Office Space (1999)

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Peter is fed up with working at Intech, because at this computer software firm he and his coworkers are all treated as mechanistic parts of a system where profits and standardization take precedence over humanness. People are given cubicle positions that are repetitive and expendable. The executive management, or the bosses, are ordering people to do their seemingly meaningless jobs with a attitude of feigned affection that is offensively passive. This is most obvious in Lundberg's common phrasing of orders, "if you could….that would be great," which has become an internet meme in recent years probably for how obviously annoying a way of communicating it is. The audience strongly understands and sympathizes with Peter and contempt for work in just the first 15 minutes of the film. Through its satirical yet realistic presentation of white collar office life, this movie has made it into a cult classic comedy. However, the film is not just a comedy, more so it is a commentary on the negative effects a white collar work environment has on its employees. Throughout the film there is an obvious theme of escapism, as the urge to escape life's situation is acute for Peter and several other main characters. Such a theme forces us to investigate worklife within a common capitalist mode of production and why it leaves so many people miserable. The fact that this movie is still a cult classic and that so many people find Office Space relatable, shows that its message is relevant. In conclusion, for making me laugh out loud and think deeper about the effects on individuality of service sector employment, I give this movie a solid 8/10.

Office Space was written and directed by Mike Judge, best known as creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill. OK, I'm gonna get real, I'm 20 years old, I am still in college and haven't had any experience working in an office whatsoever. But Office Space is one of those movies where you say: "Damn, that's as real as it gets." Every single description of being an office worker and the story of these people who just hate their lives just feels accurate as hell. Office Space continues to be one of the funniest movies I have ever seen, but I do think the first half of the movie is clearly the strongest and it doesn't finish as strong. But it's just one of those movies I love to watch when I'm feeling down or just overwhelmed by life in general. The sequence where Peter simply stops caring is awesome. Office Space is worth multiple viewings. Oh, and it has some pretty good one liners as well.

Peter Gibbons is a man tired of your life and work, in a moment of utter exhaustion and sadness, undergoes a hypnosis session, completely changing their behavior. With that, he begins to completely rebel jobs and in life, doing whatever want, whenever want. Everything seems to go wrong and be dismissed - for just cause -, right? No, it's like that than everything starts to go right with him, getting everything, and, even without caring, still works.And so goes the film has enough funny scenes, many simple, but some really forced, in my opinion. But even so, the spectator can take some good laughter. The problem is that the film, despite the funny scenes, ends up not exploring much that could exploit, making not have much history and not much depth on each piece of the film, maybe because the film is short, there is not much between your rebel by the end, it's all very quick and simplistic, without much exploration of thematic or characters. Besides, the movie has absence of logic in some parts, especially in various situations where his boss, Bill Lumbergh, even seeing Peter do things that would be layoffs in any job, do not dismiss it. But, of course, if it happens, the film would lose big part the theme.The film's it. It's cool, fun to watch, yields good laugh, but do not expect anything too deep or well produced. But to a situation of just relax and laugh, worth watching.

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