Product: Office Space (1999)
Rating: 4.0
They say art mirrors life... does that apply to a comedy?
Evidently art does mirror life when Mike Judge tries his hand at movie making. Office Space has become a cult classic of sorts. I've worked in a corporate environment for seven years now and this movie is just as funny now as it was when I first saw it back in the day. Its scary how little the work place has changed.Mike Judge assembled a great crew to pull this movie off. The sets are great, from Initech's cubicle mazes, to Chotchkie's all to familiar decor, to Peter's apartment. He's got a great cast with Ron Livingston playing our everyman main character. Perhaps it is Gary Cole as Bill Lumbergh that makes the best impression as the oh-so-subtle manager without a clue. Or maybe its John C. McGinley as Bob the efficiency expert that steals the vote for best supporting actor in this comedy. But how can you forget Stephen Root as Milton, the inspiration for this comedic adventure. And I can't leave out David Herman or Ajay Naidu as the poor dopes that get roped into Peter's clever scheme. Oh yeah and Jennifer Aniston is in it too.The script is great, especially when it flings its barbed humor at the corporate world. Things falter a bit when Peter scheme kicks into action, but there are plenty of good bits after as well (my favorite being the fate of the office printer). The use of gangster rap music is appropriate, but I know some viewers won't appreciate it or the use of colorful language throughout the movie.This is a great piece of entertainment, and proves that Mike Judge is as good with live action films as he is with animation. He would go on to confirm this with his satirically stupid look at an incredibly dumb future in Idiocracy. Get both these films and you have one heck of a double feature.