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United States24673 Posts
There is an outdated thread about this movie which was created by someone who hadn't actually seen it, and was subsequently derailed into all oblivion. I'm not planning on referencing it because I want to think about this movie from a different perspective.
I just saw Idiocracy for the first time. For those who have no idea what it is about (from imdb.com):
Private Joe Bauers, the definition of "average American", is selected by the Pentagon to be the guinea pig for a top-secret hibernation program. Forgotten, he awakes 500 years in the future. He discovers a society so incredibly dumbed-down that he's easily the most intelligent person alive.
If you haven't seen the movie then there isn't much point in reading further what I'm going to say.
People seem to take one of two stances on what they thought of this movie.
1) Dumb/pointless/etc, but maybe a good joke or two
2) Funny overall and worth watching
I found myself falling into neither category. The premise of the movie was cute, and has not been overdone (I don't believe). The idea of evolution taking a turn for the worst is both an interesting idea, and reasonably well illustrated by the opening sequence. However, this alone is by no means enough to carry a movie.
I also found myself laughing very rarely. There were a few things that I thought worked out well. No, I actually didn't find the army dude getting involved in the prostitution ring funny... I mean I smirked at the first slide or whatever, but everything after that was a waste. If I combed over the movie again, I'd find a few places where I liked the joke the writers/director chose, and thought was implemented satisfactorily. But again, this is not something that could 'carry' the movie.
The things about this movie I liked were more subtle. It was the exchanges between the 'average guy' and the futuristic society. Of course, most of this is simply Joe's conversations with various 'dumb' people. I kept finding meanings in how other characters responded to Joe (both with what he said and what he did in their company). As I watched the movie I got the feeling that the director/writers intended many of the things I was appreciating, but didn't even anticipate others.
Here are some things I liked. Whenever Joe tried explaining something to people who just couldn't understand it, I really related. Even with people who aren't dumb at all, it can feel like that. Then add in IQ's near the single digits, and it becomes my personal hell. Portraying a character as dumb in a movie usually pisses me off, but in this case there was cause for them to be dumb, so there was no obvious person at fault. This allowed me to relate more (instead of turn my nose up at the movie). Honestly, it's very rare that I like a movie which portrays people being dumb (conversely most of my favorite movies involve people being very smart, and usually act smarter than me), so the fact that I wasn't turned off by this movie is impressive.
Also, I often got a vibe that the person Joe was talking to was actually not too dumb to discuss/do what Joe wanted, but chose not to for other (illogical) reasons. This is something I often notice both online and off. The obvious and most simple example of this is how whenever Joe talks in a slightly sophisticated manner or shows a genuine intellectual interest, everyone calls him a fag etc... This is by no means the best or most subtle message about how cultural influences effect attitudes about intelligence, but at the same time I felt I could really relate. Not that going to the extreme is good in the other direction either... if you are minding your own business and I start harassing you about some academic topic that you honestly couldn't give two shits about, then you have a right to not be subjected to it. But both in the movie and real life, it seems like the opposite extreme is where things occur more often.
Finally, I found many of the 'changes to society' after the time-skip were clear exaggerations of developing problems within even our current society. If you just take a glance, the cultural changes to American soceity are so over the top that they can't even be compared to current day, but when you think about how society has changed over the last 50 years (which is difficult to do well unless it's been an interest of yours for many years, and I have only begun to consider myself capable of this) it starts to become more clear as the movie progresses that the movie is saying "guys we are already headed in this direction! We weren't even creative... we just exaggerated a bit." Not that the 'purpose' of the film seemed to be to warn us of our poor cultural trends, but just to highlight them because of the curious things they imply about how people are changing.
What I should do is go through the movie again really slowly and try to find lots of specific examples to demonstrate examples of the things about the movie I really appreciated. Aside from not having time tonight, I don't think there is a point in doing that, because most people (who saw the movie) are probably not going to agree with me. This would explain why people generally fall into one of the two categories I mentioned at the beginning, and I do not.
This attempt to hint at what I appreciated in Idiocracy may not be a suitable explanation, but I'll hope that someone can relate and agree with my viewing experience. But it wasn't a very popular movie so I don't expect many responses regardless.
  
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Seems interesting. I've always thought about this very idea. Too bad the movie isn't too accurate about what it could be like, I would assume. I imagine it is similar to the various communism books that have been released over the years. I might look into the movie a little bit.
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My uncle gave me this movie last christmas, I waited like 3-4 months before watching it.
I agree with you that our society is moving in a direction where they are very much being 'taken care of.'
Movie isn't accurate to what it could be, but I doubt you could really do that anyway. It is supposed to be an exaggeration anyway.
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Korea (South)11577 Posts
i actually have to do an essay portraying the similarities between this movie and Baeurleins "The Dumbest Generation" It's really a crazy movie imo
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I first saw this movie a couple of years ago. I thought it was a fairly decent comedy at the time, decent enough premise with enough wit and humor to be worthwhile.
I agree with a lot of the things you say, The greatest things about this movie are the subtle ones. Since the first time I saw it, I've seen it several times. Prolly 6 months apart each time, and each time I would find some new subtle jokes, and find myself laughing at different parts of the movie.
