Mike Judge vs the world

I love Hollywood, I really do, but sometimes the big studios can really piss me off. Example: "Idiocracy." Here's a good comedy (albeit not great, but better compared to most films released these days) that got shelved for more than a year, barely received a theatrical release (only 125 theaters in seven cities) and was left to die on DVD, all because Fox didn't feel it was marketable. Interesting, because if audiences just gave the film a chance, it might actually have been a moderate word-of-mouth hit.\nIn the film, director and writer Mike Judge ("Office Space," "King of the Hill") imagines a future where evolution didn't quite work out the way it's supposed to. A present day Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) is selected by the Army to participate in a "hibernation program." He's frozen (think "Austin Powers") and supposed to re-emerge in a year. Complications arise and Joe wakes up 500 years in the future. The world is very different in 2505. Instead of intellectually and technologically advancing as most films imagine the future, society has actually regressed. Landfills cover the world, a Gatorade-like substance has replaced water, Starbucks now offers handjobs, the restaurant Fuddruckers has changed its name to Buttfuckers. People are unintelligent, overweight and basically the epitome of white trash. Joe discovers that he is now the smartest person in the world. And while first persecuted for his intellect ("you talk like a fag" the yokels tell him), it is eventually up to him to return society to its old ways.\nJudge has conceived a smart concept and critique of our current society. The opening sequence that explains how the world came to such a stage seems creepily plausible. The low-brow jokes (farts, asses, sex, etc.) that make up the culture of the new society are funny but do tire out a bit after 90 minutes. \nThe film is inexcusably absent of special features except for a few measly deleted scenes that barely amount to three minutes. Where's Mike Judge's commentary on why he pictures our world this way? Where's the explanation of why the film got screwed over? What a wasted opportunity. Rent the movie though, it's a good candidate to join comedies like "Old School" and "Super Troopers" on constant dorm room rotation.