Movie Review:Office Space 98
"Office Space" is a joyous frontal assault on the modern workplace - especially the computer part of same -- from Mike Judge, the creator of the late, much lamented "Beavis & Butt-head" and "King of the Hill."
It's also yet another in a lengthening string of movies centered on nerd and geek life.
"Office Space" is nowhere near close to being a great movie, but strangely is no less fun for that. Anybody who has endured or survived work as a low-level functionary in a high-tech modern corporation ought to go see this movie, preferably accompanied by colleagues and fellow office dwellers.
Ron Livingston plays Peter, a programmer who works in a suffocating cubicle working on updating Y2K code for banks. His company is aptly named "Initech," and it's never precisely clear what it does. His friends Michael (David Herman) and Samir (Ajay Naidu) are equally miserable but more accepting.
Peter hates every single thing about his job, including his oily bosses, so much that he simply stops going, aided in this by the sudden collapse by heart attack of a hypno-therapist at the very moment he was instructing Peter to feel better about things.
As the therapist is carted off to the hospital, Peter is frozen in a state of well being. He realizes his true ambition, which is to do nothing much.
So he comes in when and if he feels like it. He ignores his bosses demands. He knocks down his cubicle so he can see the view outside. He throws fish entrails around the office, and otherwise screws up so brazenly and publicly that he is, of course immediately promoted by his savagely portrayed middle-management martinet boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole.)
Peter is snapped out of his reverie when his admittedly and self-described geek buddies (shamelessly stereotyped as socially awkward, angry and timid) get laid off. They collectively decide to seek revenge by writing a software program that siphons off pennies from bank customers in such small amounts that they're sure nobody will eever notice the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars over a couple of years.
The plan seems surprisingly plausible, as does the program written to make it happen.
Livingston is so genially low-key (as are the oddly disconnected appearances by his girl friend, "Friend's" Jennifer Alston, who is so clumsily inserted as to suggest she filmed it at different times) that we pretty much stop caring what happens to him (since he doesn't why should we?).
The movie's great creation is the mumbling, resentful, aging nerd Milton, played by Stephen Root ("Newsradio"). Milton has accumulated a lifetime of grievances, from seeing his favorite stapler switched, to having his cubicle repeatedly moved, to having been laid off years earlier but never told. When Peter asks him to turn his radio down, Milton mumbles that he won't, because he has the right to keep his radio on from 9 to ll a.m. Cowed but hostile, Milton manages even to get screwed out of his piece of cake at an office party. But he never stops keeping score, and we never doubt he'll get even.
"Office Space" has some wickedly savage depictions of how work sometimes sucks in the age of the hi-tech company. For people at the bottom rung of giant corporations, work is temporal, boring and low-paying.
The young especially are moved around, alienated and exploited at will. For all that "Office Space" is a comedy, Judge doesn't seem to be kidding about his dead-on workplace depictions.
In "Office Space," layers of bosses fuss about memos and procedures, and the inevitable team of management consultants show up to wantonly toss people out the window.
That the consultants (known as the two "Bobs") instinctively read Peter's disenchantment, arrogance and defiance as obvious signs of a worker destined for higher management is one of the neater twists of the movie. "Office Space" is the first live-action feature directed by the creator of "Beavis and Butt-head" and "King of the Hill." An expansion of three animated shorts created by Judge for TV over the past decade, it has a wandering, disjointed feel to it. It doesn't really hang together as a movie, but more as a satisfying collection of biting work depictions.
These portrayals are almost disturbingly credible. Anybody who works for somebody else will find something in it to relate to and laugh about. But you can't see "Office Space" without wishing that the weirdly geeky Milton gets a series or movie all of his own next time around.
Mail-to: jonkatz@slashdot.org
Sorry... (Score:1)
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Like Dilbert, but funny... (Score:1)
The plot seems to have only been there as a vehicle to link together all the other scenes... I never found myself caring if they were going to get away with the money or not. None of the previews I saw contained so much as a hint of the actual plot, which would suggest to me that the producers rated it about as highly as I did.
