Mike Judge's new and long-anticipated new film IDIOCRACY, opened in 125 theatres in seven cities September 1st - Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, and Toronto. Much as they cut and run on his now acknowledged cult classic OFFICE SPACE and cancelled-but-then-renewed "KING OF THE HILL," Fox has yet again demonstrated that they just do not understand nor care to nurture Mike Judge's particularly incisive humor: the movie opened with no critics screenings, no advance trailers or press, and while there was a poster at the theatre where I saw it today, it's not posted online nor even granted an entry at their website. It is a film maudit.

For those unfamiliar with the premise: Luke Wilson plays a completely average Army grunt who, along with a reluctant civilian (Maya Rudolph), agrees to an experiment to freeze his body and have it thawed a year later. However, they are both left behind for 500 years.
In that demi-millenium, intelligence has severely devolved due to the intelligent being outbreeded by the stupid and corporatism gone amok. When they awake in 2505, America has become a literal wasteland of stupidity: language is a patois of redneck/Valspeak/Ebonics, sports drinks replace water in public fountains, and the number one movie in America is a ninety-minute take of a posterior called ASS. (The one orifice Andy Warhol did not film all those years ago). Which means that in addition to the shock of being thrust into a duh-stopia, Wilson's character is thusly the smartest man in the world now. There are many amusing appearances by Stephen Root, Justin Long, Sara Rue, and an unbilled Thomas Hayden Church, with nicely ludicrous CGI creations from Robert Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios.

So does it deserve getting the Milton treatment? Not at all. It does smack of studio interference: an omniscient narrator explains details that seem to be already self-evident, but likely some studio suit thought that people would still need explaining. Not all the jokes work, and much like OFFICE SPACE, it's not a gutbuster. I wasn't laughing a lot, but frankly that's because I was shivering at how accurate Judge was predicting how bad things would likely turn out if the lowest common denominator is allowed to rule society. In short, it's very witty and sharp.

Which, sadly, is probably why Fox is bailing on it and sending it to DVD hell. They thought they were getting BEAVIS AND BUTTHEAD, and instead Judge offered a virtual repudiation of that school of humor. (Though he gets a surprising amount of mileage from gags about the #1 show in 2505 America, "OW! MY B***S!") This movie clearly points the finger at all of us, saying that smart people are too self-absorbed to breed even if they wanted to, stupid people breed too willingly, and if there's money to be made, megacorporations will beat, well, those b***s to death while we watch on TV.

So if you live in one of the seven cities above, make a determined effort to buy a ticket to it, especially this weekend where it will make a dent in the holiday figures. And if you have a non-conformist type theatre in your city, bug them to book it, though Fox may try to stonewall a determined theatre from playing it, as is the wont of a studio when they deep-six a movie. Fox has probably made their mind firm, but if there is enough box revenue, maybe they'll at least let it out for future screenings.

Thank you, Marc. About a gazillion times.

Because of this post, I got up early this morning and took my wife to see "Idiocracy."

We both LOVED it. Laughed ourselves sick. A movie that is both intelligent and lowbrow, raucously funny and sharply satirical.

The hand of studio interference IS present; but not as badly as I feared. The release version apparently remains Judge's vision.

Ironically, as I came out of the theater, I spotted a lobby stand-up for another Dax Shepard movie. (Shepard plays Wilson's lawyer in "Idiocracy.") In "Employee of the Month," Shepard's co-star is Jessica Simpson and the marketing tagline is, "In order to get the girl, he has to get his shift together." Har har har.

Oh god, "Idiocracy" is right!!

That's pretty good.

Ouch. Not even New York? Too bad, I might've given them my money this weekend. I'd be surprised if Judge bothers with Fox much from now on.

For those interested, head on over to:

http://www.freewebs.com/free-idiocracy/

to download a copy of the script.

I called Fox to book the film for my theater, and was told that it is "Out of service," which is a polite way of saying that they are totally burying it and no one can show it under any circumstances.

The big soulless megacineplex in the town where I live that's nothing like the kind of
"non-conformist" theater that might have shown Idiocracy actually had a poster for it on the wall the last time I was there. Did they put it up just to tease people who were interested in seeing it?

Very likely, this happened near me too. One theatre had a poster for it and never booked it, another theatre claimed they had it and didn't get a print!

My totally cynical view is that the brutal treatment of Judge's film is calculated Fox Anti-Hype to generate enough buzz and recognition to float a "Free Idiocracy Now!" movement which will maximize profits on the eventual DVD while sparing the expenses of a theatrical release for a film they weren't quite sure what to do with otherwise. Remind me. Does Mike Judge say different? Has he expressed any opinion on his brainchild's fate to date?