stuff is top-notch, value in itself.

 

[Dr Doran]

If any one country becomes so (literally) retarded, other countries who aren't as handicapped will swoop right in. They would have to be all equally retarded for that not to happen. They could find groups of Americans who were discontented and then back them up and turn it into a civil war. Oldest trick in the book.

Our culture, both popular and high culture, has gone seriously downhill in this country (hence the resistance to this lowering as embodied in the Fedora Lounge). At least we still have technological capabilities, lots of beautiful land, natural resources, and good education but the last is ONLY at the graduate school level -- our "K-12" is complete garbage and our undergraduate education is nothing much either, at least compared to other industrialized nations.

I think the brilliance of Idiocracy was showing all of this degeneration just a few steps further. Science fiction and satire have always been great for that.

 

[Dutch McCoy]

our "K-12" is complete garbage

I always whince a little when I hear or read something like this because I know several very capable teachers and am married to a former educator. I totally agree that the school system is in disarray but to call it "complete garbage" is going a little too far and doing a disservice to our fine men and women who are making a real difference in many young peoples lives. Thank you for your time.

Yes, Idiocracy is one of the funniest, and sadly true, movies I have seen in a LONG time. Very nice work by Mr. Judge.

 

[Dr Doran]

I always whince a little when I hear or read something like this because I know several very capable teachers and am married to a former educator. I totally agree that the school system is in disarray but to call it "complete garbage" is going a little too far and doing a disservice to our fine men and women who are making a real difference in many young peoples lives. Thank you for your time..

I apologize for insulting your friends. I myself am in grad school (at age 37!) and aim to be a university professor. So I am personally trying to help this problem. I may be constructing a national malaise out of my own experience; and California, where I live, does, it's true, have terrible k-12; but I teach undergraduates at Berkeley and EVEN AT A TOP U.S. SCHOOL their ignorance is astounding. A few of them came in with writing skills that were unbelievably poor and they graduated high school. I also worked in a leftist organic grocery story for 10 years and I was astonished at how ignorant many of those workers were too. Additionally, in my k-12 I had NO history and that, I think, was the most horrible aspect of the experience. The requirements for things like cultural sensitivity and "social studies" (whatever the heck that was supposed to be) instead of having a solid knowledge of history is, I very strongly believe from my long and deep experience, wrongheaded. I am NOT an extremely conservative person but the things I have seen have turned me into an absolutely unrepentant "canonist" and I see no way whatsoever to improve schools without teaching the canon and having teachers who can talk knowledgably and at length about, and about the immense significance of, Hobbes, Locke, the Old Testament, Medieval history, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Eliot, and the other aspects of the canon (as well as a slow trickle of new things that have gotten accepted over the years).

 

[Dutch McCoy]

Thank you very much for your apology. I COMPLETELY agree that a vast majority of students graduate without a proper groundwork of knowledge to excel at the collegiate level but I also feel that there are many causes for this. Yes, many educators do a poor job of actually educating. Often, I have found this to be because they themselves were not properly educated to be educators. How are we to expect these people to teach if they are not adequately prepared to be in the classroom. Also, there is the silent killer of parent apathy. It is a sad fact that many parents are totally absent from their children's lives, let alone scholastically. Children are left to come and go as they please and there are no repercussions at home so good luck trying to enforce them at school. Also, many schools are woefully underfunded because the locals refuse to have their taxes raised. A few schools around here are close to being condemned but there is not enough money to renovate because that would require people to pay for it. Argh, this is their children's education we are talking about and they can not be bothered to pay for it. I am sorry for going on so long about this but I feel very strongly about it. There are a LOT of problems with the public school system but there are a LOT of good people out there trying to fix it. And it sounds like you, Doran, are trying to help. Thank you.

 

[Dr Doran]

You are welcome and I appreciate your gracious acceptance of my apology.

It's true, it is more systemic (and cultural and economic) a problem than bad teachers..

 

[Foofoogal]

fftopic: I don't know. If our kids keep having to eat lead paint we may be well on our way. :rage:

 

[Lincsong]

You mean this isn't a new reality show based on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley?:eusa_doh:

 

[Fletch]

Kick ass response, Linc! <- mugging and making faces

I gotta see this movie. It'll probably depress hell out of me, but I need to see it.

 

[Dr Doran]

You mean this isn't a new reality show based on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley?:eusa_doh:

NICE. And accurate! Haight Street in SF would be next year's location for the show! Maybe the Venice Boardwalk after that?

 

[VegasMike]

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who even remotely likes Mike Judge's stuff. I had never heard of it till last October or so, when someone at work recommended it to me. It definitely needs to hit the top of everyone's netflix que.

 

[Diamondback]

NICE. And accurate! Haight Street in SF would be next year's location for the show! Maybe the Venice Boardwalk after that?

How 'bout the back dining-room of my favorite neighborhood diner on Friday and Saturday nights? Between the obnoxious kids, the party-heartyers, and the drunks...

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Oh yes! Just caught it last night on HBO. I laughed out loud as it is so true and becoming truer with each passing generation. At the rate we're going, it won't be that long before that kind of society is reality.

Mike Judge is quite a visionary.

-dixon cannon