Idiocracy

The movie is uneven, but it's so idiosyncratic and different that at the very least it stands out on its own. Written and directed by Mike Judge (Office Space, Extract), IDIOCRACY was notoriously abandoned by 20th Century Fox, who opened it on only a handful of screens during its initial theatrical run. On DVD, the film feels re-cut, as if the studio were hedging its bets, but even so the film's silly satire comes through, helped in no small part by Wilson's natural everyman charm.

Judge's comedy can be hit-or-miss in Idiocracy, but at the same time it's a product of such a distinctly skewed worldview -- Judge is, after all, the man who gave us Beavis and Butt-head -- that it also stands out as unique even in the light of its occasional failures and in its studio-altered version. Idiocracy is more silly than mean-spirited, and the film's jokes mocking the traditional vision of the future earn a lot of laughs (here plants are watered with sports drink and Costco is a degree-granting institution).