Office Space

1999 "Work sucks."
7.6| 1h30m| R| en| More Info
Released: 19 February 1999 Released
Producted By: 20th Century Fox
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Synopsis

A depressed white-collar worker tries hypnotherapy, only to find himself in a perpetual state of devil-may-care bliss that prompts him to start living by his own rules, and hatch a hapless attempt to embezzle money from his soul-killing employers.

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Reviews

AudioFileZ 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.
garthlotel This is arguably one of the greatest satirical movies of all time. It is very clever and sharp, with the perfect mix of characters, comedy and pathos. Not to be missed.
SlyGuy21 I've never worked in an office setting before, but I would imagine it's not the most exciting job. That's what makes "Office Space" truly amazing, it takes the mundane environment of working in a cubicle prison, and cranks it up to hilarious levels. From the multiple references to the TPS reports, Lumbergh's monotone voice, the copier that never works, people saying the same things day after day, and annoying co-workers. If this were any other movie, these would probably all be overdone and cease to be funny, but "Office Space" gets it just right. There are so many great scenes in this, I can't name many comedies where the opening scene had me in stitches. And the stitches don't stop, except for very rare moments. The only real problem I had was Milton, I know he's a quirky character, but I found his muttering and stammering too much. I started to get tired of it by around 3/4 into the movie. But, just because I wasn't too entertained by him for the last quarter of the movie, doesn't mean his earlier scenes were ruined for me. A very well done comedy that's managed to stay funny for so long because almost everyone can relate to it.
Bill Slocum 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.