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Idiocracy Movie Review

Idiocracy is a 2006 science fiction comedy film directed by Mike Judge and starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph. It’s a very funny, surprisingly thematically rich film.

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“Water? Like out of the toilet?“

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Joe’s life changes when he is chosen to be the guinea pig for a secret hibernation experiment. When he wakes up from 500 years of slumber, he realizes that he is the smartest man on the planet. This movie was ahead of its time in its depiction of people getting dumber each day. It simplifies things significantly, but the fact of the matter is that surely the smartest people are not procreating as much as the dumber ones are, which leads to the average IQ plummeting each year.

In its very male-oriented plot and sense of humor, Mike Judge was faithful to his own brand of humor while somewhat emulating the style of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, especially evident in the more over-the-top world building sequences. Thematically, the movie deals with so many things. Its depiction of the US society being slavish to the corporations has unfortunately only become more relevant nowadays with corporations like Pfizer controlling the populace effortlessly. Consumerism and overpopulation are also touched upon as was the population’s inherent distrust and ridicule of the intellectuals among us.

All of this is explored well, though at times with overly broad strokes. Mike Judge’s brand of humor is very over-the-top, which led to that third act that was too bombastic and ridiculous even for this story. Yes, Terry Crews was hilarious as the president, but in depicting even the politicians in this light, the movie became too silly and unrealistic.

Idiocracy also failed to make proper use of Maya Rudolph’s talents. Yes, this was just the beginning of her career, but still her character here was underused and forgettable. Dax Shepard fared better as he was so funny and Luke Wilson has never been better than he was in the main role of Joe here. His is inherently likable and the necessary straight man to all the chaos surrounding him. It’s rare to see this guy in the lead and he was terrific.

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The film features very interesting world building that is silly of course, but fun nonetheless and with just enough glimmers of ominous truth to be effective. The production design is terrific and the dialogue is consistently strong as is the directing. It’s an underrated comedy gem of the 2000s.