Parents' Guide to

Idiocracy

By James Rocchi, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Vulgar satire manages to be both stupid and smart.

Movie R 2006 84 minutes
Idiocracy Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

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age 13+

Based on 9 parent reviews

Knrie
Knrie Adult
January 9, 2022
age 13+

Despite the inappropriate content there's a decent message

There are definitely a lot of sexually suggestive jokes, a lot of swearing, and drinking/smoking and just general crude humor. This, like most movies, depends on the kid. If your child has had the talk about where babies come from and can understand satire, then they should be fine watching this. This can spark discussion about evolutionary traits and selective breeding, as well as poor diet, lack of education, dumb popculture and its consequences. The violence is comical and of course meant to be stupid (ex: their popular TV show called "Ow, My Balls!"). Nudity is brief and not sexual in nature at all, it's a scene of people in a cinema laughing hysterically at movie that is simply a guy's butt with fart sounds. There is a lot of swearing and crude humor throughout, but it's all meant to be seen as stupid and is not promoting the behavior in any way. I put 13+ because I feel like there are PG-13 movies that are much worse than this movie, (I'd rather my kid watch this than a PG-13 horror movie any day) but it does depend on your kid's knowledge about worldly things and should be at your discretion. If you feel your kid can handle it I recommend letting them watch then have a discussion about the similarities they could spot that are currently happening in our society, and how it's both hilarious and terrifying lol.

This title has:

Great messages
Too much swearing
3 people found this helpful.
Pres
Pres Adult
January 28, 2020
age 18+

gratuitous sex - filled less than average movie -NOT for children or teens

Far from funny, this movie is filled with explicit sexual banter and over the top sexual talk and situations. Thats it. Thats the entire movie.

This title has:

Too much sex
1 person found this helpful.
See all 9 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In the present, an Army private named Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson) is frozen as part of an experiment in cryogenics; a mistake means he's left frozen until 2505, where he and his fellow participant, a prostitute named Rita, (Maya Rudolph) discover a world where the trend of less-educated people to have more children (as explained in the prologue) has led to a future full of idiots with society breaking down and a drought starving America. Joe, a perfectly average man in our time, is now a super-genius by comparison; can he help fix a broken future and put it on the path back to being even barely functional?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (9):
Kids say (16):

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).

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the ideas here -- does pop culture reward people for being stupid? Is a culture of instant gratification and consumerism bad for long-term intellectual development?

  • Families can also talk about the movie's satirical roots -- what does this vulgar, silly comedy have in common with the work of, for example, Jonathan Swift?

Movie Details

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