Wilson Goes Dax to the Future
So wrong but yet so right, "Idiocracy" is like "Weekend at Bernie's" it's not a good movie but it is a guilty pleasure making you laugh with moronic humour which at a certain age you should have grown out of. Yes I liked "Idiocracy", it made me laugh with low level humour which either means the future portrayed in this comedy is nearer than we think or I just needed something dumb which needed no thinking about. In fairness that does "Idiocracy" a dis-service because whilst it is a comedy about a future where the world is dumb there is some imagination when it comes to what that world will be like. And it is that combination of imagination with some simple dumb humour which makes "Idiocracy" a guilty pleasure.
The year is 2005 and the world has already shown signs of dumbing down as those with low intelligence continue to have kids whilst those who are intelligent put there careers first and then find it's too late. But in the year 2005 a top secret experiment is launched and average Joe Private Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson - My Super Ex-Girlfriend) and prostitute Rita (Maya Rudolph - 50 First Dates) are put into dry freeze for a year. Unfortunately the man in charge of the secret project got arrested for something dumb and they were forgotten about until the year 2505 when a garbage avalanche triggered their deep freeze capsules to wake them up. Now in the future when average Joe and Rita are the smartest people they have to deal with a lot of dumb laws and moronic people who are slowly killing themselves through their own stupidity.
So basically "Idiocracy" is a dystopian future movie but a comedy where in the future everyone is a moron and the saviour is an average guy who has been deep frozen along with a prostitute. That is it and there is no deeper meaning, no hidden depths or eco-environmental message in there it is purely a comedy about a world of morons. It is part of the reason why "Idiocracy" is a bit of a guilty pleasure because there comes a time in your life when stupid comedies shouldn't amuse you as much as this does yet it does exactly that.
But as I said earlier calling "Idiocracy" stupid and low level is doing it a dis-service because it is imaginative and creative. The future of 2505 is full of little details which make you smile such as one crumbling building tethered to another to keep it standing to an arm chair which has a toilet seat built in. The scary thing is that whilst we have this future where this stuff is the norm you find yourself thinking are we that far away from some of the stuff shown. Having said that some stuff such as Starbuck's Latte's meaning something very different is an amusing idea as are many of the jokes built around brands and advertising especially a Costco which is a city in itself.
And to be honest that is it because whilst Luke Wilson is fun as Joe he is just delivering that same average Joe act he has done before whilst Dax Shepard just turns up the dial to act even more moronic. They are enjoyable performances as are those from Maya Rudolph and Terry Crews but they are not performances you are going to remember.
What this all boils down to is that "Idiocracy" is both dumb and imaginative giving us a fun look at a future where the world has become dumb and people are killing themselves off through their own stupidity. It is a bit of a guilty pleasure because so much of the humour is itself moronic but heck if it puts a smile on your face so it can't be that bad.
