Idiocracy (2006)

Director: Mike Judge

Cast: Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, Terry Crews

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, sure. Does anyone get out of the mid-aughts without having seen it? Although it has been years, the refrain, “spelled thusly” is frequently repeated in these parts.

Did I Like It: Since those years have passed, there arises one fundamental question: As we have made quantum leaps in the field of willful ignorance in those intervening years, does the film remain as funny as it once was, or has it been rendered utterly depressing?

There are plenty of jokes which I can’t imagine played all that well nearly twenty years ago* that I just have to sit stone faced through now. Just because they are being uttered by avowed morons. But aside from that, the film is just as perfect a blend of science fiction and the mid-aught comedy sensibility of the time that I’m prepared to say to say that it still holds up.

In fact, as I type that, I might be willing to go a step further and say that it remains a step above other films which might lay claim to that same genre. Movies like Men in Black (1997) or Galaxy Quest (1999) might be sci-fi comedies, but ultimately too tame to actually have anything to say about the future**. Then—when I think about comedies twenty years ago***—I wonder what a movie like this would be if it were directed by Judd Apatow or any of his acolytes, and it is almost guaranteed that the film would be something less than still watchable.

*You’ll pardon me, while I disappear into the mists of time for just a moment.

**Yes, even Galaxy Quest. You know where to find me if you want to fight me.

***Whoops. There I go into the mists again.

Legally Blonde (2001)

Director: Robert Luketic

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson, Selma Blair, Matthew Davis

Have I Seen it Before: I think so? Like, somewhere in last twenty years I would have to have seen it, right?

Did I Like It: Look, let’s not mince words. This is another one of those instances where Lora wanted to watch something, and I was amenable, mainly because I had a new set of Lego with which to tinker. I promised when I began these reviews that as long as I didn’t fall asleep through the screening, I would go ahead and write a review.

So, here we are.

The above seems to indicate I want to dismiss the film, and that’s not entirely true. This is not cosmetic snobbishness. I’d feel this way about any movie where the protagonist bravely decides to go to law school. I’m never going to buy into that scenario. To quote Elle Woods (Witherspoon), “You’ve got the wrong girl.”

Sure, it’s a slight comedy with not a lot of ambition written into the idea. The plot is cookie cutter to the point where it feels like a pre-written chapter in a screenwriting book that people buy to avoid, you know, actually writing... As I write this, my only reason for suspecting that I have seen the film before was that I saw the perm-based resolution of the plot coming a mile away.

At the same time, it manages to succeed at what it strives for far more than it’s normally given credit. It would be so easy for Elle Woods to be an absolute nightmare of a person, rendering her struggles cathartic. Yet, the film deftly avoids making her awful. She’s never judgmental, she always helps people around her, and a key to the success of the film, she largely earns her status as an underdog, despite her absolutely pure privilege. Some of that is probably Witherspoon’s performance, but more than a little bit of it has to be that screenplay which doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.