Product: Office Space (1999)
Rating: 5.0
A deserved video/DVD success after box office flameout
'Office Space' bombed at the box office in February 1999, pulling in only $10,827,810 domestically according to Box Office Mojo. It limped into what appeared to be oblivion after six scant weeks. Except for one small thing......in DVD/home video-land, 'Office Space' became a cultural phenomenon. As one reviewer notes, Mike Judge's workplace masterpiece "promptly broke every video record in Fox history." And eight years after its release it continues to be a phenomenon. In retrospect, the big screen release was terribly mis-marketed. Count me among the many who bypassed it in the theater because I couldn't make heads or tails out of the ads.Judge's film is set in a 'nameless Texas city," but this is clearly Dallas. For those of us that have lived in that city - the corporate home of TGI Friday's and its flair-bedazzled employees - there are inside laughs by the bucketful, including the back-to-back apartments with paper-thin walls, the massive traffic pile-ups on 635 (LBJ), Initech's classic Dallas office space, etc.Great performances here: Mike Judge's (uncredited) cameo as Jennifer Aniston's flair-obsessed manager; David Herman's fantastic turn as Michael Bolton (no relation); and John C. McGinley's excellent portrayal as a workforce consultant (he delivers the movie's most memorable line: "This straight shooter has upper management written all over him.")