Idiocracy - new Mike Judge movie in superlimited release

question does not compute

any 30 seconds of king of the hill > idiocracy

Played by Scarface from the Geto Boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway, movie was funny, really funny in a few parts, and missed the mark or went on too long in others. it was alright. it was certainly better than Anchorman. also, good to see mike judge basically play butthead for an hour and a half.

I liked it okay, but it def. has some problems. Seemed pointless as live action, would've been more fun as a cartoon. And its basically one really looooooooong joke, very one note.

Scarface's appearance cracked me up.

I thought he was referring to President Sean Camacho!

But King of the Hill's avoidance of race seems more than a little forced and dishonest. I mean, race isn't exactly a non-issue in East Texas, and the show's timidity in this respect is hard to parse.

Idiocracy is Mike's first work to really deal with and incorporate non-white America. And in it, signifiers of non-white race, lower-class poverty and stupidity-to-the-point-of-retardation are all mixed together, as though they were essentially the same thing.

Didn't kill the movie for me (the lack of good jokes did that), but I found it more than a little off-putting.

While there have been occasional minor/guest characters of other races, it's a basically white universe. And the profound race issues (including outright racism) that are such an essential part of the real-world landscape the show supposedly mirrors are almost entirely sidestepped.

Yeah, I was thinking of Mexicans, too. I know that the show sometimes touches on race issues, but even so, I've always found it kinda timid.

Some of the "alley gang" should be at least kinda/sorta racist. Given the culture they represent, this failure seems like a cop-out. How do white, conservative, middle-class, suburban Texans really feel about race? In my admittedly limited experience, people like Dale (and even Hank) are often profoundly racist.

The only actual racist on the show, though, seems to be Khan. Why? Why does the show present such a rosy, "enlightened" view of race-relations in Texas? I understand that everybody on the show is stereotyped to some extent, but why are the non-white characters so consistently stereotyped in terms of race alone? Why aren't there any hispanic major characters? In Texas of all places?

I don't wanna get bogged down in debate. If what I'm saying doesn't make intuitive sense to you, then arguing the point probably won't change your mind. And I don't think you're wrong, necessarily. What I'm talking about is more implicit than explicit.

it even reflects the derisive patois of like "gub'mint" and "'murrca" which is so disgusting

kinda hate this movie as an easy snide reference, the overarching attitude and tone of superiority is gross.

― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, November 17, 2012 8:28 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's basically ILX politics threads: the movie

― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, November 17, 2012 8:32 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

n/a otm

glad i'll be dead b4 entire film comes true

The emphasis on "entire" can be assumed?

that's all well and good but I really do not feel like this movie was intended to be any kind of serious social commentary. like on one hand maybe there's something to making an American Gladitor the President in an era when people were seriously asking if Schwarzenegger could make a White House run, on the other there's the fact that Terry Crews as President is fucking hilarious.

people tried to criticize Office Space along similar lines, but again I always felt like Judge was just doing something funny rather than something insightful. hence the way Peter is constantly painted as being lazy and kind of a whiner. KotH, same thing...it makes fun of good ol' boys and Southeners and also sorta extolls their values. I don't think that Judge is trying to do cutting edge satire here.

Even if you ignore all political subtext, Luke Wilson is a fucking drip of a lead

which makes him kind of ideal for this type of movie

an undercooked commercial failure? well yeah

first half of judge's career so far
Beavis and Butthead
a sympathetic take on a red state family
a movie about what wage slaves have to put up with

second half of judge's career so far
a movie about what CEOs have to put up with
an unsympathetic take on a blue state family
Beavis and Butthead

with a movie about what happens when the mongrel hordes are allowed outbreed the educated class at half-time

frogbs are you seriously saying that idiocracy is not a satire?

oh sure it is to some degree but I saw it as being a lot more absurd than derisive. In my opinion "I didn't like its entitled tone" is a lot less important than whether or not you found it funny

What logos crave: behind-the-scenes with the logos in Idiocracy

Make America 'Bate Again

wow this was a very terrible movie

like it is so condescending and elitist and super classist and also low-key pro-eugenics??

Yeah but electrolytes

I watched this a couple of years ago and was not impressed by the quality of the satire, which was predicated on similar ideas to those long held by racists, except "The Yellow/Brown Peril and Destruction of the White Race" was replaced by "The Proletarian Peril and Destruction of the Educated Elites".

an old theme, at least in science fiction

https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/kornbluth-littleblack/kornbluth-littleblack-00-h.html

It's a terrifyingly prescient and occasionally very funny film ruined for many people because of a totally unnecessary Eugenics 101 sequence that they stuck at the beginning as if society's decline required a theory.

^ this.

anybody else have friends that think it's so hilarious to say "little did we know at the time this was a DOCUMENTARY"

that's what i say about southland tales

I would vote for President Camacho

uhh i like money

I love the way theyre all wearing Crocs. Big ups to the costume designer(s)

35mm with Judge:

https://www.musicboxtheatre.com/films/idiocracy-on-35mm-with-mike-judge

my hatred of this movie has grown tenfold since I first watched it 4 months ago

I just saw this movie for the first time since it was in theaters. Some of it has aged well, some of it has aged terribly, but it remains by and large a borderline disaster, like a self-funded pilot that never got picked up.

it does look really cheap, doesn't it?

Pretty sure I won't be going back to rescreen this one

Especially not when Southland Tales exists