A print designer's blog called "Speak Up" offers an in-depth appreciation with lots of freeze-frames of Ellen Lampl's dumbed-down corporate logos for Mike Judge's movie "Idiocracy."
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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17 comments:
I rented Idiocracy after reading your review, and I think Fox canned it because it's not that funny a movie, not because of an agenda against acknowledging IQ differences.
It certainly doesn't rank with the likes of Old School, Talledaga Nights, Dumb + Dumber, or Office Space.
What you should watch is The Wire - a crime drama about Baltimore. The writers of the show are purportedly left-wing, and blame the system for the criminals' wrongdoings, according to Wikipedia.
But **none** of that comes out in the show! In fact, it's the exact opposite - the villians are utterly realistic and gruesome in their wanton killings. I can't imagine anyone feeling sympathy for the criminals in that show...
Thanks for the tip about "The Wire." Unfortunately, I don't subscribe to cable TV because it's expensive and time-consuming.
I think Fox canned it because it's not that funny..
Well, it's actually a dark comedy so it's primarily meant to be clever, not amusing.
Nonetheless, Steve's fixation with the film continues to mystify.
I, too, rented Idiocracy as a result of Steve Sailer's fixation with it and was disappointed. It was entertaining but it wasn't a must-see. Then again, I wasn't a huge fan of Office Space either.
I think Steve's fixation with it is that it is the ONLY movie out there exploring the issue of dysgenics.
I watched Idiocracy on pay-per-view, and I thought it was great. Some people find fault with it because it doesn't always make sense, but the movie has too much going for it for it to be dismissed on this basis.
The movie did fall flat in a lot of places, but it's like judging a rock album, even if there's a lot of filler, it's still worth buying if there are three or four great songs. (Actually to continue the analogy, I told my friend to just watch all the good parts on youtube.)
But I mean the dude who is comparing this unfavorably to talladega nights-- give me a break--this film had balls! A black, rapping ex porn star as president, complete with entourage! (Played wonderfully, by the way, by Terry Crews)
I'm with Steve-I think of this movie far more than I should. The other day I saw an ad for "Boost Mobile" --it's logo: "Where you at?" Then there's an energy drink out there called "Pimp Juice." Ok, we havent yet reached:"Carl Jr's: FUCK YOU I'M EATING!" --but we're gettin there.
I only wonder how good it could have been if it had a bigger budget. The special effects and scenery etc. were kind of lame--but as Steve's link in this post shows, they did a good job with the budget they had.
Idiocracy was occasionally laugh-out-loud funny, but mostly it was just fun and cool. The visual design was great.
I rented the movie recently, and overall, it was ok. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it in the theater.
The thing that hit home was how dead-on they got the habits and manners of the stupid. With all of the moronic aggression and the suspicion of learning (or, even, speaking in complete sentences), I thought I was back at my redneck high school.
Whatever the overall merits of this movie, I still think that Mike Judge is one of the keenest observers of American life in the entertainment industry. I still enjoy how in Office Space, everyone commutes to faceless office parks, lives in shoddily constructed apartments, and eats in crappy strip-mall chains. He's clearly making some commentary about modern space and design, but, that's also how a lot of people live, particularly 20-something college grads. Any other film dealing with similar subject matter would've been wall-to-wall urban lofts and bistros, which the underpaid techies could somehow afford.
Hey, Steve, why don't you offer to do an audio commentary of Idiocarcy if they ever do another release of the DVD?
We bought "Idiocracy" and we loved it, have watched it three times, and have recommended it to all our friends and family; it's currently on loan. The President was the best and that character alone makes it worth watching.
I thought it was funnier than "Office Space"
Emily
"The thing that hit home was how dead-on they got the habits and manners of the stupid."
yes, mike judge nailed this exactly.
as the internet becomes more and more popular, i have watched various web sites change over the years as more average and below average people arrive. there is a definite pattern to how dumb people behave and what sorts of things they find interesting.
mark cuban, the guy who owns the dallas mavericks, has even commented on this on his blog, where he complains that youtube is being turned into something that sucks.
i also though idiocracy was not that funny, but i'm not sure the studio canned it for that reason. it is the only movie i know of that is about dysgenics, and i think it's completely possible the studio decided they didn't want to show that. lots of comedy movies that were less funny than idiocracy went into wide release.
although it was not meant to be a super accurate depiction of declining intelligence, one thing i did like about idiocracy was that it showed that yes, mestizos will be contributing to the dumbing down of america.
there were mestizo and various other mixed race extras peppered around the sets. that was interesting, because for the most part hollywood pretends that mexicans do not even exist.
While I don't want to deny the possibility that Fox suppressed the movie because of its dysgenic themes, I've heard that the use of real-life brand names linked with crude and disgusting slogans (e.g., the Carl Jr.'s slogan mentioned above; Fuddruckers changing to Buttf_ers) was a factor.
Re "The Wire" TV series I recall a funny bit from Sat Nite Live:the 2 newsgirls were discussing it,one saying,'Its the best show on Tv,its incredible,just so realistic!" The other anchor,nodding in agreement, asks her,"Have you seen it?" She replies,"Uh-no." "Me either..." :) Will check Idiocracy out based on SS' recomendation!
Steve can record a DVD commentary all on his own. A podcast setup with a nice prompt from SS as to when to press play would be all he needed.
1: Idiocracy is certainly better than most DVD-filler fare out there. Not great, but a worthwhile rental.
2: Indeed, it is a very popular download at most big European piracy sites.
3: The Wire is truly excellent, although the middle seasons fall prey to the temptation of introducing some overly cartoonish characters.
The last season was truly great however - it even features another of Steve's pet peeves, the NCLB.(A flunkie cop tries to educate in an inner city Baltimore school, with expected results.)
I don't subscribe to cable TV
Heh :) None of us subscribe to cable TV either. As long as you have a fast internet connection, try www.isohunt.com, or one of the bajillion bit torrent sites out there.
where he complains that youtube is being turned into something that sucks.
I've thought about this as well -- how the comments at youtube are *incredibly* stupid relative to the kind of thing you see on blogs -- and then an obvious explanation presented itself.
The people who go to youtube go to watch videos. TV, in other words. That's a cross section of the population. The ones who comment are probably on the smarter end, in fact.
Contrast: people who visit blogs go to read and write about obscure things for fun.
When you think about it that way, the reason for the amazing stupidity of youtube relative to (say) metafilter or digg or whatever becomes obvious.
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