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Office Space - Special Edition with Flair (Widescreen Edition) 
Actors : Jennifer Aniston, Diedrich Bader, Joe Bays, Josh Bond, Gary Cole
Studio : 20th Century Fox
by 20th Century Fox
Brand : OFFICE SPACE
Release Date : 2005-11-01
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 0024543160892
UPC : 024543160892
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 741 reviews)
List Price : $19.98
Our Price : $9.96
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Description |
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Unable to endure another mind-numbing day at Initech Corporation, cubicle slave Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) gets fired up and decides to get fired. Armed with a leisurely new attitude and a sexy new girlfriend (Jennifer Aniston), he soon masters the art of neglecting his work, which quickly propels him into the ranks of upper management! Now the stage is set for Peter to carry out a high-tech embezzling scheme that's sure to mean the end of his job and a one-way ticket to easy street. Can he pull it off before all corporate hell breaks loose? |
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Americancivilwar.com |
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Ever spend eight hours in a "Productivity Bin"? Ever had worries about layoffs? Ever had the urge to demolish a temperamental printer or fax machine? Ever had to endure a smarmy, condescending boss? Then Office Space should hit pretty close to home for you. Peter (Ron Livingston) spends the day doing stupefyingly dull computer work in a cubicle. He goes home to an apartment sparsely furnished by IKEA and Target, then starts for a maddening commute to work again in the morning. His coworkers in the cube farm are an annoying lot, his boss is a snide, patronizing jerk, and his days are consumed with tedium. In desperation, he turns to career hypnotherapy, but when his hypno-induced relaxation takes hold, there's no shutting it off. Layoffs are in the air at his corporation, and with two coworkers (both of whom are slated for the chute) he devises a scheme to skim funds from company accounts. The scheme soon snowballs, however, throwing the three into a panic until the unexpected happens and saves the day. Director Mike Judge has come up with a spot-on look at work in corporate America circa 1999. With well-drawn characters and situations instantly familiar to the white-collar milieu, he captures the joylessness of many a cube denizen's work life to a T. Jennifer Aniston plays Peter's love interest, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a generic beer-and-burger joint à la Chili's, and Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) has a minor but hilarious turn as Peter's mustached, long-haired, drywall-installin' neighbor. --Jerry Renshaw |
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Kafka, Peter Pan and Flair Oh My! |
Are you fed up with the mindless bureaucracy of your workplace? nauseated with the importance of process over results? anxiety ridden because of your job? then Office Space is the movie for you. The setting for Office Space is an Information Technology company that processes transactions for Credit Unions, with a collection of employees that are all either bored, angry, aloof, incompetent, anxious or suffer from one of a hundred other maladies or neurotic manifestations. No doubt this sort of work environment will be familiar to most.
It would be convenient to say that this is just another movie about how the corporate work environment drains us of our humanity, but Office Space offers us much more. The mindless bureaucracy, doing work solely to satisfy some inane process (PTS Reports), the sense of detachment from reality is eerily reminiscent of a Kafka novel. Lundberg, the boss, who is completely unaware of what his employees do and how they feel, endlessly repeats his mantra of ok, ok , while his employees become more and more stressed and unfulfilled.
Peter, the lead character, undergoes a profound Peter Pan like psychological transformation after which he is no longer motivated to do his job. He comes and goes as he pleases and begins to openly express his true feelings about the job and the environment. His new relaxed attitude impresses the clueless consultants, with their prepackaged prescription for transforming the organization (i.e. reducing headcount), who have been brought in to fine tune the organization.
Naturally, no story of this genre would be complete without a love connection between the main character and yet another troubled, trapped soul. Peter's love interest comes by way of a waitress at a nearby restaurant who fights conformity by wearing only the minimum pieces of flair on her uniform. She endures the endless questioning from her manager about why she wears only the minimum pieces of flair, when she is so clearly and simply trying to preserve some part of her humanity.
The dam of self-control that held the employees in check finally begins to crack when Peter and two of his co-workers hatch a plot of revenge against the company. Of course their plot like everything else goes badly wrong, but in the end it seems that justice is served.
You will laugh out loud, you may cry at times, but if this dark comedy does not send your mind and heart in search of your humanity, sadly you have missed the point.