There wasn't much in the way of conventional gags or quotable one-liners in the movie (though I did like, "Why should I have to change? He's the one who sucks."), but I still laughed my ass off several times. Why? Because it's all true. This is satire, folks... very accurate, barbed satire...
Sounds Good (Score:1)
And I thought Office Space was hilarious.
"Salami slicing"-it's been around since the '70s (Score:1)
I first heard of it in the 70s. Might even have been earlier.
re: another geek movie (Score:1)
Yeah....rah....rah.....another geek movie....yeah....right on....yeah.....geek....yeah....right on
(me trying to sound excited about another geek movie)
Know how they feel. (Score:1)
So? You're in the IT profession (I'm assuming) The market has never been better. Sure, you can work at a job until they lay YOU off, but why not work at a job until YOU decide that you want to go elsewhere, for more money, better benefits, just feel like moving, whatever! The IT profession is so fast moving right now, it makes it a lot of fun to be in!
geek/nerd film characters (Score:1)
geek/nerd film characters (Score:1)
The transition from trickle to torrent is what he's spotlighting. Katz hasn't claimed that there's never before been a film that appealed to geeks, or anything remotely similar. As you've said, he's calling attention to the sudden upswing. He's talking about the rise in frequency, and you're saying: so what, we've been getting a droplet per year for two decades now. To put it in terms that everyone can understand: One person is celebrating the sudden mainstream attention linux has been getting, and people are saying "Bah, linux is old; I've been using it since 1991".
geek/nerd film characters (Score:1)
huh-huh-huh..ahem... (Score:1)
What are you talking about? (Score:1)
If you can't appreciate the movie as a comedy, maybe you should take the film's central message to heart: if you're not happy in your cubicle, change careers.
Which movie to see... (Score:1)
Anybody wanna got to Chochkey's? (Score:1)
customary Katz flaming (Score:1)
MOXIE!!
Nap this! (Score:1)
-Put your right hand in the box.
-What's in the box?
-Pain.
Breakdancing _n_ Popping (Score:1)
Siphoning Money has already been done (Score:1)
was refreshing
Ah good to hear! Things like movies usually take a long time to make it into this part of the world (unless its the blockbuster type movies, in which case it usually is about 4-6 weeks post USA release).
Siphoning Money has already been done (Score:2)
Daria? (Score:1)
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gangsta rap (Score:1)
And I just have to say that it's a good thing I saw this on a friday. If I had gone to work the day after seeing this, I don't know what I would've done
geek/nerd film characters (Score:1)
Now somebody get busy and FLAME KATZ! I can't do it all myself
Was That a Documentary? (Score:1)
In a high-tech company where each person has been moved from cube to cube, and the team from area to area, and building to building (a half dozen times in the last 18 months), the title "Office Space" says it all.
It seems that the few cubic feet that our cubicles take up are far more worthwhile than we, the employees who inhabit them. Then again, in a company with approximately 10,000 employees, how can you be more than a number?
dirty work (Score:1)
Milton was from SNL (Score:1)
heh...Jurassic Park (Score:1)
I also thought it was dumb how they made the movie politically correct by making the girl the computer genius and the boy unknowledgable, versus the boy being the one with the knowledge like it was in the book. Realistically, the boy was the more likely candidate for computer know-how anyway .
hell yeah (Score:1)
i really liked the part when the three friends
went gangsta on the fax machine.....
the whole thing rocked!
and Katz did a good job with the review....
Sounds Good (Score:1)
I tell you what movie needed a consultant... (Score:1)
Not even mentioning the lack of plot and bad actors. But what the fsck were they doing on those mock up computers?
That was a sad, sad movie.
This movie was right on the spot. (Score:1)
BTW, I get more zapped by my car than by my office furniture. Yesterday morning was so bad that my arm was numb for a few minutes. Maybe it's because I shake my butt on the car seat like Micheal Bolton did in the movie!
