Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0024543401797
Format: AC-3
Label: 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: 20th Century Fox
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-01-09
Running Time: 87
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 2006

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: I think it's an important movie
Comment: This movie deserves a lot more attention than it's gotten so far. I ran across it accidentally, and now I'm on a mission to get friends to watch it. It's a super cheesy movie, but it stimulates great discussions on serious matters. I wish this had a pg-13 version so that I could show it to my students. I think it makes a lot of great points about how evolution works, (especially how it's not always about survival of the fittest- it's really about who's the most successful at passing on their DNA) and the dangers of a society that places entertainment above all other goals. It is way too vulgar to show in class, but it led to a great conversation with my teenage son.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Average Movie with a Thought-Provoking Message
Comment: My husband and I watched Idiocracy for a second time last weekend. Overall, the film is okay. There are places where I laughed out loud. It is a "funny-stupid" film. Not a great epic, but not complete trash either. A good choice for an evening when you need to give your brain a rest.

However, this is also a "smart, funny-stupid" move. Its message stays with you. 500 years into the future, today's average Joe will be the smartest man in the world because the human race will devolve. Stereotypical "dumb" people will multiply faster than love-struck bunnies; the movers, thinkers, and doers will continue to put children off so long that they will not be able to have them. America's number one show will be "Ow, My Balls" (and if you've every seen Jerry Springer, Big Brother, The Real Life, Fear Factor, Jackass, etc., you KNOW Ow, My Balls is next); language will continue to deteriorate until it is some kind of street-valley-funk-hiphop conglomeration; technology and the very ability to make or repair anything will disappear; the president of the United States will be pro-wrestler; garbage will be piled so high that landslides threaten major cities; and corporations and advertising will rule the world. The extremely scary thing is, none of this seems completely unrealistic, or even that far off.

I remember a magazine interview several years ago with the Secretary of Education. At that time he was advocating the removal of the word "antelope" from all textbooks, to be replaced with the word "deer". He felt that word antelope was too hard for America's children and that it was a somewhat useless word, since there were no antelope on this continent. Which I believe would come as somewhat of a shock to the millions of American who live "where the deer and the ANTELOPE play!"

This movie will make you think. Which is what a movie should do.

Customer Rating:

Summary: 5 out of 5
Comment: This is one of my favorite movies ever made.For some reason this movie was only released in a few citys and there were no advertisements at all so most have never herd of it.

Customer Rating:

Summary: A Real Look Into mankind's Future!
Comment: I didn't even know this movie existed up until 2 weeks ago. I never read or heard anything on it. The movie has warped into a Cult Classic for me, after watching it for the first time. So far I have had the movie on my DVR for over 2 weeks now, and I have only deleted it now because I bought the DVD. Normally I watch a movie once and then I'm good for years, but not Idiocracy. I have now seen this movie 10 times! To think I almost didn't watch it. I had confused Luke Wilson, with Owen Wilson. Owen is great at doing comedies, but this movie needs a Straight-Lace personality to pull it off and Luke does that perfectly.