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"Why should I change, he's the one that sucks" |
Hard to believe that this movie was a box office disaster (considering it's directed by Mike Judge), but over the years, I think the cult following is right. Yeah, I'm no office worker (You think I work in the office?), but hey, it doesn't take a genius to know how tedious and _______ BORING! life like Peter's is (if you still think it's not tedious, think more, idiot). This is a sometimes hilarious, sometimes serious, sometimes feel-good, loony, morally awesome, movie. I like the way it just starts when the movie comes on, it sets the whole tone for the movie. Right from that, I knew this movie was going to rule.
The plot revolves around a particular software company called Initech, and it's as faceless as can be. At least from the outside. The characters on here are unique and both encomapny some very familiar stereotypes. Well, maybe the characters are someone you have seen or met before, but it's hard not to love their personalities. Peter is extremely likeable as a protagonist, and Lumbergh is a very likeable "antagonist", he's certainly not a bad guy, but he's definitely viewed as an obstacle. You have the nervous, pryomaniac Milton, Lawrence, the steet smart neighbor, and my favorite, Michael Bolton, the gangster rap loving white guy with a hate for technology that doesn't work and his name because it's the same as Michael Bolton (easy to see why, words cannot express how bad Michael Bolton is).
I would go ahead and say that this movie is really executed just so well, as it doesn't drag on and doesn't take a bunch of time being slow with character development or other nonsense you don't need when trying to just watch a ________ movie. It's not that long either, and thankfully doesn't result in one big drama at the end. Kind of like life. I love lot's of the camera angles, and of course, scene after scene of great movie watching (not quite excellence the whole way through, but there isn't a dull moment), and the directing is great. The slow motion works wonders on the scene where they smash the fax machine, for instance.
Office Space has memorable characters, scenes, work mocking, destruction of ______ computers, a swipe at Michael Bolton (well deserved, I think) and a refreshing lack of drama! Really though, this movie is just great to watch, and it doesn't beat you over the head with anything, and entertaining movie as _____! SO buy it and watch it every week, or else! |
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um yeahhhhhhhhh |
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This is a perfect movie to watch while compiling your TPS reports. It would be just GREAT if everyone bought this movie on Blu-Ray! |
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I am writing this from the standard grey office cubical. |
This movie is Sort of a real world Dilbert. All the office environments that we have to deal with are exaggerated. This includes the office characters. Getting out reports, overtime and downsizing.
Current events mixed with old tales and office lure mix to create one of the best comedies around. This film along with the red Swingline stapler had achieved cult status.
As I look around (and stand up) I can see all the personalities depicted in this movie. If anyone wanted to see a movie that mimics real life this one is it and maybe "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990). This is much more real than "9 to 5" (1980).
Just a moment while I expand my cube. (*&*%$#%$&*)
There, now where was I? Oh yes, Jennifer Aniston shows her flash.
It is interesting that the film was made in Austin and Dallas where I am writing this. It must be a sign on some sort.
You will see the old story of skimming percentages of a cent off of transactions with a new twist.
I have to go now the copier is calling!
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Comprehensive Review of Office Space |
Gavin Pack
Although many recent college graduates dream of working in a corporate job with their own corner desk and a front row parking place, that fantasy is not always realized. Instead, many are thrown into a life of dull, repetitive work, and made to work in a cubicle with no windows. Mike Judge satirizes this mediocre life in his movie Office Space, the story of Peter Gibbons, a man so bored with his day to day routine that he finally snaps. In this parody of "Corporate America," Judge earns laughs with witty dialogue, but also breaches a deeper meaning through his uncannily realistic view of work in a dysfunctional company. I really enjoy this movie, not only because of the comedic aspects like the extreme characters and sarcastic banter, but also because of its relevance to the modern workplace.
