IDIOCRACY (2006) - reviewed by Melissa Owsley

Idiocracy is a frightening movie because, well, it could have been much better - and it had a ring of truth. It was done by the same guy who did Office Space, the classic movie representation of cubicle life.

In Idiocracy you have an average guy waking up after a few hundred years in which evolution has become devolution - at least in terms of smarts. This movie could have been so much more than it was. While mildly entertaining in an adolescent sort of way, it could have been much smarter and less vulgar while still conveying the downfall of civilization if we allow what has been happening to continue to happen.

What is happening? Advertising and corporatization of everything in our lives leading to people never ever using their brains. The fact that no one even seems to know what a cow looks like unless they visit a museum or zoo. (Ok, I exaggerate, but not by much.) And the constant rewarding of moronic behavior.

I mean, really, H.L. Mencken was right about the public finally getting the leaders that were just like them - times 10 in this movie. The stupid keep reproducing, and due to societal factors, the smart do not. Maybe there is something wrong here?

I know that what could really be happening is stratification of society, but Idiocracy proposes that the average guy becomes the genius due to our continuous rewarding of the less than brilliant. If you bother to see this movie, I'd be interested in what you think.

Melissa Owsley is a frequent flier for MF and is webmistress over at pinatariders.org