Random Review #45: the movie "Idiocracy"

Directed by Mike Judge
Starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, and Dax Shepard
Release date: September 3, 2006 (direct-to-DVD)
Rated R

We are stupid. In the last two decades, people have been constantly dumbed down by various types of media. Most of the blame needs to be given to advertising, as this movie clearly states.
Luke Wilson plays Joe Bauers, an Army librarian that is average in every way. He is immediately picked as a male test-subject for an experiment the Army wants to conduct. The project entails him being frozen in a hyperbaric chamber for one year, alongside an average woman, Rita (Maya Rudolph), a hooker the Army picked up off of the street. The experiment goes awry, and the two of them end up being frozen until 2505. The future is bleak. There are mountains of garbage, people watch TV all day, clothing patterns consist of corporate logos, and the English language has devolved into swear words and street terms combined. Everyone is also near-retarded. Joe falls into the hands of Frito, a lawyer that watches a show called "OW! My Balls!" all day while eating pure butter.
Now, this may seem vaguely Futurama-ish, and it kind of is. They both are culture-shocked, Joe way more than Rita. They are soon manipulating the people, and Joe ends up falling into the hands of the President of the U.S., because he is the smartest man on the planet.
This movie was better than I expected, I won’t lie. Since it was direct-to-DVD, I had a general idea of it being extra shitty (even though I’ve had a good experience with DTDVDs before). The cast was funny, the script was alright, and there were plenty of visual gags. The storyline was interesting, and I’m surprised it developed in the way that it did. It wasn’t fantastic, but it wasn’t terrible.