... Lame movies

Night at the Museum (2006)
directed by Shawn Levy

The movie trailer looked fun, but the movie itself was a disappointment. NATM shows that there IS a formula for financial success in a bad movie. The film costs $110M & grossed $571M worldwide; $320 million outside the US (source: the-numbers.com). My viewing experience was similar to that of the energetic but empty Madagascar (2005). If I were Ben Stiller, I would take a month-long shower after all this (maybe he did). Parents should avoid this at all costs, unless their children are beyond treatment or have already left the nest.

Idiocracy (2006)
written & directed by Mike Judge

Despite its creative credits to Mike Judge, the creator of the charming & often poignant series King of the Hill, I cannot help but think that Idiocracy was made in the wrong format. Perhaps a 1-minute youtube.com video could better convey Judge's beer-induced thoughts about Western civilization. It has an unsophisticated message about a decaying nation damned to complacency and non-intelligence; even this interpretation is overreaching. Perhaps Judge's excuse for over-producing this narrative into feature-length could be made via gratuitous exercises in really bad taste. But that didn't happen. L-A-M-E.