Maynard goes to the movies
I needed a moment’s break from the reality of a world full of angry, stupid people. This movie promised me ninety minutes of a world full of people that were merely stupid, which was a step in the right direction. I gave it a try and was rewarded, more or less. But it won’t be for everybody.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be the smartest person in the world; smarter even than Tammy? Well, there are two ways this might come about. One, you might get smarter. Two, everyone else might get dumber. Idiocracy postulates a future world in which everyone has gotten stupid. An average guy from the present gets catapulted into this world by means of an experiment in hibernation gone awry.
Okay, it’s a stupid, forgettable movie, with plenty of crass, gross jokes. But somehow I forgive its limitations. It wasn’t gross for its own sake; it was gross as matter of a social parody. You’re not laughing at gross stuff; you’re laughing at the culture that laughs at gross stuff. And on that point, they had me laughing pretty hard, and in a good-spirited way.
(Are you thinking that this movie might be lampooning American popular culture of the early 21st century? Gosh, I never considered that!)
The reviews have been generally positive but not glowing, with a few people being completely turned off. There has apparently been very little publicity in the release. Rated “R” for sexual references and gross humor, Idiocracy might be sort of okay for select older teens that have already been immersed in the popular culture.
