Idiocracy - new Mike Judge movie in superlimited release

Worst of all, when I called Moviefone to find out what time the movie is playing at the Arclight here in L.A., they couldn't find an "Idiocracy" playing at the theater. Only after I listened to their list of titles currently running did I find it, listed under "Untitled Mike Judge Comedy"!! (Call (323) 777-FILM and hear it for yourself).

question does not compute

any 30 seconds of king of the hill > idiocracy

Played by Scarface from the Geto Boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, movie was funny, really funny in a few parts, and missed the mark or went on too long in others. it was alright. it was certainly better than Anchorman. also, good to see mike judge basically play butthead for an hour and a half.

I liked it okay, but it def. has some problems. Seemed pointless as live action, would've been more fun as a cartoon. And its basically one really looooooooong joke, very one note.

Scarface's appearance cracked me up.

I thought he was referring to President Sean Camacho!

But King of the Hill's avoidance of race seems more than a little forced and dishonest. I mean, race isn't exactly a non-issue in East Texas, and the show's timidity in this respect is hard to parse.

Idiocracy is Mike's first work to really deal with and incorporate non-white America. And in it, signifiers of non-white race, lower-class poverty and stupidity-to-the-point-of-retardation are all mixed together, as though they were essentially the same thing.

Didn't kill the movie for me (the lack of good jokes did that), but I found it more than a little off-putting.

While there have been occasional minor/guest characters of other races, it's a basically white universe. And the profound race issues (including outright racism) that are such an essential part of the real-world landscape the show supposedly mirrors are almost entirely sidestepped.

Yeah, I was thinking of Mexicans, too. I know that the show sometimes touches on race issues, but even so, I've always found it kinda timid.

Some of the "alley gang" should be at least kinda/sorta racist. Given the culture they represent, this failure seems like a cop-out. How do white, conservative, middle-class, suburban Texans really feel about race? In my admittedly limited experience, people like Dale (and even Hank) are often profoundly racist.

The only actual racist on the show, though, seems to be Khan. Why? Why does the show present such a rosy, "enlightened" view of race-relations in Texas? I understand that everybody on the show is stereotyped to some extent, but why are the non-white characters so consistently stereotyped in terms of race alone? Why aren't there any hispanic major characters? In Texas of all places?

I don't wanna get bogged down in debate. If what I'm saying doesn't make intuitive sense to you, then arguing the point probably won't change your mind. And I don't think you're wrong, necessarily. What I'm talking about is more implicit than explicit.

???

also, when I watched the show regularly(years back), Khan was the best character w/ the best lines.

adam beales did you ever seen the one where hank is worried hes a racist because ladybird keeps reacting violently to the repairman played by bernie mac? or the one with chris rock where bobby writes a bunch of 'black people drive like THIS!' jokes?

PEGGY: I'll tell you something right now: We cannot afford to have that dog running amok, biting every black person she sees. It makes us look like a bunch of ignorant rednecks. Oh, and it's bad for black people too.

BOBBY: You're so lucky, Connie, you're ethnic. Joseph and I are just nothing. We're just white and boring.
JOSEPH: Yeah.

Still, I'm not gonna argue this any further. I can't imagine it going well.

though i can understand if, like adam beales, you have never actually paid any attention to anything hes done before, that the half-assed treatment of maya rudolph & scarface could seem like it (my big draw to the film = mike judge directs film starring maya rudolph & scarface)

I always thought that they should have a throwaway gag "Meanwhile, on the other side of town..." and quickly show a foursome of basically identical black dudes hanging out in their alley sippin' on beers, saying "yep" and then an equivalently imcoherent black-dude ramble from melanin-enhanced Boomhauer.

I don't think it's actively racist in any way. I think it tries hard, in fact, to be progressive -- antiracist. But I have qualms about the ways it goes about this. While I think the show's aims are noble, I think it ends up sweeping the real face of racism under the rug. And for a show that attempts to present a semi-gritty, humane, morally honest view of life in suburban Texas, I think that's a mistake, though a small, harmless one.

