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Office Space
Anyone who has ever worked in an office will find something they can relate to in 1999's Office Space, a farcical look at office life that seems to be sort of a cinematic companion to the Johnny Paycheck song "Take this Job and Shove It" and has achieved almost cult status over the years.
Peter, Michael, and Samir are three buddies who work at a software company called Initech who spend a lot of time complaining about how much they hate their jobs until a pair of efficiency experts arrive to trim the fat off the payroll. They fire Michael and Samir, but they find Peter's I-don't-give-a-damn attitude refreshing and promptly promote him. Not happy about his buddies being canned, Peter teams with his buddies to pull off an elaborate plan to rip the company off.
Mike Judge, the creative force behind Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill does show a flair with live action characters as well. What this film nails better than anything else is those mundane little things about working in an office that we all hate...that one cheery female co-worker who is never in a bad mood, the white hot hate that we've all had for a copy machine at sometime in our life, and that office birthday cake that always runs out before we get a piece.
Best of all, Judge gives us that slimeball boss who acts so smooth and so slick that he makes everything he does sound so innocent and, most importantly, that it is what is best for us and Judge cast this role perfectly with the endlessly versatile Gary Cole, creating one of the most annoying movie bosses I have ever seen. There are some fantasy touches that Judge brings to the story that don't always work, but I think that's because never commits completely to whether or not this story if a farce or a straight story, but it does deliver the laughs during the waffling. I loved the scene where the guys steal the copier on their last day and take it to a field and destroy it, effectively shot in slow motion.
Ron Livingston is charming as Peter and Jennifer Aniston made an impression in one of her earliest movie roles as his romantic interest. Deidrich Bader was also fun as Peter's roommate. John McGinley and Paul Willson garnered laughs as the efficiency experts, but Stephen Root does eventually wear on the nerves as a nerdy employee who was laid off four years ago but doesn't realize it and, for some reason, nobody will tell him. I also liked the fact that most of the soundtrack consisted of rap music but there was only one black character with a speaking part in the whole movie. Definitely an acquired taste, but I found myself laughing in spite of myself.
Anyone who has ever worked in an office will find something they can relate to in 1999's Office Space, a farcical look at office life that seems to be sort of a cinematic companion to the Johnny Paycheck song "Take this Job and Shove It" and has achieved almost cult status over the years.
Peter, Michael, and Samir are three buddies who work at a software company called Initech who spend a lot of time complaining about how much they hate their jobs until a pair of efficiency experts arrive to trim the fat off the payroll. They fire Michael and Samir, but they find Peter's I-don't-give-a-damn attitude refreshing and promptly promote him. Not happy about his buddies being canned, Peter teams with his buddies to pull off an elaborate plan to rip the company off.
Mike Judge, the creative force behind Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill does show a flair with live action characters as well. What this film nails better than anything else is those mundane little things about working in an office that we all hate...that one cheery female co-worker who is never in a bad mood, the white hot hate that we've all had for a copy machine at sometime in our life, and that office birthday cake that always runs out before we get a piece.
Best of all, Judge gives us that slimeball boss who acts so smooth and so slick that he makes everything he does sound so innocent and, most importantly, that it is what is best for us and Judge cast this role perfectly with the endlessly versatile Gary Cole, creating one of the most annoying movie bosses I have ever seen. There are some fantasy touches that Judge brings to the story that don't always work, but I think that's because never commits completely to whether or not this story if a farce or a straight story, but it does deliver the laughs during the waffling. I loved the scene where the guys steal the copier on their last day and take it to a field and destroy it, effectively shot in slow motion.
Ron Livingston is charming as Peter and Jennifer Aniston made an impression in one of her earliest movie roles as his romantic interest. Deidrich Bader was also fun as Peter's roommate. John McGinley and Paul Willson garnered laughs as the efficiency experts, but Stephen Root does eventually wear on the nerves as a nerdy employee who was laid off four years ago but doesn't realize it and, for some reason, nobody will tell him. I also liked the fact that most of the soundtrack consisted of rap music but there was only one black character with a speaking part in the whole movie. Definitely an acquired taste, but I found myself laughing in spite of myself.