I rented this movie from Netflix based on Steve Sailer's constant hyping of it.
Sorry Steve, but this movie sucks. That's the last time I let you talk me into watching a movie.
Sure, the future consequences of society's dysgenic breeding patterns deserve some attention, but that concept alone doesn't save the movie, which is simply not funny at all. Steve Sailer suggests that this movie was kept out of the theaters and not promoted because of the politically incorrect background story. Maybe, but that would be an easier explanation to buy if this movie were in any way entertaining.
Mike Judge, who wrote and directed this stinker, also wrote and directed the far better movie Office Space. Office Space was funny and insightful, and anyone who ever worked in a cubicle and lived in a cheap apartment can relate to it.
I thought it was hilarious, if a bit overbroad. Oh, well. I'll bet you didn't like "Beavis and Butt-Head," either. And you went to one of those smart-kid schools, so you probably haven't had much experience with people who actually argue like that. There are a lot of them.
Posted by: Spungen | January 20, 2007 at 03:02 PM
I also didn't think much of this movie. There was way too much narration, the special effects were cheap, and the gag humor was tiresome.
This movie reminds me of an very long SNL skit.
My guess as to why the movie was shelved is it that is did poorly with test audiences.
Posted by: Eric the Red | January 20, 2007 at 03:15 PM
Maybe if they'd tried it out in San Francisco and New York, it would have done better. Yet it played in my little backwater suburb, go figure.
Posted by: Spungen | January 20, 2007 at 03:22 PM
I liked the first fifteen minutes of it well enough to forgive the rest. (Not to oversell those first scenes, but "Clevon," with an I.Q. of 78, completely outbreeds a frigid, high-I.Q. yuppy couple.)
I remember one wit wondering if the human race really would have been better off if the yuppies had won.
However, the bulk of the movie is like some episodes of "Cops," where the cops go to the house, the kids are in dirty diapers, there's trash everywhere, the parents are drunk, and the fridge is empty. It might be interesting in a car-crash sort of way, but it's never funny.
Also, while watching the movie, I kept wondering: who is keeping the lights on? Why is it that the future cops have guns that work? Why are cars drivable?
I kept waiting to see bands of wild dogs roaming the streets, bringing people down because they're too stupid to do anything but throw rocks. At a certain point, stupidity does become lethal.
Posted by: Kirk | January 20, 2007 at 03:38 PM
The narration reminded me of the narration in the original cut of Bladerunner. It's a crappy post-production attempt to make a three-quarters completed movie cohere. I wondered if the family tree sequence works really well for the normal people that don't think about differential birthrates and eugenics as a matter of course.
Posted by: Turkey | January 20, 2007 at 03:57 PM
You guys probably don't like it because you're all shirking your reproduction duties and you know it. Stop whining about "alpha males" and get on it.
Posted by: Spungen | January 20, 2007 at 04:08 PM
"You guys probably don't like it because you're all shirking your reproduction duties and you know it. Stop whining about "alpha males" and get on it."
I don't complain about "alpha males", and I do quite well with the ladies.
The problem is this movie is not very good. I seems half-done. It really is a let down since Office Space was so good.
Posted by: Eric the Red | January 20, 2007 at 04:28 PM
You guys probably don't like it because you're all shirking your reproduction duties and you know it. Stop whining about "alpha males" and get on it.
It did make me a tad uneasy. Still though, I'm not sure what to do about it.
Posted by: Kirk | January 20, 2007 at 04:46 PM
It did make me a tad uneasy. Still though, I'm not sure what to do about it.
That's the problem. Our society's relatively high expectations for raising children has ultimately risen the cost of bringing a child from infancy to adulthood. It's no longer good enough to go live in a small three bedroom house, go to solid public schools, and attend "directional college". We need 5 bedroom houses with 5 bathrooms, elite private schools, and strictly Ivy League credentials to be successful. The money needed to set up that foundation requires more preparation which in turn delays parenthood.
If you want the smart people to start having more children, you need to have the preparation needed to establish a family much shorter and you need to have people desire to have large families again. You might even have to have Americans lower their standards somewhat, and do with less stuff. Coincidentally, the period in American history where the middle class could have large families in "decent homes" was the 1950s, and the environment that fostered that type of middle class no longer exists.
Posted by: David Alexander | January 20, 2007 at 08:42 PM
I don't think that Office Space did too well either when it first came out. It's the kind of movie that gets better and better with every viewing, like Christmas Story and Coming to America. Maybe Idiocracy is like that.