I understand that you don't see it this way, and I have no problem with that.

But Idiocracy is another matter. Here, I think Judge isn't really in control of his feelings/ideas about the intersection of race, class and intellect. And I think he ends up shooting himself in the foot. Made it hard for me to enjoy the movie. Why, for instance, do so many white people in the film have Hispanic names? What's the point?

Oh, and strike every instance of the phrase "I think" in ppg 2 of my last post. It'll reduce the impression of moronism by at least 10%.

And out (again).

uh cuz they're actually Hispanic (ie, part of the currently largest and fastest growing ethnic group in the US)?

Honestly, given that the film rather clumsily and literally maps out how the future became populated by the profoundly stupid with no mention of race/ethnicity, it didn't even occur to me.

But the moron-future in this film looked, felt and sounded an awful lot like Tijuana/East LA.

***

Now, you look at a film full of outlandishly stereotypical depictions of moronic Hispanics, where half the seemingly white morons have Hispanic last names, set in a bombed-out, stereotypically third-world wasteland with a suspicious resemblance to certain Mexican/American border towns ... and you don't see even the slightest hint of passive, unconscious racism.

That's fine. I can accept that. But I don't understand why we can't have a civil discussion (hell, even a civil disagreement) about it.

I've been to Tijuana and didn't see a specific resemblance. I mean mountains of trash look the same all over, whether they be in Calcutta or Botswana or Mexico City. The name thing I honestly took no notice of beyond it being a "in the future miscegenation will be common" kind of aside.

Yeah, but that brings up something else. Are Calcutta, Botswana and Mexico City in the state they're in due to the fact that their inhabitants are all morons? I mean, what's the implication?

OTM!

i really, really, really hope there's a director's cut of this (sans fox's apparent meddling with the ending and so on) someday. twenty years from now, maybe, whenever judge gets around to it. i thought it was funny but it could've been much better.

it was just about perfect for dvd where i did a good deal of fast-fowarding through nothing sequences.

Way off topic, but Steven Pinker disagrees.

Come on, man. You're deliberately distorting what I said, apparently just so you can LYAO at some stupidized version of the world (irony alert). Idiocracy is full of Hispanic characters and white characters with Hispanic names. In the movie's future, nearly half of America seems to be Hispanic.

Is that unreasonable in and of itself? No. But it's about the only social extrapolation the film makes, other than exaggerating the general idiocy level of everything.

Why go so far out your way to show that "in the future, miscegenation will be common," (as Shakey put it), when the only real point you're making about that future is that it's populated exclusively by total morons? Morons miscegenate? Is that it? The idea that morons overbreed is stated clearly near the beginning of the film, and the point gets rammed home again at the end. So isn't it possibly even just a little troubling that the film also postulates an America that has become a largely Hispanic nation?

Again, if you don't see it, that's fine. I'm not calling this a hate-movie or saying that you're wrong to enjoy it. But a few of its premises and implications did bother me.

We return you to your regularly scheduled LMAOs, currently in progress...

YES.

I'm glad I haven't mailed this one back yet, I get the feeling it might be funnier the 2nd time.

According to IMDB, the only characters with names at all are Joe, Rita, Frito, Upgrayedd, Sgt. Keller, Judge Hank "The Hangman" BMW, Officer Collins, President Camacho, and Beef Supreme.

I guess you could make an argument that 'Frito' is a Hispanic name, but I sure wouldn't.

That's more-or-less EXACTLY what I've been saying since the start of this whole ugly mess ("...signifiers of non-white race, lower-class poverty and stupidity-to-the-point-of-retardation are all mixed together, as though they were essentially the same thing. Didn't kill the movie for me..., but I found it more than a little off-putting").

