Idiocracy

Well here's the first one that I can't foresee myself ever watching again. I'm a big fan of Office Space, and I think Mike Judge is a funny guy, even though I was never a fan of King of the Hill. Again, I stumbled upon it while going through IMDB pages, and it sounded like a pretty interesting concept, and I figured Judge's brand of comedy would fit it well. After watching it, I'm amazed that Judge had anything to do with it. Everything I've seen of his before looks pretty low rent. This was the exact opposite. Big sets and tons of CG work, and a lot of overly colourful imagery gave the movie a really run of the mill bad comedy feel, like those shot by directors who just know comedy. 

What made it worse was the casting. Luke Wilson can survive as a lead only when supported by guys like Ferrel and Vaughn, like in Old School. But when he's left on his own, it really shows how little range he has. Everything sounded and looked exactly the same in his performance from beginning to end, which really doesn't mix well with Judge's comedy. Dax Sheppard is one of the worst comedic actors ever, and his approach to acting stupid was simply to keep his eyes half closed and deliver all his lines like his mouth was half full of food. Maya Rudolph was one of the worst cast members of SNL I had ever seen back when I still watched the show. As a female lead, when she's given more screen time, its glaringly apparent that she's not funny whatsoever. And that is a bad sign. When you're three top leads are not delivering the jokes, you're in trouble. And as you can assume, you can only laugh at people who don't understand things so much. And its nowhere near the level you need to sustain comedy throughout a feature. 

I thought that the concept of the movie was good to begin with. But after it finished I found that the main idea was so overstated and hyperboled, that it just became annoying. It didn't take long for the movie to make its point, but then you have to do something with it. The big problem was that the main conclusion of it just seemed wrong. Perhaps if it had been revealed early on that there really was no way out, and obviously no time machine, Joe's actions would have made a little more sense. And with a character who is infinitely smarter than every other character, you have the freedom for him to do whatever you want. Unfortunately, the character is always in between goals. He tries to fix some things, but is always distracted by trying to figure how to get out. It took all the impact of what he could achieve by teaching these people ideas that they needed to survive. But given the concept of the movie, it has all the interest of a character who can't figure out how to eat pudding, and then giving him a spoon. 

I can't recommend this one to anyone, unless you're a hardcore Luke Wilson fan, but at that point, you're already long gone.