[lbo-talk] "Idiocracy"

[Chuck]

Carl Remick wrote:
> I used part of the LBO list's downtime productively by watching Mike Judge's 
> "Idiocracy," a film that was long held prisoner by 20th Century Fox and has 
> now escaped to DVD.  This is the greatest dystopian movie since Terry 
> Gilliam's "Brazil."  It makes "Mad Max" look like "Brigadoon."

I almost rented Idiocracy on Friday night, but I opted for "A Scanner 
Darkly" instead. This is the latest animated film by Richard Linklater 
featuring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Rory Cohrane, Robert Downey, Jr, 
and Woody Harrelson. This is another adaption of a novel by Philip K. Dick.

It's set in the near future Los Angeles. A new drug called Substance D 
has addicted 20% of the population. The main characters in the movie are 
bunch of slackers and drug addicts. It's kind of like Slacker meets the 
Big Lebowski meets your favorite movie about paranoia.

The movie features rotoscoping, a kind of animation based on artists 
drawing over the film that has already been shot with live actors and 
edited.

An excellent film. Very true to the spirit of Philip Dick. Excellent 
acting and beautiful visually. I don't understand why there hasn't been 
more of a buzz about this film, but I really like it.

As a lifelong SF fan, I'm just happy to be living in an era where TV and 
film are doing the genre justice.

I'm trying to forgive the Superbowl for bumping the new episode of 
Battlestar Galactica to next week.

I think I'm rooting for the Colts.

Chuck