Idiocracy Review

Society's dumb. No really, people keep getting stupider all the time, and if you don't believe me, surf the interwebz. Corporate crap is also everywhere, and you can't do anything without being spammed for ads for products you'll never need. Don't believe me. Um, well, surf the interwebz some more. So, what happens when stupider people and corporate crap keeps multiplying and multiplying? Idiocracy, of course.

Private Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) is the all around average American, which is just one of the reasons why he was selected to participate in the army's cryo experiments. The objective is to prove that cryogenics works, and that people can be frozen for an extended period of time; 1 year for the purpose of this test. Unfortunately the army wasn't able to find a suitable woman for the experiment, so they hired Rita (Maya Rudolph), a prostitute, instead. Joe and Rita are successfully frozen, but they're kind of forgotten about when the program goes under, and they awaken 500 years later to find the world populated by nothing but idiots.

You see, intelligent man failed to breed, and the morons propagated like rabbits and over time, the smart simply ceased to exist. Not only that, but corporate propaganda is also everywhere and over everything, because it's quite easy to take advantage of dumb people. Energy drinks have replaced water, Starbuck's now has women servicing clients instead of selling coffee, and tacos and fries are the norm for food. Yes, the world's become a sad, sorry place, but dumb folk are happy seeing as how not much gets to them, so no one really seems to care.

Except for poor ol' Joe who now finds himself the smartest person on the planet, and all he wants to do is go home. So, being the future, Joe goes in search of a fabled time machine to get both Rita and himself back home.

Idiocracy is not a long film, clocking in at around 84 minutes. Idiocracy is not a complicated film, since most folk in it are morons. It is a rather silly film that is quite disturbing because it really makes you wonder how long it'll be before the average person does become that dumb, and before corporations can really begin pulling off the things they do because we'll let them. That latter part is the most disturbing and realistically possible, and the film, "evolves" several well known corporations into twisted versions of themselves. It pokes a lot of fun at Capitalist America in so many ways, and does one fine job of doing it. People don't like to think for themselves anymore, people like to be told what to do, what to think, and this is a worst case scenario possibility of what could happen if we keep going down that track.

As an entertaining film itself, Idiocracy does provide the laughs. You just can't help but place yourself in Joe's shoes and really look at this bold new world through intelligent eyes, and then want to smash your head on your coffee table.

If you enjoy complaining about the stupidity of modern day society and corporate greed (I know I do!), rent Idiocracy. I wouldn't go so far as to buy it, but it certainly makes for an entertaining and enlightening afternoon.