I promised that this week, I’d suggest something a bit more recent. Welp, your prayers have been answered, I’ll save the pre-1980s films for a March. In the meantime, if you were growing up during the 1990s, you will definitely appreciate this film. DEFINITELY!
#2 Idiocracy (2006)
“The #1 movie in America was called “Ass.” And that’s all it was – for 90 minutes. It won eight Oscars that year, including best screenplay.”
Mike Judge is best known for his awesome T.V. spawns: Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill, the two of which were ridiculously funny,and especially during their prime, they dominated ratings across North America. For a time, King of the Hill was second only to South Park and The Simpsons in terms of animated comedy, recently it’s been booted off the air, for “The Cleveland show”.. but that’s a complaint for another day.
Mike Judge’s approach to humor, the realistic-but-exaggerated approach, works out perfectly for the storyline that’s been put together, and the acting really shines, because acting like an idiot and making it believable is much more difficult than you think. Joe (Luke Wilson) and Rita (I don’t know the actress’s name, and I don’t really care) are recruited into a government experiment regarding hibernation, and forgotten about. As they awaken, 500 years later, they discover that the major difficulty that the world suffered wasn’t global warming; it was stupidity.
On on all-new episode of "Ow! My Balls!"
One of the things that my friends pointed out to me, when showcasing the movie to me for the first time, was that this wasn’t too far a stretch for the future. Like I said, Mike Judge focuses on a lot of “exaggerated” realism, and while the technological level that exists in this future and the fact that everyone has an I.Q. of 70 don’t quite match up to what’s possible (and can only barely be explained away by saying that machines are automated, because even then they’ll break down), the atmosphere is silly enough that it really doesn’t matter. Joe, selected for the experiment for how average he is, and Rita, selected because she was a prostitute (just watch it), obviously run into some problems due to the stupidity level, the two are soon discovered as “the smartest people in the world”.
One of the things that made the stupidity so believable wasn’t so much what people said, but how they said it. Not everyone had the typical inbred “duhhhh” type of accent, drunkenly slurring their words, but the way that everyone communicates contrasts so well to Joe’s average-English. You almost feel bad for Joe, and sympathy is really the best way to draw someone into a film.
U.S. President "Camacho"
A lot of today’s movies suffer from quote-syndrome, just like Schwarzenegger movies and Independence Day. The film itself may be good, but the quotes are what stand out about it, so everybody forgets the film that they watched and remembers a couple of quotes; “Oh you did NOT shoot that green shit at me”. While the film has some quotes that you can easily turn into in-jokes, it doesn’t rely off of those memorable quotes. All of the dialogue carries well, and visual jokes stand prominently with spoken jokes alike – especially when you see things like the Dildozer.
The budget was low, the theatre-release was low and the turnout was low, overall for a movie that people barely realized existed. It’s unfortunate, because while the movie doesn’t make you burst out laughing just a couple of times – it keeps you laughing throughout the entire film instead. Unfortunately, this makes most comedies forgettable, but everyone whom I’ve shown it to (with taste) has enjoyed it, so hey, maybe they should’ve marketed it across the country instead of a random small select theatre release.
It’s still relatively easy to find (probably because of Mike Judge’s name on it) so go check out the idiotic (yet still intelligent) fun of this film – I guarantee that it won’t bore you.
–Jeff “DanyLektro”