Office Space (1999)

Office Space is a comedy I come back to every year or so. It's hard to believe it's now almost 18-years (as of 2018) since it came out. It's still wickedly funny in spite of age. Probably because it deconstructs the banality and ridiculous nature of corporate low-level thankless employment it hits a sweet spot which still rings true. Ron Livingston is excellent as Peter who is most definitely in a rut at work and in life. He has excellent co-stars, and sympathetic co-workers, in David Herman as Michael Bolton and Ajay Naidu as Samir. They make a good team these three as they all hate their jobs at Initech. Initech is a generic large company with all the plenty of goofy employees which the movie exaggerates to perfection. In this group there's gold in boss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) and disgrunted misfit (actually fired several years earlier unknown to him) Milton (Stephen Root). Jennifer Anniston is on board too as Peter's love interest and she makes the most of limited screen time. So, the cast is really well-suited for Mike Judge's lampooning of banal employment. The humor is laced through and through and it hits almost every time simply because it takes elements of truth we can all relate to and exponentially multiplies it to perfection. It never goes so far as to loose the grounding that everything it pokes fun at has a real world truth. I even get a kick out of how the stupidy of theme restaurants which gets thrown in! This movie has depth of layering as it connects the different pieces quite well. Something as simple as a copying machine malfunction becomes hilarious because we all can relate. This is a great comedy because it exposes the absurdity often found in reality, and does so brilliantly. I'm glad I watched it for who knows tenth time and I'm sure in a year or so I'll do it all over again. That's my highest recomendation.

A corporate comedy with lots of flair, "Office Space" makes me laugh but also strikes me as a missed opportunity.Disgruntled employee Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) has a daily case of the Mondays. "Every single day of my life has been worse than the one before it," he tells an occupational therapist, who puts him under hypnosis and then dies from a massive coronary. Still in a trance, Gibbons takes charge of his life. His sudden burst of initiative proves beneficial at first, but he soon finds there are no pit stops on the Great American Rat Race.As sleeper comedies go, "Office Space" has lasted not only on its own merits, but as clear inspiration for the later "Office" TV series. Tonally, this film communicates the quiet desperation of late-20th century worklife with a gimlet eye: Static electricity that turns doorknobs into joy buzzers; cubicle claustrophobia, banners with meaningless slogans like "Is This Good for the Company?"Where "Office Space" is less on point is with elements of story and character. The comic-strip quality of the script by director Mike Judge is apparent from the opening gag involving Gibbons' futile commute, and neither he nor his situation evolve into something involving. There's just a bunch of Dilbert-type gags that clonk you on the head with the futility of the basic situation.Gary Cole is the movie's lone standout from a performance standpoint. His supervisor character, Bill Lumbergh, is a masterpiece of mundane malevolence, sipping coffee as he duns poor Gibbons about those cover sheets on his TPS reports, or ordering sad-sack Milton (Stephen Root) to move into the office basement and spray pesticide on the cockroaches.As a character, there's a lot of potential in seeing his comeuppance, which you don't quite get. The film spins around for a while instead, following a pair of thin plot threads. One involves the only recognizable name in the cast, Jennifer Aniston as a frazzled waitress with whom Gibbons develops an under-developed relationship. The main crisis point for them comes when he learns of her past relationship with Lumbergh, which is another of those undeveloped opportunities.The other story bit, involving a computer fraud, hikes up the tension but is similarly brushed off by Judge rather than developed into anything deeper.There are funny moments sprinkled throughout the movie, and a lot of quotable lines: "I have people skills!" "Why should I change? He's the one who sucks." "I did absolutely nothing and it was everything I thought it could be." "I wouldn't say I'm 'missing' work!"There's one enjoyably zen plot thread involving two efficiency experts, played by John C. McGinley and Paul Willson, who somehow see in Gibbons' new attitude a role model for the rest of the company. How they come to this conclusion I don't quite get, but their interactions with each other and Cole are consistently masterful.If you want a few good laughs about the workplace, at least as it existed back when cubicle walls and the Year 2000 virus were the biggest concerns, "Office Space" provides more than a few. It takes its shots and scores some points. If only it connected with something a little deeper then a drone's desire to achieve full catatonia.

"Beavis and Butthead" creator Mike Judge spun another clever tale with this story of some disgruntled employees who decide to get revenge. Peter (Ron Livingston) is a drone at a software company who starts disobeying the company's rules, and then gets co-workers Michael (David Herman) and Samir (Ajay Naidu) to participate in a scheme. If this sounds a bit like "9 to 5", it's because both movies shred the corporate world. Probably the funniest scenes are whenever the unctuous boss (Gary Cole) talks, usually beginning his sentences with "um, yeah" and ending them with "that'd be great" (he's since spawned an internet meme).Judge repeated this swipe at the corporate world with 2006's "Idiocracy", depicting a future America devoid of intelligent thought and mindlessly sycophantic to corporate products. Both are movies that you gotta see.

I vaguely remember hearing from time to time by family and friends that Office Space is a comedy you have to see, and that it is generally considered a great comedy. Of course I had seen Office Space before my most recent viewing (yesterday) and there were some memorable parts. Watching it again on the big screen a few years later, I realized yes, there are memorable parts to this comedy, but to tell you the truth, this is actually kind of a boring story.This is the only film I have seen Ron Livingston in, as well as the actors who play his sort of friends at the office. It's sad when you are told there is a great comedy out there, but then you realize the only person you know in the movie (and still had a career afterwards) is Jennifer Aniston. However, Stephen Root steals the show as the ever-mumbling Milton. What a wacky awkward character that brings a grin to your face every time you see him. He is like an adorable whimpering puppy that you can't help but feel sorry for since he is clearly not a great people person. I'd imagine his character was what the movie was based on since the film was apparently derived from a comic titled "Milton."The famous printer-destroying scene: it really shouldn't be that famous at all. It's just three guys smashing a printer in slow motion. It holds no merit, and while it has rap playing in the background to reflect the character Michael Bolton's taste in music as well as the fact that the three are "more hood" now that they have ripped off their company, it's barely memorable.At least the film's protagonist, Peter, makes some progress in the film. He starts out by hating his job, and his life luckily gets easier after he visits a hypnotherapist who tells him to relax and then dies abruptly. After this, Peter lives life how he wants to, and despite his not going into work actually gets promoted due to his honesty and relaxed attitude. He then gradually starts becoming concerned with work life again, and by the conclusion he has found a balance between work and leisure.This so-called "great comedy" provides few laughs, but is really easy to follow which is probably why people like it. For me, I'd rewatch this film just for the parts with Stephen Root as Milton, but that's about it. If you're looking for intelligent humor - let alone a good laugh at all - don't look here. Barely a decent film.2.5/4.0