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Office Space

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Office Space
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMike Judge
Written byMike Judge
Produced byDaniel Rappaport
Michael Rotenberg
StarringRon Livingston
Jennifer Aniston
Stephen Root
Gary Cole
CinematographyTim Suhrstedt
Edited byDavid Rennie
Music byJohn Frizzell
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • February 19, 1999 (1999-02-19)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10 million
Box office$10,827,810 (domestic)[1]

Office Space is a 1999 American comedy film satirizing work life in a typical 1990s software company. Written and directed by Mike Judge, it focuses on a handful of individuals fed up with their jobs portrayed by Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Gary Cole, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, and Diedrich Bader.

The film's sympathetic depiction of ordinary IT workers garnered a cult following within that field, but also addresses themes familiar to white collar employees in general.

Shot in Las Colinas and Austin, Texas, Office Space is based on Judge's Milton cartoon series. It was his first foray into live action film and second full-length motion picture release.

While not a box office success, the film sold well on DVD and VHS, and has become recognized as a cult classic.[2]

Plot

Peter Gibbons, a disgruntled programmer at Initech, spends his days "staring at his desk" instead of actually working. His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar, who is annoyed by the fact that nobody can pronounce his last name correctly; Michael Bolton, who loathes having the same name as the famous singer, whom he hates; Tom Smykowski, who constantly expresses fears of downsizing; and Milton Waddams, a meek, fixated collator who constantly mumbles to himself. Milton had actually been laid off years earlier, though he was never informed and, due to a payroll computer glitch, continues to receive regular paychecks. All four are repeatedly bullied and harassed by management, especially Initech's smarmy, callous vice president, Bill Lumbergh. The staff are further agitated by the arrival of two consultants, Bob Slydell and Bob Porter, who are brought in to help through downsizing and outsourcing.

Peter's girlfriend Anne convinces him to attend an 'occupational hypnotherapy' session, but the therapist, Dr. Swanson, dies of a heart attack right after hypnotizing Peter. The newly relaxed and still half-hypnotized Peter wakes up the next morning and ignores continued calls from Anne (who angrily leaves him, confirming his friends' suspicions of her infidelity) and Lumbergh (who was expecting Peter to work over the weekend). The following work day, Peter decides to play hooky and asks out Joanna, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a restaurant that parodies T.G.I. Friday's interior decoration and uniform standards. Joanna shares Peter's loathing of idiotic management and love of the television program Kung Fu.

When Peter finally shows up at work, he disregards Initech's dress code, takes Lumbergh's reserved parking stall, and refuses to follow Lumbergh's directions. He also removes items that annoy him, such as a door handle that repeatedly shocked him and a cubicle wall that blocks his view out the window. The consultants, however, decide to promote him because of the positive impression he makes on them with his bluntness about the office's problems. Peter then learns that Michael and Samir will be downsized, and the trio decide to get even by infecting Initech's accounting system with a computer virus designed to divert fractions of pennies into a bank account they control. They believe the scheme will succeed because the amounts are too small for Initech to notice, while over time they will receive a substantial amount of money. On Michael and Samir's last day at Initech, Peter takes one last item: a frequently-malfunctioning laser printer, which the three beat to pieces in a field.

To his horror, Peter discovers that a misplaced decimal point caused the virus to steal over $300,000 in the first few days, a far more conspicuous loss to Initech. Haunted by the result, he admits to Joanna – who has finally worked up the courage to stand up to her boss and quit Chotchkie's – that the scheme was a bad idea and that he plans to accept the blame for the crime. He writes a letter confessing everything, then slips an envelope containing the letter and the money (in unsigned traveler's checks) under the door of Lumbergh's office late at night. The next morning, Milton – having been deprived of his cherished red Swingline stapler by Lumbergh, forced to move to the cockroach-infested basement, and having had his paychecks finally cut off – enters Lumbergh's office to reclaim his stapler.

Fully expecting to be arrested upon arriving at work, Peter instead finds that his problem has solved itself: the Initech building is fully engulfed in flames, implying that all evidence of the missing money was destroyed. Peter then finds a job that he likes: doing construction work with his next-door neighbor, Lawrence. As the two of them are cleaning up debris from the fire, Lawrence discovers Milton's stapler. Peter takes it, saying he thinks he knows someone who might want it. Samir and Michael drop by and offer to recommend Peter for a job at Initech rival Intertrode, where they have secured new jobs. Peter declines, content with his new job and life. Meanwhile, Milton lounges on the beach at a fancy Mexican resort, mumbling complaints about his beverage, and threatening to take his traveler's checks to a competitor.