Bevis and Butthead is my third favorite TV show, right after classic Simpsons and South Park. Low to middle brow satire, what SNL might be if it swore off politics.
Posted by: The Engineer | January 21, 2007 at 01:52 PM
Saw this last night. Not the worst comedy I've ever seend, but not great. The bright spots were background details, but I wouldn't watch again to find more. I don't think I laughed out loud.
All Steve's "The studio killed it because it was anti-PC" talk fails the smell test. Don't you think Carl's Jr. and Fuddruckers (the companies that presumably paid for product placement) were pissed when they saw the final movie? [They were the butt of some of the better jokes]. I'm surprised I haven't heard anything about lawsuits. [They'd lose, but may think it worth it to distance themselves and punish the studio].
How much money would Fox lose if all potential advertisers (who basically provide free money during production) suddenly got nervous that they'd get screwed on product placement? A lot more than they lost by burying this. [I wouldn't be surprised if the product placement money made the difference between profit and big loss for each and every studio.] PC, Anti-PC, Don't care. Studios are in it for the money.
Posted by: Brian | January 21, 2007 at 03:31 PM
Bevis and Butthead is my third favorite TV show, right after classic Simpsons and South Park. Low to middle brow satire
I prefer to think of all those shows as highbrow satire that some people, less sophisticated than myself, are capable of enjoying from a low- or middle-brow perspective. I also feel that way about Chris Elliot, Rob Schneider, Andy Kaufman, and Andy Dick.
Posted by: Spungen | January 21, 2007 at 04:48 PM
"I prefer to think of all those shows as highbrow satire that some people, less sophisticated than myself, are capable of enjoying..."
Hey!! You don't have to be "less sophisticated" to enjoy that stuff. I think I'm pretty sophisticated and I love The Simpsons and Andy Kaufman. Beavis and Butthead and South Park not so much. Family Guy is on top of my list too :)
Posted by: Before Sunrise | January 21, 2007 at 04:55 PM
Well exactly. You enjoy them on the highbrow refined level that I do, then. ;)
Posted by: Spungen | January 21, 2007 at 06:23 PM
Kaufman may have been an Asperger who realized he could get laughs by behaving ridiculously and milked it for all he was worth. Look at the way he misjudged the whole wrestling women bit.
A lot of modern satire is simultaneously high and lowbrow, BTW. It is kind of an interesting development.
Posted by: SFG | January 21, 2007 at 08:36 PM
>>Beavis and Butthead and South Park not so much.
The first 20 minutes of the South Park movie are the funniest I've ever seen. I was turning blue because I was laughing so hard when I saw it at the movie theater.
Also, I never saw an audience dumbfounded into silence by something said in a movie. It happened twice in the South Park movie.
Granted, after the first 20 minutes, it runs out of steam.
Posted by: The Engineer | January 22, 2007 at 09:19 AM
Family Guy is just a darker, meaner ripoff of The Simpsons.
Which, of course, means that it's really good.
Posted by: The Engineer | January 22, 2007 at 09:20 AM
Family Guy is just a darker, meaner ripoff of The Simpsons.
Which, of course, means that it's really good.
I enjoy Family Guy too but I doubt it's going to have anything near the staying power of the Simpsons. For reasons I can't quite explain, I suspect that Family Guy will be facing its shark-jumping moment before long.
Posted by: Peter | January 22, 2007 at 09:29 AM
Granted, after the first 20 minutes, it runs out of steam.
I saw it 5 times and I could watch it again. The songs are great.
I haven't been able to watch "The Family Guy" since South Park did that "analysis" of its humor. I realized they were right, that manatees flipping balls really could put these jokes together.
Posted by: Spungen | January 22, 2007 at 12:44 PM
I haven't been able to watch "The Family Guy" since South Park did that "analysis" of its humor. I realized they were right, that manatees flipping balls really could put these jokes together.
The creators of South Park have had nothing but contempt for Family Guy, and hate any attempt to compare the shows and present them as similar. I'll agree since Family Guy seems to reflect The Simpsons during it's glory days during the 4-8 seasons while Family Guy is a bunch of references to other media tied together to create a barely coherent, yet in many cases, humorous show. American Dad is Seth MacFarlane's attempt at making an animated series that's less dependent on the allusions to other TV series.
Posted by: David Alexander | January 22, 2007 at 02:23 PM
"I'll agree since Family Guy seems to reflect The Simpsons during it's glory days during the 4-8 seasons..."
That should have been "South Park" in place of Family Guy.
Posted by: David Alexander | January 22, 2007 at 03:30 PM