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I read a whole host of reviews on this site before renting this film, and despite all the warnings, I gave it a chance. Hell, I gave this film more than a chance. I had low expectations but this collection still failed to impress. First of all, I can't even believe some of the reviewers on here had to point out that the shorts are, in fact, connected. Wow, really? With every sketch featuring coffee and cigarettes, dialogue that is reiterated in a number of sketches, and every single damn sketch dealing with a part of the spectrum of social awkwardness; interpreting the themes in this film and making your own connections does not make you an appreciator of finer things, no it merely confirms that you aren't completely retarded.

So let's get off our high horse and stop using the words "metaphysical", "surreal", and "existential" for a moment, and look at what this film does have to offer. Yes, the Molina/Coogan sketch is absolutely brilliant and hilarious. Had this been the only short released to the public, then I never would have anything bad to say about Jarmusch. The Iggy Pop/Tom Waits meeting comes in a close second comedy-wise. Not just a piece of great casting, Waits gives such a natural performance that takes dry humor to a whole new level. Cate Blanchett's dual role is pretty cool and fun to watch, but compared to Nic Cage's dual role in Adaptation (which also came out in 03), this doesn't even come close.

Beyond those three sketches, I don't know what to say. Bill Murray gives a great performance that is ruined by two rappers who clearly needed better direction, there's a sketch titled "Renee" that sets up a character who is almost OCD about her coffee and then goes nowhere with it, "Those Things'll Kill Ya" plays like a scrapped Seinfeld sketch, "Twins" features more bickering that is clearly meant to be comical but never works because there is no chemistry between the actors (who are twins for Christ's sake). I could go on but its a waste of time. The problem is that Jarmusch keeps trying to tell a joke, gets halfway there, and then abandons the punchline because he's trying to paint a bigger picture. It's like sitting through 90 minutes of someone saying, "Knock knock, who's there? We all get defensive when we're uncomfortable". And there is the biggest problem. This was never meant to be released as a movie. There's a lot to like about these sketches individually. Lots of tiny little nuances in the acting and very subtle humor that works for the short film format. But these should have been released on Youtube for people to discover on their own, not as a film that has a character deliver a nice hamfisted epiphany at the end.

As a whole, Idiocracy is a pretty bad movie. The narration, for starters, really dumbs things down, which isn't the smartest thing to put in a movie that is about dumbing down. The last half hour is virtually laugh free and also very stupid. And Maya Rudolph, despite being one of the main characters, could have been cut from the film completely and you wouldn't even know anything was missing. Not to mention her whole prostitute gag isn't even remotely funny, yet she commands a significant amount of screen time, sucking the life out of the movie frame by frame.

So why a 7 out of 10? Because despite its numerous flaws, its been nearly a year since I've first seen Idiocracy and I still regularly quote the movie and it still comes up in conversations between my friends and I.

In Idiocracy's future of the damned, there are some over the top ideas of what a low IQ society would be like. And in present day America, I regularly see things that aren't too far off. For instance, in Idiocracy, Carl's Jr. offers everything with "Big Ass Fries!" Almost by coincidence, Idiocracy contains a shot of Fuddrucker's, which has menus that downplay their sensibly sized burgers but champion their "will cause diabetes" sized items. I'm pretty sure that if you order a salad at Fuddruckers, the cashier is instructed to call you a pussy.

It goes on from there. The overt sexuality in advertising, the lowest common denominator movies and TV shows, news broadcasts that will do anything to avoid being boring, pornstar/ fighter presidents, a costco that offers everything (from furniture to law degrees), most of these ideas are worth a laugh or two, but they're much funnier when you start to see similar things happening right now.

Idiocracy is still a pretty bad movie, but I highly recommend that everyone see it and take what they can from it.

I can see why this show has such a low rating. When Primetime Glick was on the air, I hated it too. However, I caught some repeats of this under-appreciated gem late one night and laughed long and hard. Maybe my comedic tastes have matured (or devolved) a little, or maybe I appreciate the lampooning of a late night talk show more nowadays since I've lost interest in most of the late shows except for the occasional Conan. What ever it is, if you ever see this show on again, give it a chance. Glick grows on you, and Short's complete immersion into this character is a performance that's up there with Borat or Andy Kaufman's various guises. That said, Glick isn't perfect. When the celebrities he's interviewing try to get in on the act, it doesn't always work. The ones who try their best to pretend Glick is just another late show host, that's where Martin Short can do his best work. Still, the openings of the show that would follow Glick back stage during an intentionally poor first act, and the closings in the steam room were always priceless bits of comedy.