[Movie 275 / Day 291]
In 2005, Corporal Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) is selected for an Army experiment because he is deemed as being the most average soldier in America. Joe, and a prostitute named Rita, rented from her pimp Upgrayedd, are going to be put into a state of hibernation. They are sealed into their hibernation tanks, to be awoken exactly one year later. Unfortunately, during that year, the officer in charge of the experiment, enamoured with Upgrayedd’s way of life, starts his own prostitution business and is arrested. And then the military base is demolished.
The hibernation tanks lay forgotten in a landfill site until, during the Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505, both tanks are jarred open. Joe’s tank crashes through the window of Frito Pendejo (Dax Shepard), who, irritated at having his TV watching interrupted, chases Joe off.
Joe is understandably disorientated and makes his way to a hospital. There, he is cursorily examined by machine and while waiting to see a doctor notices the date on the cover of a magazine. Eventually, he’s called in to see Doctor Lexus (Justin Long) who diagnoses Joe as being “‘tarded” and “f***ed up”. When he asks to scan Joe’s ID tattoo to take payment and discovers Joe doesn’t have one, he panics and hits the alarm button.
Joe runs, but before long is arrested while trying to scavenge for food. At his trial, his court-appointed lawyer turns out to be Frito Pendejo, who, still angry at being interrupted while watching TV, argues against Joe. When Joe tries to explain to the judge, he is mocked for speaking “faggy” and imprisoned. At the prison, he has an ID barcode tattooed onto his wrist, but the machine that does it tattoos his name as Not Sure. This is followed by a standard IQ test, which Joe finds ridiculously easy.
By this point, Joe is starting to realise that humanity has devolved into a race of idiots and tests the theory by telling a prison guard that he’s in the wrong line and is supposed to be released, thus escaping from prison.
Joe heads back to Frito’s apartment and, breaking in, asks if there is a time-machine so he can get back to 2005. Frito says there is, but will only help Joe once he’s promised to set up a bank account allowing Frito to benefit from 500 years of interest. As they travel to the time machine, Joe spots Rita on the street and grabs her and explains that it’s been 500 years. Unfortunately, Joe accidentally scans his barcode whilst waiting for a shuttle at the enormous Costco and is re-arrested.
Instead of finding himself back in prison, however, Joe is delivered to the White House, where President Dwayne Camacho has the results of Joe’s IQ test which shows him to be the most intelligent man on the planet. The President announces that Joe is to be the new Secretary of the Interior and that he will fix the USA’s food and crop shortages and rubbish problem. And that he’ll do it within a week or he’ll be imprisoned for life.
Eventually, Joe works out that water has been replaced by ‘Brawndo: Thirst Mutilator’ for everything except flushing the toilet. He convinces the rest of the government to try watering the crops with water instead of Brawndo to see if it helps. Unfortunately, this action decimates the value of Brawndo’s stock, prompting computers to initiate automatic redundancies which results in half of America being made unemployed overnight – and the crops don’t seem to be growing.
Joe is sentenced to a day’s rehabilitation, which turns out to be a monster truck derby style of execution. While Joe desperately attempts to evade death by truck, Rita has discovered that plants have started sprouting again and rushes out with a camera in order to show the crowds on the Jumbotron.
Written and directed by Mike Judge, I was really looking forward to watching IDIOCRACY after the magnificently funny OFFICE SPACE. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as funny. Not that it’s necessarily a bad movie. The jokes, obviously, are all based on how idiotic the world has become and they do get a bit tiresome after a while. There are some brilliant little touches in the background (some of the big corporation adverts are hilarious, especially the Uhmerican Exxxpress – “You won’t leave home” – and Tarrlyton’s Cigarettes – “Warning: The Surgeon General has one lung and a voicebox but he could still kick your sorry ass”) and occasionally it manages to hit the right note, but really, the laughs are pretty sparse.
A rental rather than a buy, I think.
Rating: 
[ IMDB rating: 6.4 / 10 | IMDB link | Running time: 84 mins ]