Even after getting Office Space out of his system, writer-director Mike Judge still had enough bitterness toward humanity to make this failed but fascinating comic epic. Set hundreds of years in the future, Idiocracy envisions an America full of drooling idiots thanks to centuries of television, celebrity worship, consumerism and junk food. (The top show, called “Ow! My Balls!,” consists entirely of a guy getting kicked in the crotch. And mind you, Idiocracy came out before ABC’s “Wipeout.”) Structurally this is a mess and costar Maya Rudolph is completely wasted, but I loved the attention to the details of mankind’s ineptness, including an LED clock tower that flashes “12:00.” Luke Wilson, as an Army slacker who is frozen as part of an experiment and wakes up in this warped future, is a stroke of genius casting. Wilson specializes in dim bulbs, and he’s fantastic as one whose wattage significantly increases when he finds himself among the morons of the future.