M.
Suggestions for a book to film ? (Score:1)
to film next ? Microserfs ? The Cuckoo's Egg ?
My vote's for the Llama book
.c
Know how they feel. (Score:1)
their employees anymore. We're expendable. Anyone
who has been through a re-org knows this.
http://members.xoom.com/Lycadican
Geek Boy
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Superstition is a word the ignorant use to describe their ignorance. -Sifu
Which movie to see... (Score:1)
"If there's one movie you will see this summer, it should be... Star Wars!!
If there are two movies you will see this summer, see Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me"
If the movie is as bad as Judge's other work... (Score:1)
Then again, there's tv for you. 2 words. Lizard Brain.
-lx
Siphoning Money has already been done (Score:1)
No one pretended to be clever in the movie, which was refreshing - you didn't have some one magically cracking into the CIA's computer from a van parked outside (a la "Mission Impossible"). And when they check their bank statement after running their siphoning program, they find out the program had a bug in it and transferred too much money. That, too, was refreshing: a confident hacker's code had a bug in it and really screwed up (how many times have you seen that in the work place?
Soulfry
Great matinee movie (Score:1)
The "gangsta" soundtrack and film style of some of the scenes was the genius of this movie.
Soulfry
My vote for the best scene... (Score:1)
Soulfry
See Payback instead (Score:1)
Suggestions for a book to film ? (Score:1)
My suggestion would be "The First $20 Million Is Always the Hardest" by Po Bronson, his second novel. It's a thinly disguised novel about Silicon Valley culture and fictional creation of a Java-like universal language.
Strangely both of Bronson's novel deals with workplace. His first novel, Bombadier is about the absurd happening in a bond sales office.
Whats wrong with... (Score:1)
I have to be a smart ass because although my computer has 2 motherboards, neither is terribly useful.
gangsta rap (Score:1)
Sounds Good (Score:1)
Use of computers in the movie (Score:1)
Did anyone else notice the computers were mainly mac based... but that they had DOS boot screens, and when they shut down they went to the infamous C:\> prompt?
And all the computer software boxes in the background.. they could have gone to developers and gotten real boxes, not really old versions of dBase and stuff.
All movies do this... can't they get a consultant to get it right for them? One movie I saw not too long ago must have had a consultant because all the screens were Linux... damn, I wish I could remember the title... too many movies on Sundance Channel.
Ah well...
i enjoyed it (Score:1)
there are some great satirical touches, like michael bolton rocking out to hardcore rap one minute and locking his door in fear of a black flower seller the next. and i was so happy to see someone else noticing the office-static-shock syndrome that any outstanding flaws in the movie were instantly forgiven.
oh, and also it was a GEEK MOVIE!!! from that new GEEK MOVIE genre!!! so that was a plus.
Sounds Good (Score:1)
i hear that MANSON is in it!!!
Which movie to see... (Score:1)
My only problem with officespace is the end, which was so lame as to erode much of the good will I had towards the movie.
Sounds Good (Score:1)
I have no real opinion on B&B, other than that it didn't suck like I expected it to. King of the Hill, on the other hand, is one of the few brilliant half hours of television in modern times. Fat kid's funny!
Which movie to see... (Score:1)
funniest line in the movie... (Score:1)
*sorry, forgot my passwd when i posted this!*
Katz sucks ass this time (Score:1)
on this one. This movie wasn't oscar material by
any means, but there is more to it than Jon gives
credit too. The beat-down scene with the fax
plays on every mob/gangster/ghetto movie cliche.
And Livingston (Peter) is great, he's supposed to
be indifferent... that's the character.
Best movie This Year (so far) (Score:1)
But goddamn that was funny.
The most brilliant character in the movie was Milton, played by Steven Root, who's not only the weird owner of the radio staton on News Radio, but also does the voices of Bill Dautrive and Mr Strickland on KOTH. We did NOT recognize him in this movie. He's SCARY in Office Space.
Brilliant.