Overall I've found it to be an excellent satire on American culture with a lot of really witty and subtle humor. While some of the movie may have something profound to say, I wouldn't read into it too much.
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To this day Idiocracy's the worst movie I've ever watched. By far. I watched this movie in a bus with 60 friends, which usually makes any movie hilarious, but after half an hour of Idiocracy, everyone was either asleep or staring at the screen in horror.
You can try to find something intelligent and politically relevant in any movie if you look hard enough, Idiocracy's just bad.
+ Show Spoiler +
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United States24673 Posts
On November 08 2008 15:34 Orome wrote:To this day Idiocracy's the worst movie I've ever watched. By far. I watched this movie in a bus with 60 friends, which usually makes any movie hilarious, but after half an hour of Idiocracy, everyone was either asleep or staring at the screen in horror. You can try to find something intelligent and politically relevant in any movie if you look hard enough, Idiocracy's just bad. + Show Spoiler +
Not all movies are better on a bus with 60 friends. You seem to be coming at this movie from the perspective that it's good because it's funny. This, in my opinion, is not the best way to approach the movie.
Movies that are interesting generally are best viewed in a more private or quiet setting in my experience. And I appreciated the movie for being interesting (even if it was only in its subtleties). And I agree with you that any movie will become interesting in one respect or another if you make that your goal, but in all fairness I viewed this movie once and with a similar mindset to other movies. And it's very rare I like movies that have lots of dumb people, so this movie had to do some stuff right.
While you are entitled to your opinion, I do feel like you couldn't have seen very many bad movies to make such a statement.
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One thing you said is definitely true, which is that I assumed this movie's goal was to be funny. As a comedy, it failed badly, at least for me. It's possible there was another side to the movie I didn't realize at the time, but to verify I'd need to watch it again, and to be honest that's not really on my list of fun things to do right now. 
Conclusion: I'll stick to my opinion for now, but accept that there might be something I've missed.
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On November 08 2008 15:34 Orome wrote:To this day Idiocracy's the worst movie I've ever watched. By far. I watched this movie in a bus with 60 friends, which usually makes any movie hilarious, but after half an hour of Idiocracy, everyone was either asleep or staring at the screen in horror. You can try to find something intelligent and politically relevant in any movie if you look hard enough, Idiocracy's just bad. + Show Spoiler +
By that logic Perfume would be the worst movie in history, but at least I loved it.
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its a movie that is light heartedly intellectual if you ask me, no its not meant to be the funniest movie ever, you can't watch it at face value and say its great, but of course since its called idiocracy the average dumbass thinks oh it wasn't funny enough it must be bad. IRONIC HMM? Definitely not a perfect movie, but if you watch it and analyze it it certainly has some strong points and parallels to modern day and what could be in the future very easily. Everyone assumes things are going to always go UP, granted we have power hungry clever old fucks in charge so don't have to worry too much about this movie coming true, but you get the point.
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I saw this film earlier this year, I really don't remember much about it except I really didn't like it. I wish I could contribute more about it... but that's all I remember lol =/
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yep, for me it didn't do it as comedy nor as satire. Way overdone and nothing that i could take from the movie after watching other than "well, it's not that distant to the truth".
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This movie is brilliant; not as a comedy, but as a reflection on contemporary western cultural values.
Obviously, if you and your 100 frat buddies rented this movie for a road trip thinking "Funny actors are in it and the guy who made Beavis and Butthead is the director, it must be funny! Like Borat! HYUK HYUK HYUK . . ." you will be disappointed.
This movie is funny (and scary) because it is true. If you think that the reality shown in Idiocracy is an fantastic exaggeration, just turn on your TV and see that it is where things are heading or ask a teenager in the street what he considers to be funny or how he likes to spend his time.
I would detail every parallel to Idiocracy you can find in real life, but I don't feel like making a post that long. To sum it up, just look at what shows have the highest ratings on tv right now; Jackass, Fear Factor, any show on MTV (OW! MY BALLS!), wrestling, monster trucks, whatever.
(There was a thread here somewhere about a show on G4TV that instantly reminded me of Idiocracy.. but I cannot recall the name)
Believe it or not, but this is a more profound satire than it might look to most.
Offtopic, it has been too long since I watched Man on the Moon, but I remember liking that movie for the same reasons I like Idiocracy... and hearing people react to it similarly to how some people are reacting to Idiocracy.
EDIT: Didn't see this:
On November 08 2008 19:28 Alizee- wrote:
its a movie that is light heartedly intellectual if you ask me, no its not meant to be the funniest movie ever, you can't watch it at face value and say its great, but of course since its called idiocracy the average dumbass thinks oh it wasn't funny enough it must be bad. IRONIC HMM? Definitely not a perfect movie, but if you watch it and analyze it it certainly has some strong points and parallels to modern day and what could be in the future very easily. Everyone assumes things are going to always go UP, granted we have power hungry clever old fucks in charge so don't have to worry too much about this movie coming true, but you get the point.
QFE
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no offence but u sound like a huge fag
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United States24673 Posts
On November 09 2008 03:38 lwstupidus wrote:
no offence but u sound like a huge fag
Hahahaha nice! I was fooled for like half a second.
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EPT