Now, I thought the film was a bit more callous in its treatement of Hispanics than the rest of you did. Fine, I'm alone in that. But what Zwan just said has been my main point all along.

Not to be a dick, but honestly, have you ever been to East L.A.? Either that, or have you ever watched the movie 'Idiocracy'?

Not to jump into the gangbang-already-in-progress on you, The New Sincerity, but you have really failed to present a single piece of compelling evidence that this film even flirts with racism. Your suggestion that the characters all have Hispanic names seems really shaky (I don't remember this from the film at all, but haven't seen it since the theater so can't be sure); while your trotting out that the 'room full of Hispanic people' that you watched it with didn't laugh (therefore = racism is afoot) is borderline horrifying.

I've been to east L.A. And more to the point, I've been to Tijuana.

What I "trotted out" was a soft-pedalled version of the fact that the Hispanic folks I watched it with thought it was actively, distastefully racist. And they're not the type to get too uptight about stuff like that. I, on the other hand, am willing to cut Mike Judge a bit more slack because I like his other work and respect his intentions.

The characters don't all have Hispanic names. But a whole bunch of them do. If you missed the fact that the movie is presenting us with a LOT of Hispanics and Hispanic names in its dumb-as-dirt America-of-the-future, then I dunno how to help you. Watch it again; I think you may be surprised.

What I'm arguing is that the film can be seen as implying a number of things about relationship between race, class, poverty, ignorance, and stupidity. And that some of them might be a little troubling.

***

And Elmo:

Touché.

Would I be less offended if the movie were populated exclusively by white people? Well, I wasn't "offended" in the first place. I was left with a few questions and a bad taste in my mouth. But that's beside the point: I honestly don't know how to answer your question. I'd have to see the unmade movie you're talking about to know how I'd feel about it.

For what it's worth, Carlos Mencia isn't any better or any worse than this.

you are fucking insane.

obviously, if you're looking for nuanced analysis of race and class dynamics, you probably shouldn't be looking to mike judge. but if that's your game, you should be prepared to rage at his stereotypical depictions of poor white folks.

I don't think Mencia is dangerous at all. I've never been personally offended by anything he's said. The spirit in which he presents his shitty "comedy" renders it harmless.

And I'll leave it to someone else to rage at MJ's "stereotypical depictions of white folks." That stuff doesn't bug me in the least. See, I'm white. Lived poor for a lot of my childhood. And I imagine that Mike Judge is a product of the poor & middle-class white culture he mocks. Therefore, I think he's got a right to cap on me and mine.

New Sincerity: Perhaps the more obvious point is that the border towns you reference (East L.A. has nothing to do with this, it's preposterous that you mention it at all - there's lovely parts to East L.A. and shitty parts as well, neither of which look anything at all like anything depicted in "Idiocracy") are largely as polluted and fucked up as they are thanks to the big industry and eco-apathy that Judge is obviously targeting with this movie. There is no secret agenda here.

You describe the movie as a film full of outlandishly stereotypical depictions of moronic Hispanics, which is goes beyond hyperbole into the realm of outright lies. You are in some strange whirlwind of uncomfortable projection, and are pulling shit out of thin air to support weak accusations.

I mean, fine, if your hispanic friends thought the movie was offensive, whatever, that sucks. But you citing the secondhand views of a small group of individuals as your racial trump card puts you in the same kind of uncomfortable territory that you are railing against.

Absolutely. I recognize and have no issue with those aspects of the film's critique. I'm bothered by the race/class baggage that got thoughtlessly mixed somewhere along the way. And I regret ever mentioning East LA.

***

"You describe the movie as 'a film full of outlandishly stereotypical depictions of moronic Hispanics,' which is goes beyond hyperbole into the realm of outright lies."

I did describe it as such, and while I won't pretend my statement is totally free of hyperbole, I stand by it. Watch it again with the idea of Hispanic identity in mind -- I think you might be surprised by what you see. And if not, then not. Different people see things differently (big surprise).

