We all know about absolute cinematic masterpieces like *The Room* by the legendary [Tommy Wiseau](). Films that were intended to be great works of cinema, but that failed so miserably at achieving their goal, that they span all the way around the scale and became great works of cinema, by mistake, anyway. But then there are films like [The Grindhouse](/reviews/death_proof_2007_is_a_genious_art_house_action_film_that_people_didn_t_get) movies, or *Black Dynamite*, or Wiseau's sequel to *Samurai Cop*, who's goal was to be those intentionally terrible pieces of crap, from the get go. Is *Idiocracy* by [Mike Judge]() from the first type of terrible movies, or from the second, intentional one? Is *Idiocracy* intentionally stupid?

The film currently holds a rather favorable position among critics and movie-goers. It paints a surprisingly accurate portrayal of the current political turmoil, giving it a similar status to masterpieces like Orwell's *1984*. But given the merits of the film's message, it is hard to overlook the film's rather blatant refusal of trying to be good.

The script has an insane level of seeming laziness by the writers. For example, instead of coming up with actual conversations that would have arguments and would sway the point of view from one way to another, like a good court drama would, this movie instead, tends to introduce a fucking voice-over narration that tells the audience how clever or how smart the character is without actually showing it. Almost as if the writer knew that he could not pull off good dialogue and instead decided to walk around the challenge all together.

The film was written by two people, one of which is [Etan Cohen]() ( not [Ethan Coen]() ). If it was Ethan Coen, I would believe the film would have some rather nice dialogue. But Etan Cohen is notorious for being terrible. His 2018 mystery comedy film *Holmes & Watson* ( which he both wrote and directed ) won 4 Golden Raspberries. And his directorial debut *Get Hard* has only 28% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Given that Etan Cohen worked on the script of *Idiocracy*, we can conclude that the idiocracy of *Idiocracy* is in-fact not intentional.

But...

Mike Judge, the director of *Idiocracy* doesn't seem like a terrible writer / director after all. His 1999 film *Office Space* is considered very good indeed. So how is a director of *Office Space* makes a movie who's quality is at best questionable?

I think that *Idiocracy* might just be Mike Judge's attempt at trying to make a Grindhouse exploitation film. As you may know, Mike Judge played the character of Donnagon Giggles in [Robert Rodriguez]()'s series of *Spy Kids* films. And Robert Rodriguez is known for making intentionally shitty exploitation films. He was the one that made *Planet Terror*, the other *Grindhouse* film in the double-feature with [Tarantino]()'s *Death Proof*. He was the first one to make an actual exploitation film out of one of the fake trailer that they made for *Grindhouse*. He is probably one of the coolest directors when it comes to cleverly not giving a fuck. And Mike Judge, worked with him, on some of those trashy entertainment pieces.

What if Mike Judge was trying to pull off Robert Rodriguez, when making *Idiocracy*?

Think about it, in a way it makes sense. The movie is about the decline of intellect. If the movie was smartly written, or smartly directed, it would clash with the message of the film. It is possible that Mike Judge specifically hired Etan Cohen to destroy the script. He knew he would make too good of a job. He needed somebody Raspberry-worthy to dumb down the script.

And in a way it is kind of genius.

**Happy Hacking!!!**