... great films, with plots! Where you cared about whose ass it was, and why it was farting!

Production
The film was originally titled Amerikwa and later referred to as 3001 (this title was always known to be a place holder title), and was shown to test audiences around March 2005. There were unofficial reports of very poor ratings from that viewing. Some re-filming purportedly took place in the summer of 2005.


Release issues
In April 2006, a release date was finally set for September 1, 2006. But less than a month before it was set for release, numerous articles [1] revealed that the film's release was to be put on hold indefinitely. Although the release went ahead as planned, it was only a limited release (125 theaters), as opposed to a wide one (2,500-3,000). Initially, the film has been released only in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, Houston and Mike Judge's hometown, Austin.

According to the Austin American-Statesman[2], 20th Century Fox, the film's distributor, has done nothing to promote the movie — while there were posters released to theatres there were no trailers, television spots, or even press kits for media outlets provided. This has led to speculation in some quarters that 20th Century Fox may be actively trying to keep the film from being seen by a large audience, while fulfilling a contractual obligation to release the film in theaters before releasing it on DVD. However, due to Fox's reluctance to provide concrete information, various theories surfaced.[3] In a New York Times article Dan Mitchell has argued that Fox might be shying away from a cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics. [4]


Reviews
Idiocracy generated mostly positive reviews, although early reviews were few due to the lack of advance screenings for critics. It received a 67% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes[5] (though it was only reviewed by 24 critics as of 8 January 2006), and received mostly positive reviews on the Internet Movie Database.

What’s Online
Shying Away From Degeneracy

By DAN MITCHELL
Published: September 9, 2006

THE new film “Idiocracy” sounds like a sure winner. It was directed by Mike Judge, creator of the animated TV series “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill,” and director of the sleeper movie hit “Office Space.” It stars Luke Wilson. It has received good reviews from the few critics who, despite the efforts of 20th Century Fox, have been able to see it.

So why did Fox, after sitting on the movie for two years before releasing it Sept. 1, decide not to market the film, opting instead to open it quietly in only 130 theaters and then quickly send it to video? Judging by the online reaction, there are at least two possible reasons.

The first is that the film is simply too stark a critique of American culture, or even that it is a cautionary tale about low-intelligence dysgenics (essentially, overbreeding among the stupid). The movie depicts a future in which everyone has become so dense and culturally lowbrow that Mr. Wilson’s character — an average guy from the present day who travels by accident hundreds of years forward in time — is a relative genius. Why, asks David Weigel on Reason magazine’s Hit and Run blog (reason.com), do “movies that exploit dumbed-down American culture get wide releases while a comedy making light of that, by the creator of ‘Beavis and Butt-head,’ is getting canned?”

He points to another blogger, Ilkka Kokkarinen, who writes that the implications of the movie’s theme — flatulence jokes aside — “are so immensely serious that it is simply unimaginable that any studio boss would take the slightest chance of becoming the next Mel Gibson over the idea that society of stupid people is worse than a society of smart people.” (sixteenvolts.blogspot.com) Populists — defenders of the little guy — would not stand for it, Mr. Kokkarinen says.

Others theorize that Fox disowned the film because it makes fun not only of Fox News — the studio’s sister division — but also of Starbucks, Fuddruckers and other companies that may advertise with one or more media outlets of Fox’s owner, the News Corporation.

The blog FishBowlLA quotes Luke Thompson, a movie reviewer for E! Online, as saying, “some of the sponsors may well have been unhappy with the way their products are placed, and made some phone calls to higher-ups” (mediabistro.com).

A Fox spokeswoman told The Austin American-Statesman that the studio’s handling of the movie was “an executive decision from the chairman,” and would not elaborate.

So basically it says here you're fucked up, you sound like a ****, and your shit's all retarded.

One popular — and certainly not too farfetched — theory is that the proudly lowbrow, R-rated Idiocracy touched a nerve within boardrooms because of how harshly it comes down satirically on some of its corporate players within the movie. Apart from the Costco dig and all sorts of franchising and licensing jokes, delivered in visual scattershot throughout the film, over the years the burger chain Fuddrucker’s has morphed into Buttf*ckers, Starbucks gives hand-jobs with its lattes, and tax refunds (I think from a name company, though I can’t recollect with 100% certainty) can be received in the form of further sexual gratification. “If you don’t smoke Tarrylton’s… f*ck you!” exclaims one leering billboard, while Carl’s Jr. kiosks repeatedly greet customers in similarly crude fashion.

One rumor has Starbucks and-or other companies threatening legal action or, more likely, noncompliance and non-cooperation in future projects with the studio, meaning that this dump of Idiocracy satisfies 20th Century Fox’s contractual obligations while also showing their groveling sensitivity to the thin-skinned interests of fellow corporate citizens (as opposed to the alternative of… I don’t know, all that material somehow slipping by those that greenlit the movie and the legion of well-paid legal vetters that help handle product placement and rights clearances in films?). It’s hard to prove, of course — coincidentally, just like indecency. But Fox ducked calls for comment on this, or even to confirm or discuss the movie’s release strategy, except to say that it came out last week.

That, as much as the bizarrely bullet-riddled commercial corpse of Idiocracy, seems to say something.