***

"You are in some strange whirlwind of uncomfortable projection, and are pulling shit out of thin air to support weak accusations."

Ummm, I think you're getting a bit carried away yourself, Tiki. Stick to talking about the movie.

***

"I mean, fine, if your hispanic friends thought the movie was offensive, whatever, that sucks. But you citing the secondhand views of a small group of individuals as your racial trump card puts you in the same kind of uncomfortable territory that you are railing against."

It's not my "racial trump card." I initially pointed it out (in part) to admit that my interpretation might be distorted by the social context in which I saw the film. When questioned about it, I explained things more fully.

And I hardly think I'm "railing" against anything. I'm just talking about what I saw in this film. It didn't offend me, and I don't think it betrays any malice or hostility on MJ's part, but some of it did seem, well ... odd.

"Don't wanna sound like a dick or nothin' but your chart says you're fucked up, you talk like a fag and your shits all retarded."

Funnily enough, I like to think I did, and that I do watch most things with at least a subconcious consideration of this kind of thing - the Mrs. of 4 years is Mexican-American (she prefers Latina to Hispanic, but that's another thread). In all fairness, when I asked what she remembered about 'Idiocracy,' she recalled falling asleep 15 minutes into the movie, so...

I will rent this film again (it's not out here in the UK until April 23 I see... we caught it back in L.A. before we moved over here). I had planned on it already, but now I am eager to see it with all this in mind.

I think the reason your charges have struck such a nerve is that I have always considered Mike Judge to be one of the few people in comedy to deal with race and class in a totally honest and thoughtful way - at the very least, he's not clearly TERRIFIED of those issues, unlike so many other comedic performers and writers (including many, often with a social bent, who I do admire). And I thought 'Idiocracy,' on my first viewing, was very much in keeping with his track record.

A watchable mess that finally turns into a film the idiocrats could've liked. Pretty splendid first half-hour tho.

I keep thinking about the eugenics/dysgenics philosophy underlying all this, which I've always found cruel, cynical and inaccurate IRL. But that theme was the funny factor for the movie. I just can't help feeling conflicted that it's an argument for such.

A watchable mess that finally turns into a film the idiocrats could've liked. Pretty splendid first half-hour tho.

Agreed. Mike Judge makes first half-hours with the best of them.

Luke Wilson was pretty boring in this... I'm sure they wanted him to play up the unremarkable/ vanilla guy, but what's-his-nuts in Office Space did it so much better.

but yeah, very much agreed on the first half-hour.

The more I think about this movie the less I like it. No mention of a corporate culture that profits from keeping America stupid, no. the problem is that america is increasingly over-run by fuck-crazy trash. I kinda hope Mike Judge is already embarassed by it.

No mention of a corporate culture that profits from keeping America stupid, no.

this was the main thing that bugged me too - the film focused exclusively on the demand side of the equation, and never gave any screentime to the supply side (ie, there has to be someone not-so-stupid around to make the TV shows, keep machines working, profit from everyone else's idiocy, etc.)

I'm worried that for him to go from King Of The Hill to this means some major loss of empathy for the classes he made his mint off of.

I think perhaps the idea is that all the engineers and manufacturers who keep America running are in other countries, while the US has become a subsistence agrarian state exporting little more than violent TV

and feet porn

if they had mentioned that they all moved to Canada, that would have been awesome!

I liked Maya Rudolph on what she 'paints': "People and fruit and shit."

Just watched this. The point about the weird class stuff is well taken. But: I actually think that with all the "particular individual" stuff Judge was trying to portray the stupidity of the future as a hideous hybrid of working-class stupidity (the cussing Carls Jr stuff) with middle-class bureaucratic Office Space style stupidity ("particular individuals") with upper-class corporate stupidity (Brawndo on the crops.) The problem is, the "you talk like a fag and your shit's retarded" stuff is by far the funniest, so that dominates your impression of what the movie's about, and it ends up reading as "fear the dopey masses, they breed."