Generally, critics love Office Space as much as its cult followers. However, there are some movie critics that disagree. Rick Groen claims that the writer and director, Mike Judge, cannot follow through to the end of the feature length film because of his background primarily in short TV cartoons. Instead, Groen sees the film as starting off strong, but losing steam towards the end. But overwhelmingly, reviewers of the movie praise the "good-natured comedy about the suppressed rage and paranoia of unappreciated employees" (Elias). Although professional critics see the movie as cunning, witty, and uproarious, Office Space did not generate a large crowd at the theaters (Box Office Mojo), and even a smaller fan base. I like to think that I am a part of the cult culture surrounding the movie, much like the groups that are so fanatic about movies like Fight Club or Donnie Darko.
The issues brought up in Office Space still apply to many people, even though there is a relatively small fan base. Contrary to the movie Clockwatchers, in which jokes about an office environment quickly go away, "revealing a surprising, almost surreal core of unhappiness and mistrust among its central characters," all of the serious issues brought up in Office Space are hidden subtly behind parody and satire (Davis). Of course, most Americans' lives are not quite as dull as Peter Gibbon's, since the movie Office Space is a parody of corporate culture in America. Not only does Peter Gibbons have a dull and repetitive job--updating bank software for "the 2000 switch"--but he is also stuck in a cubicle, depriving him of all natural light. Just to the other side of his cubicle wall is a huge window, with a great view of a tree and some rolling hills. In one scene, after Peter snaps, he unscrews the outside wall of the cubicle and knocks it down, letting all the papers and memos fall everywhere. Aside from his cramped and unnatural workplace, Peter is under several middle-management level executives who all seem to have overlapping responsibilities. Each one stops by to remind Peter that he failed to put a cover sheet on his TPS report. The vice president of the company where Peter works, Initech, is Bill Lumbergh, represents the stereotype of corporate bosses and the antagonist of the movie. Lumbergh repeatedly asks his employees to come into work on Saturdays while he roams around the office aimlessly with a cup of coffee, instead of actively managing his employees.
Perhaps Office Space pokes the most fun at the way companies hire "efficiency consultants" to help with productivity, but in the process of streamlining the consultants completely halt all work. The two consultants hired by Initech in the movie are known as "The Bobs" and meet Peter after his snap. In this sudden change, Peter takes on an attitude of complete apathy after his therapist suffers a heart attack in the midst of hypnotization, leaving Peter in an unrealistic state of deep relaxation. Ironically, The Bobs are completely taken with Peter, even after he openly admits that he really "does nothing" all day. Other employees in the company do much more work, like Peter's friends Michael and Samir, but they are fired for reasons clear only to the consultants. Instead of keeping workers that are efficient, The Bobs keep Peter, who is disrespectful to his boss and plays Tetris all day. These kinds of consultants are a parody of the type of corporate planning and strategizing that became so popular in the 1990s. Lumbergh, the VP of Initech, is also seen in front of a whiteboard reading "Planning to Plan," another stab at new ideas and attempts to streamline corporate offices that really defeat their own purpose.
One of the most praised aspects of the movie is its larger than life characters. Because of his background in animation, Mike Judge exaggerates the characters' personalities so that "every personality trait is magnified" (Ebert). Characters like Bill Lumbergh, written to be the stereotype of a corporate boss in the 1990s, wears "gold-rimmed aviator glasses, a ski-resort tan and a contrasting-collar dress shirt," and Tom, a 50ish functionary who lives in constant -- and justified -- terror of being downsized," are played out to the extreme by the actors. Peter's two friends, Michael Bolton, who resents the famous singer with his same name, and Samir Nagheenanajar, whose last name no one can pronounce, both dislike their jobs, but appreciate the security. After they are both fired, they take out their anger at the company by taking their misbehaving copy machine to an empty field and destroy it with baseball bats. The most animated character and my personal favorite is Milton, an employee who was "let go" years ago, but through a glitch in the payroll continues to be paid every week. Instead of deciding to take on a lifestyle of apathy, like Peter, Milton combats the stresses of corporate life by being overly protective of his possessions, especially his stapler.
Not only does the movie Office Space poke fun at corporate businesses, but it also satirizes the mediocre lives of the people that work in those jobs. Mike Judge expresses the impatience of many Americans through his subtle and witty humor in a satire about life in Corporate America. Everyone who has worked in an office can pick out at least a few foibles from some of the extreme characters that remind them of past or present coworkers. The issues brought up comically in the movie resonate with its audience long after the final credits.
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