The State of Idiot

Is Idiocracy destined for cult status? This is a movie, after all, by Mike Judge, the guy behind Beavis and Butthead (the cult show of the 90s) as well as Office Space (a movie which gained cult status through word-of-mouth once it was released on DVD.)

According to this review, 20th Century Fox tried to sabotage Judge after realising his intentions were to shaft America's corporations. Theatres screening previews have been completely empty, due to very poor advertising, but most people coming out seem to say this is not only a funny movie, but spot on too. So, why has the studio decided to prevent its general release and send it straight to video?

Judge might have had better luck if he'd aimed his satire at easy targets (ala Team America): the french, Hollywood, terrorists or Michael Moore. He took a swipe, however, at the hands that feed him, so it's not surprising that they are now unwilling to shoulder his work.

My appetite is now wetted. I tried to find the trailer on the net but had no luck (*insert your cospiracy theory here*). I don't think you can go wrong with a movie that takes the piss out of the dark side of American culture and is set in a post-apocalyptic scenario. I can only hope it doesn't take years for it to be released on DVD or reach British shores.

Meaningless Saturday

The Times is giving away today a copy of Belleville Rendez-Vous. Kevin and I leave the apartment after lunch, cross Victoria Park and buy cappuccinos at the bagel shop beside the newsagent. We are now back in the park, sitting on a shaded picnic table etched with teenage nicknames, drinking our coffee and reading The Times and The Guardian.

A cool breeze rustles the leaves; the sun shines from a perfect sky; crows hop from branch to branch above our heads; a french family sits on a nearby picnic table, eating their lunch. Just behind Kevin, about fifty feet away, is a pond; various people stand around it fishing -- mostly fathers and sons. Once in a while, kids ride by on bicycles.

Kevin's getting mad at one of the Guardian's writers who assumes everyone is upper-middle-class and shops at Harrods. I tell him that's the average readership for The Guardian; the working class reads The Sun or The Daily Mail.

We watched John Carpenter's The Fog last night. It was promising at first, with its ghost story mood and characters that were not horny or teenagers (i.e. your usual horror fare.) But things quickly descended to b-movie hell and, by the end, I had rolled my eyes enough times to cause lifetime damage to my sight.