Welcome to Costco. I love you.

Call me crazy if you like (all: "you're crazy!") but I don't really love Office Space. At my old university, I was in charge of programming for the campus cinema, and there was a constant call to play Office Space on Fridays at midnight, and I'm still surprised at how universally beloved it is, at least amongst the college-aged. I liked it well enough, but it's not really a classic, is it? Plus one time I watched it with my dad on Comedy Central, which is a horrible way to watch any film (on CC, that is, not with my dad. My dad's great) and he kept exposing plot holes and not laughing, so that sucked out my enjoyment.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because last night I couldn't sleep, and I was completely up to speed on CBB5, so I watched [Office Space director] Mike Judge's newest film 'Idiocracy'. If you haven't heard of it, don't worry. A lot has been written about Fox's mishandling of the film. Apparently, they decided that a satire that rips it out of corporations, set in an ugly, gaudy 2055, where the president is a porn star wrestler (porn star AND wrestler, he doesn't just fight porn stars), where people have names like Frito, where anyone who uses long words or logic is automatically a fag, where the most popular TV-show is called "Ow! My Balls!" and where Justin Long plays a doctor... they decided not to screen it for critics, not to advertise it at all, and uh, not to play it anywhere.

The film itself is entertaining throughout, and occasionally very funny. Luke Wilson plays the straight man very well - an ordinary Joe in 2005 who's frozen in a military experiment, and wakes up 500 years in the future to find that he's the most intelligent person in America. Hilarity kinda ensues. Maya Rudolph and Dax Shepherd are okay in the support roles, and there are a few interesting cameos. Plus Justin Long. God, I hate him.

So Judge made a good film - certainly more consistently funny than his previous one - but Fox don't want to market a film about dumbing down, so it's not going to be seen by anyone, til next week, when the DVD is released. 'Office Space' was a far, far bigger hit on DVD than it was in theaters, so there is yet hope for 'Idiocracy'. Watch it, enjoy it. Quote it repeatedly. I know I will. Especially "You see gentlemen, a pimp's love is very different then a square's."

Apparently some of the corporations mentioned in it have filed a civil law suit against Fox, too. Controversy is great.