Idiocracy (Mike Judge, 2006)

This week marks Fox's token run of Idiocracy. Mike Judge's highly anticipated (by me) follow-up to Office Space has been given no (NO) marketing money, which means no posters, no trailers, no press, and no TV spots. It is not being released in cities like New York. And it will be pulled quickly (perhaps by Friday) so that it can be shipped off to Fox's home video people, who will promptly bring in oodles of cash for their evil corporate overlords by printing "FROM THE DIRECTOR OF OFFICE SPACE" next to Luke Wilson's mug and the sentence "AND YOU LIKED THIS GUY IN OLD SCHOOL, RIGHT?" on the packaging.

Wilson is a regular schlub who, as part of an army experiment, is frozen for centuries, and awakens to find that he is the world's smartest man. The film is clumsy, often ugly to look at, and hilarious. There are jokes crammed into the mise-en-scene at every turn, and considering the film's budget it's really an accomplishment. I was wary of a distasteful elitism that never showed itself, and though the film pretty much falls apart in its final act, it's still, in the end, a comedy that is funny. Really funny. So it's got that going for it.

In a lot of ways, Idiocracy is made that much more beautiful because of its corporate flogging, which may or may not have something to do with its elegant depictions of where Carl's Jr., Starbuck, Costco, and Fox News are all heading. At the end of the day, I get to feel like I discovered this movie, just like everyone feels like they discovered Office Space, another unassuming studio comedy, and one that turned out to be a huge DVD cash cow for Fox.

It's a case we should all be watching in the age of Napoleon Dynamite and, especially, Snakes On A Plane, whose marketing robbed its audience of that discovery in the hopes of making a quick buck on the backs of YouTubers and "clever" blogs everywhere. I assure you, Idiocracy has a half dozen lines or jokes that are better than Samuel L. Jackson's "motherfucking snakes" bite, which you could catch on any one of Jackson's talk show appearances anyway. I'd write about which jokes really worked and which didn't, but I would want to ruin anyone else's discovery.

Also saw The Quiet (Jamie Babbit, 2005), which blew, and last night we watched What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (Robert Aldrich, 1962), which is incredible. What a couple of crazy bitches. Really.

On the way to the grocery store today, we found the house where the exteriors were filmed. It was underwhelming, especially since it is completely different forty years on. Boo. I was hoping that Bette Davis would be singing "I've Written A Letter To Daddy" on the roof while Joan Crawford dragged herself around the lawn, begging passersby for help.

No luck.