Office Space DVD
20th Century Fox
Rated: R
Genre: Comedy
Length: 90 minutes
Director: Mike Judge
Year: (1999)
Britt Gillette's Office Space DVD Review
If Seinfeld is a show about nothing, then Office Space is the hit comedy about one man's "dream of doing nothing"… Arguably the best work-related comedy ever written, Office Space follows the life of Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston), a computer programmer in his late-20's who hates his mind-numbing job at Initech Corporation where he updates bank software for the year 2000 switch.
Peter is joined by fellow computer programmers Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman). All four men are plagued by the condescending, soul-killing management techniques of their boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) who begins every utterance with a protracted "Yeah…" Completely unhappy with his job and his romantic relationship, Peter whines about his life with his co-workers while drinking coffee at local restaurant, Chotchkie's, where he's infatuated with a beautiful waitress, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), who is forced by her boss to wear "pieces of flair". Samir and Michael encourage Peter to ask her out, but Peter is too paralyzed by life to do anything about it.
All that changes, however, when Peter visits a hypnotherapist with his girlfriend. In the act of sending Peter into a state of total relaxation, the hypnotherapist suffers a heart attack. His untimely death leaves Peter in a perpetual state of relaxation, providing his life with a much needed injection of enjoyment. The next morning, Peter sleeps through work, dumps his girlfriend, then goes and asks Joanna out to lunch. Peter and Joanna hit it off, and he reveals to her that he's simply going to stop going to work.
After a good week or so of neglecting his job, two independent consultants - Bob Slydell (John McGinley) and Bob Porter (Paul Willson) - reveal to Peter that he's being promoted to the upper ranks of management. Meanwhile, his studious co-workers Samir and Michael are slated to be canned. Armed with this insider information, Peter approaches Michael about concocting a previously mentioned computer program to take the remainders of every bank transaction at Initech and funnel them into a private account owed by Peter, Samir, and Michael. Michael is reluctant until he finds out that he's going to be fired.
As the two set out to convince Samir that their plan will work, resident office weirdo Milton Waddams (Stephen Root) is in the process of having his paycheck stopped by the consultants who uncover the fact that Milton was fired several years earlier but is still being paid. When Bill Lumbergh moves Milton's desk into the basement, he whispers that he will set the place on fire.
Meanwhile, long-time corporate cog Tom Smykowski (Richard Riehle) experiences the dream of a lifetime when he's badly injured by a drunk driver. Fresh off a seven-figure settlement, and in possession of his prototype "jump to conclusions mat," Tom tells Peter to hang in there, that life has a lot of good things in store for those who wait. While attending a party for Tom, Samir and Michael grow nervous when Tom's lawyer reveals that white collar criminals go to federal "pound-me-in-the-ass" prison where they better "beat someone up or become someone's bitch" on the first day.
Office Space is one laugh after another, and the heroes' nefarious plan works surprisingly well until it hits a glitch. When the scheme devised by Peter, Michael, and Samir goes up in smoke, Milton decides to create some smoke of his own…
The brainchild of King of the Hill and Beavis & Butthead creator Mike Judge, Office Space will leave you in absolute stitches. Funny from beginning to end, with a plot mysteriously similar to Superman 3, this is one movie that anyone who's ever worked a job from hell (and haven't we all?) needs to see at least once. But if you've ever spent a day trapped in the confines of an office cubicle, you need to see this movie at least twelve times…
Britt Gillette
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Posted on 30 November 2004