Idiocracy
DiscoZombie
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">The Other Mike Judge Movie</div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiocracy" target="_blank">Idiocracy</a> was only released in a handful of theaters, and conspiracy theorists say that it was deliberately suppressed so that no one could see it. Whatever the reason is that no one knows about this movie, it's hilarious. If you like Office Space or Beavis and Butt-head or King of the Hill or South Park, netflix this movie asap.
Oh, what's it about? It's a dark but irreverent comedy about a dystopian future America. You know how smart people tend to have few kids but idiots have a ton? Well, we probably have a kind of devolution on our hands, and no doubt genes are getting worse and people are getting dumber. This movie puts an average, modern guy (Luke Wilson) 500 years into the future, where the world is a mess because everyone is a total idiot.
It cracked me up and left me with an uneasy feeling because I can totally see it happening =p
Oh, what's it about? It's a dark but irreverent comedy about a dystopian future America. You know how smart people tend to have few kids but idiots have a ton? Well, we probably have a kind of devolution on our hands, and no doubt genes are getting worse and people are getting dumber. This movie puts an average, modern guy (Luke Wilson) 500 years into the future, where the world is a mess because everyone is a total idiot.
It cracked me up and left me with an uneasy feeling because I can totally see it happening =p
Comments
The thing is, the movie was shelved for 2 years, then finally released without any advertising in a small number of theatres in New York City. Strange. They may be right. It also satirizes several big name corporations now, including FOX, who produced the film.
Shows an interesting scenario, one I really hope will not happen, but hey, lot's of crazy ish happens.
Great casting with Luke Wilson xD, and all them MadTV people.
Ugg... Not a very good movie TBH...
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True, the idea however was pretty good.
Luckily on an average, we're not getting dumber.
True, the idea however was pretty good.
Luckily on an average, we're not getting dumber.
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A pretty good idea? On what level...
On one hand, part of the agenda of the movie is to condemn stupidness in sociaty, and we see stupid people in the movie laughing at stupid things, that's how we know they are so stupid. And yet we're expected to see this movie as funny... It's self defeating to me... Then again, that's not really as big as the problem of the writing just being generally terrible...
What I found most interesting was the way they ambivalently took to both sides of the nature/nurture debate throughout the movie: the first 15 minutes of the movie is damn near a eugenicist's manifesto. But by the end they did an about-face, and instead of implying that people are born with their IQs they asserted that intelligence is learned and all people need to do is "read books" to save themselves from a fate of hopeless ignorance.
Anyone else notice this?
<!--quoteo(post=1628544:date=May 22 2007, 05:21 PM:name=Zavaro)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Zavaro @ May 22 2007, 05:21 PM) [snapback]1628544[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The thing is, the movie was shelved for 2 years, then finally released without any advertising in a small number of theatres in New York City. Strange. They may be right. It also satirizes several big name corporations now, including FOX, who produced the film.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It's not the dystopian representation of the future nor the corporate mocerky that accounts for its suppression, to think so is to miss the true source of the controversy. It's the movie's stance on nature/nurture. Questioning tabula rasa <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa" target="_blank">*</a> remains one of the most sacrosanct PC taboos, and to take serious efforts to suppress the movie equates to censorship of a high order.
If we are to seriously consider that intelligence and other mental characteristics are inherited we bring into the discussion the notion that poverty is inevitable for some, that "alcoholism" and drug addiction are innate tendencies, and most controversially, that the human races are unequal, and so on and so on. This is where the conspiracy theory gets its weight.
Most likely FOX is just stupid. It tried <i>really hard</i> to kill Star Wars before it ever came out, canceled Firefly, Family Guy, Arrested Development, and Futurama, plus it nixed Drive after 3 episodes. After all that, holding a Mike Judge movie for 2 years then releasing it with little fanfare is almost par for the course.
<!--quoteo(post=1628508:date=May 22 2007, 12:49 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ May 22 2007, 12:49 PM) [snapback]1628508[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
You know how smart people tend to have few kids but idiots have a ton?
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Actually, people with less money tend to have more kids. These people tend to also not be as smart, but this is because of bad education not bad genes. So the amount of idiots in the future will likely depend more on whether the gap between rich and poor is bigger or smaller. Its a whole lot better today than it was in, say, the middle ages. Despite recent short term trends, it has been getting better on the whole.
In short, <b>I have hope</b> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
Sounds like a pretty interesting concept.
Actually, people with less money tend to have more kids. These people tend to also not be as smart, but this is because of bad education not bad genes. So the amount of idiots in the future will likely depend more on whether the gap between rich and poor is bigger or smaller. Its a whole lot better today than it was in, say, the middle ages. Despite recent short term trends, it has been getting better on the whole.
In short, <b>I have hope</b> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
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Well put. Bravo. =p
I see what Swift is saying about the movie being self-defeating in a way. It satirizes stupid people, but the whole movie is pretty much a chain of stupid laughs, which makes you feel like a stupid person =p but I still loved it when I took it at face value and didn't read into it too much.
"Welcome to Costco. I love you."
Yeah I'm sure the FOX execs were worrying themselves silly about making a bunch of liberals mad, which is why they sat on the film for 2 years.
Most likely FOX is just stupid. It tried <i>really hard</i> to kill Star Wars before it ever came out, canceled Firefly, Family Guy, Arrested Development, and Futurama, plus it nixed Drive after 3 episodes. After all that, holding a Mike Judge movie for 2 years then releasing it with little fanfare is almost par for the course.
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A vastly disingenuous oversimplification to be sure.
Who is this mysterious stupid "FOX" you speak of? What "execs" would be in charge of "sitting on" the movie? It's a vast bureaucracy.
What I said is just one source of the conspiracy theory anyway. I think nearly all conspiracy theories (especially this one) are baseless by their nature; once something like this is exposed rationally it becomes a "controversy" or a "cover up." Conspiracy theories are the opposite of rationality, the phrase itself has come to mean something that's all hype and is founded on unproven or unprovable conjecture.
I think they probably just didn't think the movie was funny enough, it didn't fare well in focus group screenings, or something like that, and they thus decided not to spend money or effort promoting it. But it is also not hard to believe that some group involved along the way was "worrying themselves silly about making a bunch of liberals mad": leftist interests and establishments are just as real as the rightist ones, and we've seen the kind of sway-to-censorship right-wingers can have.
<!--quoteo(post=1628739:date=May 23 2007, 01:06 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ May 23 2007, 01:06 PM) [snapback]1628739[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I took it at face value and didn't read into it too much.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I guess I AM alone in noticing the nature/nurture issue <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
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Well, when I saw the ending, I read it as basically a typical Hollywood 'feel-good' ending. It was a funny, goofy movie so they didn't want to give it a downer ending where humanity completely disappears due to stupidity... so they tried to act like there's hope, if people start caring about learning again.
It wasn't exactly a documentary, so I don't think continuity was their top concern. besides, Luke Wilson's character was supposed to be an 'average guy' archetype. He probably wouldn't understand that encouraging people to read more wouldn't make their genes better anyway, heh.
I made an obscure reference to this movie in the energy drinks thread... nobody got it =( .
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bah, I made a reference in there and thought i was being original. Apparently you beat me to it and I didn't notice <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />