This entry is brought to you by our good folks over at News Corporation.

Nearly a year and a half ago, I caught wind of a movie, written and directed by Mike Judge, slated for release in Sept. 2005. You remember Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butthead, co-creator of King of the Hill and the man behind the hilarious Office Space. This latest project was to be another live-action film, one which was to show a possible future in which society has been numbed and dumbed by the pop culture it has become enamored with. Well, the summer of 2005 rolled on, and this film eventually disappeared from the radar much like 1994's "Fantastic Four" movie. Then in the spring of 2006, the film reappeared much like the phoenix of legend. It was slated for release in September of this year, now with the title "Idiocracy". The IMDB page was populated with the cast and crew, and the fans of Office Space laid in wait for the first glimpse of a trailer. Sadly, these fans had a longer wait ahead of them than they imagined. Summer flew by, and there was no mention of this film. No trailer, no posters, nothing. Well to my surprise, while browsing the listings this weekend, what did I see playing in Houston? That's right, Idiocracy.

Although my reviewing skills might pale in comparison to the good folks over at Variety, allow me to wax on about this movie. First of all, it's a good movie. It's not great, and certainly not the best I've seen all year (I'm looking at Little Miss Sunshine right now for that), but it was certainly worthy of something a little better than the burial it received courtesy of Fox. The concept isn't that hard to understand: two people were to be frozen for a year in a military experiment, the experiment went awry, they awake 500 years in the future to find people have become a true reflection of everything wrong with the Jerry Springer Show. There's even an interjection in the film that explains why this is, complete with expanding family trees. Our protagonists awake to find themselves the smartest people in the future, and the only hope of saving mankind. Is this concept what offended Rupert Murdoch so much as to have the movie tanked? Some might say the concept is too simple. Others might say that it just was a bad movie.

Well, I pose a different theory to you here. Perhaps it's the distorted reflection of today's reality that shines from Judge's 500 year dystopia that gave our friends over at Fox a moment of pause. The future where people wear clothing comprised completely of advertising, where top television shows include "Ow, My Balls!" and "Monday Night Rehabilitation", and where everything has been trademarked, copyrighted and stamped down to the point of a major corporation purchasing the FDA and FCC outright. A future where people no longer have the ability to think for themselves, to merely accept their situations because it is the way things have always been. A future where you can win free health care at a slot machine, and a position in the President's cabinet can be procured merely by winning a contest. A Fox News anchor desk manned by a oily, rippled shirtless man and a blonde large breasted woman. Is this future starting to sound a little more possible now? Perhaps that's why the movie was tanked. It can be taken as a reflection of modern society, and a condemnation of how the average man on the street can name the cast of Survivor with more ease than they can a single Supreme Court Justice.

You may read this and think that the movie is just too preachy. No, that's not it at all. The movie does have one preachy moment, brought to you by the average joe protagonist, but you can take it as you wish. The movie deserved better than it got. It deserved a trailer, a poster of some kind, and maybe even a single ad on TV. In the end, it was released in 6 markets (not in San Francisco or New York), was given no promotion, and thrown to the wolves solely to survive via word of mouth. I'm telling my friends to see it, especially if they're a fan of Judge's previous work. The movie presents you with this image, and you will laugh. In the end, though, you will have to ask yourself this question: Are you laughing at the man getting kicked in the balls, or are you laughing at the man from the future whose entertainment is watching a man getting kicked in the balls?

Idiocracy is currently playing in Houston, but who knows for how long. Do yourself a favor and either catch it in theaters or on DVD, which will probably be released with the same amount of fanfare. I'm sure Mike Judge is just looking over at the guys at News Corp (specifically Fox) and saying "Thanks guys, you've really done me a solid!"