The tagline of ’’Office Space’’ is ’’WORK SUCKS’’ a concept that indeed is true. Office Space is directed by Mike Judge, best known for his direction of the animated feature ’’Beavis and Butthead ’’. It’s a fun movie that will appeal particularly to those in the audience who have the misfortune of spending their weekdays in cubicles, most specifically the new breed of proffesionals- the software programmers. The film should manage to connect with those familiar with life inside an office cubicle. Office Space is a big bashing of the Computer Industry and treating everyone like dots and numbers. This movie was released in inddia some time back when I didnt even bother to find out what its about & then again was shown on star movies when again I ignored it . But one fine day while flipping thro’ channels I just happened to watch 5 mins of it & never changed the channel till the movie got over.
The three lead characters, Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingstone), Michael Bolton(pun intended) (David Herman), and a saudi dude played by an indian (Ajay Naidu), are software engineers for a company specializing in Y2K upgrades. One day, a couple of consultants show up at the workplace. The office boss, Bill Lumbergh , introduces them as advisors designed to help the company run better. Everyone recognizes that layoffs (in corporate jargon, ’’a downsizing’’) are on the way. After visiting an occupational hypnotist, Peter decides that he’s had enough of his job. Sick and tired of the toll that work is taking on his psyche, Peter sees a hypnotherapist in the hopes of finding some relief of his work-related anxiety. Unfortunately, the hypnotherapist suffers a fatal heart attack before Peter’s treatment is complete, which creates an unexpected attitude towards work. Peter begins showing up late for work (or not showing up at all), dressing casually, ignoring his boss, and even works up enough courage to ask out a waitress (Jennifer Aniston ) that he has been eyeing for a while. Now instead of getting fired he gets promoted but later when finds out his own friends r being fired, plan to introduce a virus into the computer network which would not only damage the corporation but would be slowly and imperceptibly put money into their bank accounts over a period of years.
Office Space opens with a sequence that every office goer who brave the rush hour traffic every day will identify with. Peter is sitting in his car on a highway in bumper-to-bumper traffic. A man in walker, painfully making his way along a nearby sidewalk, is traveling faster than anyone in a vehicle. Soon, cars in another lane begin to move, but Peter remains standing still. After a few seconds of frustration, he slips into the moving lane... just as it comes to a stop. Predictably, at that point, the cars in the lane he existed start going forward. I laughed so hard in the first 5 minutes of this film that my appendix was going to burst .
Theres this another scene that has Drew, one of the faceless employees, explaining to his fellow workers that this guy tried to kill himself. It switches to the other day where you see a man trying to suffocate himself in the garage by keeping the car on and breathing in the exhaust. Then his wife comes in and the narrator (Drew) said when he saw her face again it gave him a reason to live, then he laughs. It shows the man trying to make an explanation on what he is doing, then says I love you and backs out and goes for a ride...the guys ask what happened next then you see an 18-wheeler hit the car. Ironic huh? Well that didn’t have anything to do with the plot of the movie but it made me laugh so hard. I like this movie because it takes a serious matter, makes it kind of dumb and gives it slapstick humor, but at the same time making it smart.
The actors were all very good with Ron Livingston playing an excellent laid-back dude, and his Bill Gates Jr. buddy with the love for the gangsta rap great too.
The minor details like the boss who never parts with his coffee mug, the fight for a better stapler, the pink-slip-wielding consultants, the pointless morale-building slogans are great. I felt Aniston could have been left out, but the ’’pieces of flair’’ was pretty funny. We’ve all wanted to slap the TGIF annoyingly happy-go-lucky waiters . Too funny.
If there was anything wrong with this film, it was that the last 20 minutes of the flick didn’t sustain in humour and ended fairly easily and predictably, but all the laughs I sustained within the first half make it forgiveable.
This movie should be watched by all the software programmers & corporate people so that they realise how they r wasting their one & only life. Now that 1 lakh indians r being laid off from US I reccomend the first thing they do is watch this movie & do something with their life. What did they get after working so hard miles away from their homes ?? FIRED? Peter should be the best role model for them. And yeah not to forget the TGIF waiters. :)