Title – Idiocracy (2006) 

Director – Mike Judge (Office Space) 

Cast – Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews

Plot – The undeniably average army Private Joe Bauers (Wilson) gets involved in a hibernation experiment but when the experiment is forgotten about Bauers awakes 500 years in the future where America has turned into a country of moronic dimwits.  

“I can’t believe you like money too. We should hang out”

Review by Eddie on 11/05/2022

Abandoned by its studio 20th Century Fox upon release, resulting in less than $500,000 in box office sales in its limited theatrical run in 2006, King of the Hill and Office Space creator Mike Judge’s now cult classic film Idiocracy didn’t have the easiest of beginnings but thanks to its weirdly accurate portrayal of where America and mankind is heading as a whole and its offbeat humor, it’s likely that this box office dud is going to remain one of the director’s most remembered works. 

Whilst it’s no Office Space, Idiocracy shares many of the same traits that made that Mike Judge black comedy such a unique and ageless exercise as his tale of Luke Wilson decidedly average Joe Bauers finding himself 500 years in the future, where the American population is nothing more than a TV watching, Costco shopping bunch of moronic idiots who are being lead by an ex-pro wrestler by the name of President Camacho (played by a wigged and gun toting Terry Crews) is a wild and relentless ride. 

With water replaced by a Gatorade like substance and movies about peoples butts winning Oscars, this future is not a place Bauers wants to stay in but it’s a joy to explore as we witness Wilson’s laconic everyman try his best to find a way back to his past while unwillingly being forced to help the struggling society he finds himself in and Judge and his co-writer Etan Cohen have a blast taking a microscope to their future landscape that is sadly more likely than unlikely if one were to fast forward to the period in which it is set. 

As Bauers wanders around the advertisement clad future, a place where garbage is left to pile up, roads remain unfinished and toilets are present in peoples couches so they don’t have to miss the latest episode of Ow My Balls, viewers get a lot of joy out of the constant stream of site gags, one liners and oddball characters Bauers comes across including his fellow time traveller/”painter” Rita (played by Maya Rudolph) and Dax Shepard’s money loving halfwit Frito, who is potentially Bauer’s only hope of survival. 

Clocking it at just under 80 minutes in run time, Idiocracy doesn’t ever take too much time to smell the electrolyte scented flowers but watching the film today in the barren mainstream comedy market there’s a joy to be had in watching a film that both revels in its immaturity but also offers surprising depth below the surface, to create a unique and memorable journey to the future that could just become a reality. 

Final Say – 

A cult film deserving of its increasing status amongst the film going community, Idiocracy may not be Mike Judge’s crowning achievement but its up their with one of his best and most underappreciated. 

4 questionable White House employees out of 5