I hope everyone in the States has recovered nicely from Thanksgiving and detoxed all of the tryptophan out of your systems. As for everyone else, I hope your Fridays were quick and you enjoyed your evenings. As you can see, I’ve made some major changes to WORKING AUTHOR. Now that I’m starting to get a [...]

Short and sweet today, folks.
Just wanted to wish you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you all get to where your going safely. More importantly, here’s to wishing that you and your family can repress the inner hatred you feel for each other for a few hours. I know I’m definitely going [...]

If you’re a fan of Mike Judge, like myself, it’s impossible to watch Idiocracy without comparing it to Office Space. Even fan favorite actors like David Herman and Stephen Root make an appearance. Disappointingly, while Office Space satirized the workplace perfectly, the comedy doesn’t work quite as well in Idiocracy.

The concept is simple (and simply laid out for the audience by a helpful narrator): The United States military is conducting an experiment in human stasis and needs an average guy and girl to be preserved in coffin-shaped canisters for a year. Pvt. Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), an exceedingly average guy with no aspirations, and prostitute Rita (Maya Rudolph), just a prostitute, are the lucky candidates. After a long-winded first act where Joe and Rita are forgotten and end up oversleeping, Joe wakes 500 years into future to find that America has become ridiculously stupid and Joe is the smartest man on the planet.

Wow. It’s hard to know how to feel after watching this movie. On one hand, you’ll feel physically exhausted having watched one of the most trying-to-be-funny, but not quite there movies to come along in a while. On the other hand, you can’t help but feel bad for these typically funny actors working with horrible material.

The conceit is alright, I guess: John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) is a career criminal and blames his wasted life on the judge that sent him to a juvenile correction facility when he was 8 and then later to prison when he grew up. Once he gets out, he makes it his mission to kill that judge only to find that the judge has already passed away from natural causes, leaving Lyshitski frustrated and blocked. Luckily for him, the judge has a snobby son who happens to be a jerk, Nelson Bierderman IV (Will Arnett). Due to Lyshitski’s machinations, Biederman finds himself tangled with the law and then sent to prison. Lyshitski gets himself thrown into prison (again) just to make sure that Biederman suffers in the way he wants him to. It’s a bit long winded, but there are worse premises with shorter descriptions.

I don’t want to speak out of turn here since I’m not a freelance writer by trade (anymore), nor do I have tons of experience doing it. On the other hand, I think I’ve experienced enough to give people just starting out in the freelance world some good advice and safety tips. Some of this [...]