Some of this film is going to come true well ahead of schedule.

movie half fails as satire and succeeds at being rly silly and fukken hilarious

Some of this film is going to come came true well ahead of schedule.

like 1984 in 1948

This movie makes me think about electrolytes all the time.

his Fresh Air interview made this seem like something I wanted to see, but reading this thread has me doubtful.

This movie makes me think about electrolytes all the time.

― Your body is a spiderland (polyphonic), Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:54 AM (1 hour ago)

I enjoyed the Fresh Air interview for the fence-building story and him highlighting the diff bet/w Mr Anderson's and Hank Hill's voices by doing both in the same segment.

I loved the fence-building story, too. Biggest thing that hit me while listening to him tell stories about people is that he is good at finding humor in people's mannerisms and conveying what's so funny about them. A lot of his movies are too bogged down by plot. Almost makes me wish he had a writing partner who could handle the main story or something.

wow i just came here to quote the stoned doctor but yall are on the race issue. i genuinely thought the majority of ppl in the movie were supposed to be "mixed race" and that this was a p genius and subtle representation of the future. it doesnt have to be viewed as CAUSAL

This movie makes me think about electrolytes all the time.

― Your body is a spiderland (polyphonic), Saturday, February 13, 2010 10:54 AM (1 hour ago)

― sarahel, Saturday, February 13, 2010 12:11 PM (1 year ago)

Still true for me too!

it bolsters my antipathy toward vitamin water

"looks like a peanut"

HOWS IT HANG ESSE

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsC/69449-28227.gif

http://www.avclub.com/articles/fuck-there-are-a-lot-of-fucking-new-tv-shows-with,88495/

still awaiting the release of "Ass"

we seem to be experimenting some technological differences

This movie just gets more and more otm every year...

Yep.

yup

we used to care whose ass it was, and why it was farting

i still crack up thinking of the purple dildo-like thing that was on Joe's car in the demolition derby. in fact I haven't seen this movie in years and I still think of it any time someone mentions "Costco", "Carl's Jr.", "H&R Block" or "tattoo".

actually now that I think about it, it's really similar to Office Space and Beavis and Butthead do America, it's more a collection of great scenes than it is an actual movie with a plot and all that

Yeah, Judge is a composer of uncannily well-observed tableaux that are only mildly tweaked for comedic effect. Plot shmot.

we used to care whose ass it was, and why it was farting

otm

speak for yourself, i still care

kinda hate this movie as an easy snide reference, the overarching attitude and tone of superiority is gross.

It's basically ILX politics threads: the movie

yeah it's a bit '30 years from now a child won't be able to kick a ball on the street'

I love how this movie is totally a mess, and was most likely completed in a highly compromised form, perhaps edited against judges wishes or maybe without his input. At least, that's how it plays. Yet even as a mess it is funnier and more otm than most comedies. Certainly significantly better than Extract.

yeah it was a relief that a cult following didn't form around Extract out of force of habit

30 years from now a child won't be able to kick a man in the nuts without someone laughing

― some dude, Saturday, 17 November 2012 15:30 (14 minutes ago) Permalink

Almost every time I see a water fountain I think of the nations water supply being replaced with gatorade.

extract is good!

Eh, it's really not. It's just a little well intentioned but pretty shallow and pointless lark.

Extract felt like it was written and filmed in a week or so.

the scene where he gets diagnosed has one of my favorite line-deliveries ever. "Don't mean to be a dick or nothin', but says on your chart...you're fucked up."

beef supreme for president

It started off boring and slow, with Not Sure trying to bullshit everyone with a bunch of smart talk: 'Blah blah blah. You gotta believe me!' That part of the trial sucked! But then the Chief J. just went off. He said, 'Man, whatever! The guy's guilty as shit, we all know that!'

one day I hope to order an EXTRA BIG ASS FRIES

I hear there's this new restaurant open in Times Square...

this movie is ok but its perspective is so reflective of how most people on the internet view other people as total moron sheeple while they are brilliant and incisive that it's made the movie reprehensible to me in hindsight

it even reflects the derisive patois of like "gub'mint" and "'murrca" which is so disgusting

kinda hate this movie as an easy snide reference, the overarching attitude and tone of superiority is gross.

― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, November 17, 2012 8:28 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's basically ILX politics threads: the movie

― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, November 17, 2012 8:32 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

n/a otm

glad i'll be dead b4 entire film comes true

The emphasis on "entire" can be assumed?

that's all well and good but I really do not feel like this movie was intended to be any kind of serious social commentary. like on one hand maybe there's something to making an American Gladitor the President in an era when people were seriously asking if Schwarzenegger could make a White House run, on the other there's the fact that Terry Crews as President is fucking hilarious.

people tried to criticize Office Space along similar lines, but again I always felt like Judge was just doing something funny rather than something insightful. hence the way Peter is constantly painted as being lazy and kind of a whiner. KotH, same thing...it makes fun of good ol' boys and Southeners and also sorta extolls their values. I don't think that Judge is trying to do cutting edge satire here.

Even if you ignore all political subtext, Luke Wilson is a fucking drip of a lead

which makes him kind of ideal for this type of movie

an undercooked commercial failure? well yeah

first half of judge's career so far
Beavis and Butthead
a sympathetic take on a red state family
a movie about what wage slaves have to put up with

second half of judge's career so far
a movie about what CEOs have to put up with
an unsympathetic take on a blue state family
Beavis and Butthead

with a movie about what happens when the mongrel hordes are allowed outbreed the educated class at half-time

frogbs are you seriously saying that idiocracy is not a satire?

oh sure it is to some degree but I saw it as being a lot more absurd than derisive. In my opinion "I didn't like its entitled tone" is a lot less important than whether or not you found it funny

What logos crave: behind-the-scenes with the logos in Idiocracy

Make America 'Bate Again

wow this was a very terrible movie

like it is so condescending and elitist and super classist and also low-key pro-eugenics??

Yeah but electrolytes

I watched this a couple of years ago and was not impressed by the quality of the satire, which was predicated on similar ideas to those long held by racists, except "The Yellow/Brown Peril and Destruction of the White Race" was replaced by "The Proletarian Peril and Destruction of the Educated Elites".

an old theme, at least in science fiction

https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/kornbluth-littleblack/kornbluth-littleblack-00-h.html

It's a terrifyingly prescient and occasionally very funny film ruined for many people because of a totally unnecessary Eugenics 101 sequence that they stuck at the beginning as if society's decline required a theory.

^ this.

anybody else have friends that think it's so hilarious to say "little did we know at the time this was a DOCUMENTARY"

that's what i say about southland tales

I would vote for President Camacho

uhh i like money

I love the way theyre all wearing Crocs. Big ups to the costume designer(s)

35mm with Judge:

https://www.musicboxtheatre.com/films/idiocracy-on-35mm-with-mike-judge

my hatred of this movie has grown tenfold since I first watched it 4 months ago

I just saw this movie for the first time since it was in theaters. Some of it has aged well, some of it has aged terribly, but it remains by and large a borderline disaster, like a self-funded pilot that never got picked up.

it does look really cheap, doesn't it?

Pretty sure I won't be going back to rescreen this one

Especially not when Southland Tales exists

In retrospect this film was a little bit farfetched. There's no way cryogenic tech could have worked that well in 2005

so uh, this thing where Trump just wasted millions of gallons of water for no reason because he thinks the "faucets aren't turned on"

^ https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/us/trump-water-california-central-valley.html

Watching Britain’s Got Talent and one of the acts shtick is launching a bowling ball at a guys balls.

Predictably, the crowd love it.