Idiocracy Movie Review

 Mike Judge made this one too, so Gabe bought it on iTunes. A review of Idiocracy (2006) dir. Mike Judge.

Randies online like to look at anything Trump does and claim, "This is just like Idiocracy!" And I have to admit, they were onto something.

• Corporations have too much power over public life.
• Politics is more about entertainment than about justice or virtue.
• Our society is hypersexualized; every man, woman, and child is so porn-brained they can't even think straight anymore.
• People have very short attention spans. If it doesn't immediately grab you, you move onto something else.
• There's trash everywhere. (This was especially poignant, watching it in St. Paul, Minnesota.) 

But just because it's very accurate doesn't mean it's revolutionary. Most media that "predicted" something was just looking at the problems of its day and making jokes about it. We as a society haven't changed so much since 2006. The movie is a critique on "capitalism" (what teenagers on Reddit call greed), but it's also about society's inability to analyze itself and its own flaws. Everyone who promotes Idiocracy online exempts himself from its symptoms. Notice how most people that make the Trump-Idiocracy comparison online usually support abortion or have a "Be gay, do crime" sticker on their laptop. "Everybody is dumb except me."

The means by which we avoid an idiocracy is not by yelling about Donald Trump or big companies online. We must first learn to admit our blind spots and grow out of our own self-enlightenment. President Trump and TikTok were but a twinkle in the eyes of God when this movie came out; we cannot blame a few scant pieces of modern American society for our collapse. Our current political / cultural climate is accelerating towards an idiocracy for sure, but change comes from within. What is the LORD's monologue saying at the end of Job? Repent!

This movie is kinda ugly and sometimes annoying. All the CG looks like a PS3 game or a Nickelodeon cartoon. I'm leaning more towards PS3 game with how much brown there is everywhere. Wasn't very funny either. At least not compared of Office Space, which is both beautiful and hilarious.

This is the most centrist post on this site in its 13 years, so I can't help but review Idiocracy as a 5/10.

Office Space Movie Review

Gabe and Dan kept quoting it and made me watch it on full volume in the library. A review of Office Space (1999) dir. Mike Judge. Spoilers ahead.

I've seen this criticism of Fight Club before, and I found it again looking for a photo for this article. "Boo hoo! You have a stable job in a good economy! You have no idea how bad it will be in 2026!" People like this make me wonder if they have any sense of reality, or if they are so egocentric that their problems are automatically more important and gargantuan than those from past generations. Everyone in the movie is miserable. Some people are constantly at risk of being fired, no matter how hard they slave away for Initech. Some people get fired for no reason. One has already been fired, and the company refuses to tell him because they love taking advantage of him. Peter is called into work 7 days a week just to be bullied and mocked by the higher-ups. How many voicemails did Lumbergh leave on Peter's phone when he was a little late for work? I think it said 37. His job is undervalued, and there is no incentive for him to bother. Not to mention his girlfriend that was cheating on him the whole time. Peter wins because he is the only one unwilling to play the game. 90s America gets glazed so hard by pop culture it's unbelievable. If you actually pay attention to the movie, you would know that the problems you face are not new. Suffering is not specific to a particular time and place. Maybe watch the movie instead of victimizing yourself at every turn. 4chan users are such losers.

I felt for Joanna. I can see why Peter wanted to be with her. The 15-flair minimum thing made me so mad. As someone who works in service, I was glad that the "bad guys" won in the end. Peter never got punished. Joanna got a better job. Michael and Samir ended up in a better company. Milton got his vengeance. Lumbergh's company ended in ash.

The color in this movie looked sharp and vivid, even through Gabe's laptop screen. The songs were great too. 90s rap has such a dated yet timeless style to it.

Peter owns a Nintendo 64. 7/10