Alight, so I've just finished the delightful combination of Idiocracy and Up in the Air
Idiocracy[hide]
I was relatively hesitant about Idiocracy, simply because the premise just both ludicrous and kind of tired. Basically an average Joe (Luke Wilson) is chosen for a military project in suspended animation along with a female Hooker. Of course they're completely forgotten and wake up in a dystopian future. But wait, there's a twist: the future earth is ruled by idiots. Nothing new you say? Well, these are true idiots.
Subsisting on a healthy diet of Brawndo ("The thirst quencher with electrolytes") and junk food, these future earth occupiers eat at Buttfuckers (Fuddruckers) and watch "Ouch my balls" on the pain channel and worst of all; Fox News. With the crumbling planet ruled by U.S. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, porn super-star and five-time ultimate smackdown wrestling champion, our newly dubbed Hero "Not Sure" is forced to take an IQ test which reveals that he is now the smartest man on the planet. Appointed as secretary of the interior by the president and tasked with fixing everything that is wrong, he will be killed by three dildo shaped Monster trucks steered by "Rehabilitation" Officer Beef Supreme if he doesn't accomplish the salvation of the planet by the following week.
I could not make this stuff up if I tried. Despite the absolutely absurd premise and frankly overused plot device of "Fish out of temporal water", it works. The film was spearheaded by Office Space director Mike Judge and you can sense the biting social satire that was the hallmark of his previous movie. The movie works on two levels. The first is the, admittedly crude, humor. It's hit or miss and depending on how you like low-shot jokes (both literally as well as figuratively) it might not be for you. Stick around and you will almost immediately get to the satire part which is both entertaining as well as scarily reflective of, for example, the anti-intellectualism tendencies that are cropping up.
If that doesn't sway you I can only leave you with one of the more memorable lines of the film: "You talk like a fag and your shit's all retarded."[/hide]
Up in the Air[hide]
Moving on to something a bit more critically recognized, we turn to Up in the Air the Oscar nominated film starring George Clooney. Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a man who makes his living traveling to workplaces around the United States and conducting layoffs for bosses too cowardly to do it themselves. Ryan also delivers motivational speeches extolling the virtues of a life free of relationships with people and things. He relishes the comfort of anonymity during his perpetual travels with his personal goal being the achievement of gathering ten million frequent flier miles. While traveling, he meets another frequent flier named Alex and strikes up a casual relationship.
However, Ryan is soon called back to his company's offices where he finds out that an ambitious young coworker named Natalie Keener is promoting a plan to cut costs by having employees stay grounded and conduct layoffs over the internet. Arguing that Natalie knows nothing about the process of firing people, he is assigned to take Natalie with him on his upcoming travels to show her what it's like.
It's an interesting movie, especially for people like me, who travel a lot. It is a drama, so people looking for lighthearted evening entertainment might want to look elsewhere. The plot deals primarily with Ryan's conflict between maintaining his "light travel" philosophy versus his emerging desire to settle down. The film also employs the firing and employment plot point well, going so far as to cast real, newly unemployed people as the workers whom Ryan and Natalie have to fire. This plot point mostly connects with Natalie and displays her growing realization that behind every number in her new "layoff plan" a real person anxiously questions what will happen next.
I think it's a good movie, especially since its type, the medium budget, well-made and quiet drama, seems to be slowly dying out. What it sets out to do it does well. The character development for both Ryan and Natalie are believable and well played. Clooney especially turns in a great performance. Appearing on the surface like a Danny Ocean who has switched from robbing casinos to to firing people, he manages to display the character's growing doubt about his lifestyle and the choices he made to shape it as such. Anybody looking for some good old fashioned cinema will not likely disappointed. [/hide]
Hope the reviews prove to be useful. I pulled an all-nighter, so please excuse and grammar and syntax mistakes.