Office Space is a 1999 comedy written and directed by Mike Judge. It stars Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, John C. McGinley, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Diedrich Bader, and Richard Riehle. The movie centers around three guys who have crappy jobs at a corporation called Initech. Ron Livingston plays Peter, who is the lead character. He becomes completely apathetic toward his job after a botched hypnotherapy session and basically tries to get fired. He ends up hatching a plan to rip the company off that goes haywire. As I said, that is almost ancillary to the real purpose of the movie, which is to poke fun at office life and the various characters.
I really think this movie will hold up in any era. Really as long as corporations exist this movie will be hilarious. To the extent there is a plot it almost takes a back seat to making fun of the corporate culture. And let's be honest, for those of us who work in the corporate world, some of the things they are making fun of (albeit in over-the-top ways in some instances) still very much exist. It was made from an animated short by Mike Judge the creator of Bevis and Butthead and King of the Hill.
The DVD does have a handful of extras. Those include an approximately half-hour retrospective made in 2005, about 10 minutes of deleted scenes, and the trailer. There is definitely enough to satisfy those who like going through the extras.
The movie has a true ensemble cast, which was made up of relative unknowns. They made a pretty big casting coup in landing Jennifer Aniston when Friends was immensely popular. She really did not dominate the movie though and really fit in well with the ensemble cast. The two most memorable characters in my opinion were Milton, played by Stephen Root, and Lumberg played by Gary Cole. All the actors did a wonderful job, however, even those with the smallest roles. It really seemed like they were all having fun with it, which along with the well-written script (which has tons of quotable lines) really make the movie.
It is really a "cult classic" kind of movie. The brand of humor is probably not for everyone, but it holds up as well or better as any of the more modern-day comedies do. I think anyone who likes any of Judge's other work will find this enjoyable. There is a lot of swearing in the movie, and in that respect, it earns its R rating, but it is really nothing more than you get in any R-rated comedy. It is absolutely worth the time to watch.
The DVD does have a handful of extras. Those include an approximately half-hour retrospective made in 2005, about 10 minutes of deleted scenes, and the trailer. There is definitely enough to satisfy those who like going through the extras.
The movie has a true ensemble cast, which was made up of relative unknowns. They made a pretty big casting coup in landing Jennifer Aniston when Friends was immensely popular. She really did not dominate the movie though and really fit in well with the ensemble cast. The two most memorable characters in my opinion were Milton, played by Stephen Root, and Lumberg played by Gary Cole. All the actors did a wonderful job, however, even those with the smallest roles. It really seemed like they were all having fun with it, which along with the well-written script (which has tons of quotable lines) really make the movie.
It is really a "cult classic" kind of movie. The brand of humor is probably not for everyone, but it holds up as well or better as any of the more modern-day comedies do. I think anyone who likes any of Judge's other work will find this enjoyable. There is a lot of swearing in the movie, and in that respect, it earns its R rating, but it is really nothing more than you get in any R-rated comedy. It is absolutely worth the time to watch.
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