Idiocracy – Film Review | DauntlessMedia.net

Idiocracy – Film Review

Posted by Samuel Walters

Idiocracy is a stupid movie about stupid people. It’s unfortunate when a well-timed, highly relevant satire can’t get out of its own way and ends up becoming that which it purports to ridicule. I really liked the film’s premise, illustrated in a wonderfully quirky, and morbidly funny, narration. And if you pay attention to the film, there are certainly enough references to current times to provide a legitimate backdrop for a satirical story. The problem with the film is that not does it end up being a feel good story about stupidity, it also is about sixty minutes too long.

The film’s premise is that based on the current birth rates amongst people of higher and lower IQ, natural selection is working to create a population with significantly lower IQs. The story then extrapolates that idea and presents a hyperbolic, and supposedly comedic, “what if” look at what the future might be like if such trends continue. And on that basis alone, the movie is worth watching – for roughly fifteen minutes or so … until you get the full effect of how dumb the future might be.

But the plot is as dull and unimaginative as the denizens of the future. We follow Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) and Rita (Maya Rudolph) as two “average” people from our time who are accidentally left in stasis and awaken 500 years in the future. Their goal in this future is to reach a “time machine” so they can escape the hell into which they have awakened, and perhaps do something to change the course of history so things don’t get so bad to begin with.

But in trying to ridicule stupidity, the film becomes … stupid. The problem is not just that the President is a former wrestler and porn star, it isn’t that Starbuck’s sells sexual favors, or any of the other absurd constructs of the dystopia. Rather, it’s the redundancy of the film. We’re literally beat over the head by the main motif – as if the viewers are just as idiotic as the characters of the film.

Overall Grade: D

If you find Idiocracy to be a funny, enjoyable film – kudos to you. You haven’t just wasted an hour and a half of your life. Otherwise, perhaps just watch the intro on Youtube and then use that as the basis for your own discussions and commentary about today’s society – and spare yourself and hour and a half of idiocy.

Topics: Comedy, Film Review, Satire
Filed under: Film