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PLOT: A failed army experiment has Luke Wilson wake up 500 years in the future to discover that people are so stupid he's now the brightest guy on the planet.
Idiocracy is a comedy that dares to make its own audience the butt of all its jokes.
The film operates on the premise that people are stupid and getting stupider; it's a lousy movie, but you must admit that's one heck of an endearing concept.
Luke Wilson -- so often called upon to add to a film's general endearing level -- stars here as an army slacker involved in a risky experiment. The experiment fails and our hapless hero finds himself 500 years in the future, where the cumulative effect of reality TV, junk food, bad music and other social ills has spawned a race of complete morons.
Or more complete morons, if you like.
The language has been reduced to a mix of val speak, urban slang and grunts. Various corporations rule the world. There are slot machines in the hospital lobby, the world is awash in garbage, drinking water everywhere has been replaced by sports drinks and every retail outlet offers sex as well as merchandise. Reality TV runs to shows like Ow! My Balls! which features a male star being hit in the groin by various heavy objects. H'yuk!
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It's all a cute exaggeration of the crasser elements of contemporary society. Sadly, that's all there is to the movie.
Once the gigantic Costco jokes and all the rest of the visual larffs have passed, there isn't much going on here. Wilson's character wanders around being misunderstood and hoping to find a time machine that will take him back to 2005. He is sometimes accompanied by Maya Rudolph, who plays a prostitute who was also forced to be part of that initial army experiment. (Go on -- you could write those jokes yourself.) The movie also has cameo appearances from Justin Long, Thomas Haden Church and Terry Crews, among others.
Idiocracy is from writer/director Mike Judge, who created the film Office Space and various episodes of such programs as King Of The Hill and Beavis And Butthead.
In other words, why isn't Idiocracy funnier? This is the sort of film that appears to have had plenty go wrong between concept and execution. It looks bad, it has been kicking around for ages, and the studio didn't want to show it to reviewers in advance. In other words, it's perfect for the exact same male audience, aged 15 to 25, that it mocks.
Go figure.
BOTTOM LINE: A couple of good laughs, but mostly a big mess. Sadly, you can almost see how good it might have been. Almost.
(This film is rated 14-A)