Product: Office Space (1999)
Rating: 5.0
Best parody of office life ever.
Most comedies are not funny; "Office Space" is good enough to buy and see repeatedly. Mike Judge pours scorn on a cornucopia of common, yet dreadful, elements of American office culture: programmers stuck with dull make-work jobs replacing 2-digit years with all four digits, or "taking the specifications from the customer down to the engineers;" bosses who muddle their communications with employees using empty pleasantries ("Hey, Milton, how's it going?")and euphemized directives ("Uhhh...I'm going to need you to go ahead and come on in tomorrow...so if you could just go ahead and do that from now on, that would be great. Okay...?") and who think "Hawaiian Shirt Day" boosts morale. Every office also has at least one gadget that justifies a Luddite reaction; especially one that displays the infamous and non-descript "PC LOAD LETTER" warning. In spite of policies designed to enforce a quiet, collegial and productive atmosphere, somehow there are always employees with irritating habits that go unchecked: "Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking? Just a moment! Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking? Just a moment!" Corporate names like Initech and Initrode themselves reinforce the banality of life within their cultures. The ridiculous twists ("I'm cheating on you!!", "Conjugal visits? Not that I know of.") make this film a cult classic.