(Basic Plot)
Luke Wilson, AKA Joe Bauers, is an average man in every possible way. Basic IQ, basic health, just basic; which makes him perfect for an experiment in Cryogenics. The Army also finds Maya Rudolph, AKA Rita to participate. As long as her pimp gets paid. This "Getting His Money" theme plays throughout the movie (I will get to this later). The experiment goes horribly wrong and they are both forgotten about for 500 years. They are awakened in a time where the Status Quo has dropped to the point where humans are on the verge of starvation. It seems that more idiots have spawned children then intelligent people, creating an inbred Society of morons. Which in reality is a true concept; as mean as that sounds. So this general idea adds a type of realism to the movie. Human Speech is no longer what we would consider formal. It is a mix of Ebonics, Valley Girl, ect. Much in the way that our ancestors would view how we pronounce words today, as being crude; the Idiocracy future is even worse. Joe Bauers is able to understand them, but they view him as being a "Fag." This Broken-English is already on it's way to becoming the norm, so I love the idea that Mike Judge added this to his movie. What makes the movie so funny is the little details. When Joe first meets up with Dax Shepard, AKA Frito, Dax is watching a show called "Ow! My Balls!" on a Giant-Screen TV. But the only part of the screen where you can view the show is in the very middle. The rest of the surrounding screen is full of flashing, blinking advertisements. These annoying banners, which cover up 80% of the screen, are the predictable future to a practice that didn't exist back in the 90's, but are now EVERYWHERE in our own time! So in Idiocracy future, your 7 Foot TV screen, will really only end up being 20 Inches after Advertisers fill the rest of the space with banners.
Water is no longer consumed; instead it is now a Gatorade-Type drink called Brawndo that is the most consumed beverage. This again comes from present culture where a person would rather drink sugar-water then just plain-old water. Waves and claps of respect have been replaced with the Middle Finger. Swear words are also part of everyday Society and are not viewed as insults. Food has been replaced with Junk Food. There is no longer 4-Star restaurants, just Fast-Food and Microwavable snacks. The marquee restaurant is called Butt-F***ers ( Fuddruckers to us). These eating habits have caused people to look Doughy (Soft and Fat).
clothing has also had to change with the times. Suits and slacks have been replaced with T-Shirts and Nylon pants, covered with advertisements. Basically, if you woke up in the Idiocracy future, you wouldn't be shocked. It is everything that takes place now, just after 500 years of progression.

Both Joe and Rita find themselves the smartest people alive. Joe is tasked with saving the world and Rita ends up trying to save Joe from those who he is trying to help. Maya Rudolph really plays her character well. Which must be pretty easy for her seeing as she has been on SNL for years and years. I couldn't stop laughing at her repeated worries that her former pimp would travel through time to get his money. It's just the simple things like this that make you want to watch the movie over and over again. Every time I watch it I find a new joke hidden in the background. Luke is funny because he isn't trying to be funny. That is why I didn't want to see the movie if Owen Wilson was the star. I know what to expect from Owen, but Luke isn't known for comedies.

I don't want to give away everything. If you see the DVD for rent or sale, get it. Fox Movies didn't want to show Idiocracy in the theaters, so that is why you, like me, most likely didn't hear anything about it. But like Orgazmo, Idiocracy is a hidden gem. A movie that pushes boarders just enough to keep it edgy, but not enough to warrant a boycott.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Bell Curve Too Much For You To Read? Get This Movie
Comment: The Bell Curve, by Herrnstein and Murray, will become the most prescient book for this century. Idiocracy is a mind experiment on many of the issues discuseed in The Bell Curve. It joins Gattaca as one of those rare films that successfully approaches a complex subject. The film is very careful not to offend. If this film can't succeed on the subject of genetics and intelligence than nothing can. Don't get me wrong. I laughed my head off during the film. But there's really nothing funny about the subject it satirizes.

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Editorial Reviews:

Given that Office Space is a bona fide cult classic, it comes as some surprise that Mike Judge's follow-up wasn't more heavily promoted. Granted, this live-action comedy is a darker, more pointed proposition, but it's unfortunate that few theater patrons got the opportunity to, well, judge for themselves. In Idiocracy, the King of the Hill creator visualizes what would happen if Devo's proposition--that mankind is in the process of devolution--came to pass. The catalyst: the overeducated start having fewer children while the undereducated have more. Enter Joe (Luke Wilson), a military librarian with no family and even less ambition. The Pentagon chooses him for a top-secret hibernation project due to his extreme "average-ness." They select Rita (SNL's Maya Rudolph), a prostitute, for the same reason. When the experiment goes haywire, the two emerge 500 years later--rather than one. Now it's 2505 and they're the brightest people in the over-polluted land. Everyone else is, basically, Beavis and Butt-head. Yes, the satire couldn't be less subtle, but the premise gives Judge license to make as much fun of junk food pop culture as dystopian classics like 1984 and Planet of the Apes. Wilson wisely plays it straight, even if the actors who surround him sometimes succumb to excess. And the effects may be cheesy, but that just adds to the fun. Idiocracy features former footballer Terry Crews (Everybody Hates Chris) as President Camacho and Dax Shepard (Punk'd) as Joe's futuristic friend Frito. --Kathleen C. Fennessy