Cast

Production

Shot primarily in Austin, Texas, the origins for Office Space lie in a series of four animated short films about an office drone named Milton that Mike Judge created, which first aired on Liquid Television and Night After Night with Allan Havey, and later aired on Saturday Night Live.[3] The inspiration came from a temp job he once had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders[4] and a job he had as an engineer for three months in the Bay Area during the 1980s, "just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful".[5] The setting of the film reflected a prevailing trend that Judge observed in the United States. "It seems like every city now has these identical office parks with identical adjoining chain restaurants", he said in an interview.[3] He remembers, "There were a lot of people who wanted me to set this movie in Wall Street, or like the movie Brazil, but I wanted it very unglamorous, the kind of bleak work situation like I was in".[4]

Judge sold the film to 20th Century Fox based on his script and a cast that included Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston, and David Herman.[3] Originally, the studio wanted to make a film out of the Milton character but Judge was not interested, opting instead to make more of an ensemble cast–based film.[5] The studio suggested he make a movie like Car Wash but "just set in an office".[5] Judge made the relatively painless transition from animation to live-action with the help of the film's director of photography who taught him about lenses and where to put the camera. Judge says, "I had a great crew, and it's good going into it not pretending you're an expert".[4] Studio executives were not happy with the footage Judge was getting. He remembers them telling him, "More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You're failing! You're failing!"[6] In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film until a focus group approved of it. Judge hated the ending and felt that a complete rewrite of the third act was necessary.[6]

Film poster

Judge also hated the poster that the studio created for Office Space. He said, "People were like, 'What is this? A big bird? A mummy? A beekeeper?' And the tagline 'Work Sucks'? It looked like an Office Depot ad. I just hated it. I hated the trailers, too and the TV ads especially".[6] Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman conceded that the marketing campaign did not work and said, "Office Space isn't like American Pie. It doesn't have the kind of jokes you put in a 15-second television spot of somebody getting hit on the head with a frying pan. It's sly. And let me tell you, sly is hard to sell".[6]

Reception

The Monday following the opening weekend, Judge received a phone call from Jim Carrey's agent. The comedian loved the film and wanted to meet him, and Chris Rock called two weeks later.[6]

Box office

Office Space was released on February 19, 1999 in 1,740 theatres, grossing USD$4,231,727 on its opening weekend. It went on to make $10,827,810 in North America.[7] In addition to this gross, $2 million was made internationally,[8] 6 million copies in DVD, BluRay and VHS sales[8] since February 12, 2006.[9]

Critical response

The film received positive reviews[6] with a 79% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 68 metascore on Metacritic. In his review in The New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote, "It has the loose-jointed feel of a bunch of sketches packed together into a narrative that doesn't gather much momentum."[10] Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote that Judge "treats his characters a little like cartoon creatures. That works. Nuances of behavior are not necessary, because in the cubicle world every personality trait is magnified, and the captives stagger forth like grotesques".[11] In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle writes, "Livingston is nicely cast as Peter, a young guy whose imagination and capacity for happiness are the very things making him miserable."[12] In the USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna wrote, "If you've ever had a job, you'll be amused by this paean to peons."[13]

However, Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C" rating and criticized it for feeling "cramped and underimagined".[14] In his review for the Globe and Mail, Rick Groen wrote, "Perhaps his TV background makes him unaccustomed to the demands of a feature-length script (the ending seems almost panicky in its abruptness), or maybe he just succumbs to the lure of the easy yuk...what began as discomfiting satire soon devolves into silly farce."[15]

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly named Office Space one of "The 100 best films from 1983 to 2008", ranking it at #73.[16]

Legacy

Cult status

Office Space has become a cult classic, selling well on home video and DVD.[17] As of 2003, it had sold 2.6 million copies on VHS and DVD.[18] In the same year, it was in the top 20 best-selling Fox DVDs along with There's Something About Mary.[19]

Entertainment Weekly ranked it fifth on its list "25 Great Comedies From the Past 25 Years", despite having originally given the film a poor review.[20]

