Idiocracy, an excruciating, mindless sci-fi comedy with a checkered history, spent an entire year on the shelf after substantial re-shoots, re-writes and extensive tinkering by writer/director Mike Judge. It was finally released without fanfare in fewer than 130 theaters in the United States and Canada.

The movie centers on Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson), an ordinary U.S. citizen, with an average IQ who finds himself stranded in the year 2505 after being frozen for centuries as the result of a government scientific experiment in 2005. The Pentagon encountered tons of problems in finding a suitable male candidate for this experiment. Bowers was chosen by Officer Collins (Michael McCafferty) because he was of average intelligence. More importantly, however, Bowers had no family members who would receive damages if he should die.

Unable to find a suitable female with no immediate family, Collins turned to a local pimp named Upgrayedd (Brad Jordan) who “lent” one of his girls named Rita (Maya Rudolph) to him for  what was to be a year-long research experiment. Collins promised the pimp his criminal record would be expunged in return for cooperating. Collins is later incarcerated for being involved in a prostitution ring. Those working with him quickly move on, never again bringing up the research experiment. The military base soon ceases operation and its land is redeveloped for a fast-food outlet.

Bowers awakens in the year 2505. Unfortunately, the Earth has gradually become populated with stupid people because smart people have stopped having babies during the past 500 years. Unable to find Collins, the base, or anyone attached to the research experiment, Bowers seeks immediate medical treatment from a hospital.

Bowers believes that drugs McCafferty administered to him intravenously during the experiment were causing him to hallucinate being in the year 2505. Unfortunately, he can’t pay his medical expenses, so he’s sent to a federal prison where new inmates are required to take a Standard Aptitude Test to determine what prison job an individual will have the capacity to perform.

When the President of The United States (Terry Crews) is informed about our Bowers' test scores being off the charts, he declares him to be the smartest man on Earth. The President appoints Bowers as "Secretary of the Interior" and demands that he solve the world’s problems in one week. Will Bowers be able to accomplish this -- or will he spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of returning to 2005?

It’s too bad Wilson gives such a wooden performance here. And that Judge has so little faith in the audience’s intelligence that he overuses narration from Earl Mann every few minutes to recap or to tell viewers what is about to unfold in this idiotic mess of a movie.  

(Released by 20th Century Fox and rated “R” for language and sex-related humor.)