On February 8, 2009, a reunion of the cast (featuring all cast members apart from Livingston and Aniston) took place at the Paramount Theatre in Austin to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the film, which included the destruction of a printer on the sidewalk.[21]

Television

Comedy Central premiered Office Space on August 5, 2001 and 1.4 million viewers tuned in. By 2003, the channel had broadcast the film another 35 times.[19] These broadcasts helped develop the film's cult following and Ron Livingston remembers being approached by college students and office workers. He said, "I get a lot of people who say, 'I quit my job because of you.' That's kind of a heavy load to carry".[19] People approached Stephen Root asking him to sign their staplers. The Red Swingline stapler featured prominently in the film was not available until April 2002 when the company released it in response to repeated requests by fans of the film. Its appearance in the film was achieved by taking a standard Swingline stapler and spray-painting it red.[19]

Soundtrack

Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[22]
Track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Performer(s)Length
1."Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee" (contains portions of "Take This Job and Shove It" by Johnny Paycheck, 1977)Canibus, Salaam Remi,
David Allan Coe		Canibus with Biz Markie4:21
2."Get Dis Money"T3, Baatin, Jay DeeSlum Village3:36
3."Get Off My Elevator"Kool Keith, KutMasta KurtKool Keith3:46
4."Big Boss Man" (cover of Jimmy Reed, 1960)Luther Dixon, Al SmithJunior Reid3:46
5."9-5" (Cover of Dolly Parton, 1980)Dolly PartonLisa Stone3:40
6."Down for Whatever" (from Lethal Injection, 1993)Ice Cube, Madness 4 RealIce Cube4:40
7."Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta" (from Uncut Dope: Geto Boys' Best, 1992)Scarface, John Okuribido, James PrinceGeto Boys5:09
8."Home"Benny Wise, C. Hernandez, N. Vasquez, John ForteBlackman, Destruct & Icon4:22
9."No Tears" (from The Diary, 1994)Scarface, N.O. JoeScarface2:27
10."Still" (from The Resurrection, 1996)Willie D, Scarface, N.O JoeGeto Boys4:03
11."Mambo #8" (from Pérez Prado Plays Mucho Mambo For Dancing, 1952)PradoPerez Prado2:06
12."Peanut Vendor" (from Havana, 3 A.M., 1956)Moises SimonsPerez Prado2:39

See also

References

  1. ^ "Office Space (1999)". Box Office Mojo. February 19, 1999. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  2. ^ Meriah Doty CNN (2003-03-04). "CNN.com - Film flops flourish on DVD, VHS - Mar. 4, 2003". Edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 2011-09-19. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ a b c Fierman, Daniel (February 26, 1999). "Judge's Dread". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-16. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  4. ^ a b c Beale, Lewis (February 21, 1999). "Mr. Beavis Goes to Work". Daily News. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ a b c Sherman, Paul (February 21, 1999). "Humorist is a good Judge of office angst". Boston Herald. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ a b c d e f Valby, Karen (May 23, 2003). "The Fax of Life". Entertainment Weekly. p. 41. Retrieved 2008-12-05. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ "Office Space". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  8. ^ a b "Office Space". the-numbers.com. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  9. ^ "Office Space - DVD sales". the-numbers.com. Retrieved December 27, 2011.
  10. ^ Holden, Stephen (1999-02-19). "One Big Happy Family? No, Not At This Company". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Ebert, Roger (1999-02-19). "Office Space". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  12. ^ LaSalle, Mick (1999-02-19). "Workers' Souls Lost In Space". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  13. ^ Wioszczyna, Susan (1999-02-19). "No Frills Office Party". USA Today.
  14. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (1999-03-05). "Office Space". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  15. ^ Groen, Rick (1999-02-19). "Workplace satire almost does the job". Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved 2008-09-18. [dead link]
  16. ^ "The New Classics: Movies". Entertainment Weekly. 2008-06-16. Retrieved 2009-08-08.
  17. ^ Doty, Meriah (2003-03-04). "Film flops flourish on DVD, VHS". CNN. Retrieved 2008-09-18.
  18. ^ Valby 2003, p. 39.
  19. ^ a b c d Valby 2003, p. 42.
  20. ^ "The Comedy 25: The Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years". Entertainment Weekly. 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
  21. ^ ""Office Space" Turns 10". KTBC. 2009-02-08. Retrieved 2009-02-08.
  22. ^ Bregman, Adam. Office Space at AllMusic. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
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