Plot: What’s it about?
First off, this is now one of my all time favorite movies and I’ve already seen it three times! No, I’m not being paid by Fox to say that, it’s really that funny of a movie!!! Office Space is the story of Peter (Ron Livingston) who is a typical computer programmer that works at local company, Initech. Peter, to say it bluntly, hates his job. As he explains it to his occupational hypnotherapist… “Every new day is the worst day of my life…”.
Peter’s co-workers, Michael Bolton (yes, that’s no typo) and Samir are in the same boat, but learn to deal with it. Michael’s biggest problem is to escape his namesake (he hates the real Michael Bolton and like hard core rap instead) and Samir just wants people to pronounce his last name correctly. There’s also a character named “Milton”, that this movie was loosely based on. If you’ve ever worked in an office, you can identify with all these people. That’s part of what makes this such a likeably and hilarious movie.
Back to the storyline…Peter is at the hypnotherapist and has just been put into a state of dep relaxation, when the therapist promptly dies of a heart attack. Hence, Peter is left in a constant state of total relaxation. Peter does then, what all of us really want to do…He stops going to work, ignores his boss and does nothing all day. AND GETS PROMOTED!
Aside from all this, Peter gets dumped by his girlfriend but in his relaxed state, decides to ask out local waitress Joanna (Jennifer Aniston). I don’t like “Friends” and could do without her in this part, it could have been played by almost anyone, but she has 10 minutes of screen time, tops.
With revenge on their minds, Peter, Samir and Michael Bolton decide to pull one over the company so they can avoid work for the rest of their lives…all this and I forgot to mention the guy who steals the show! Lawrence. Lawrence is Peter’s neighbor, who can hear through the paper thin walls. Lawrence also has a small part, but is utterly hilarious and unforgettable.
This is truly an instant classic. One of the movies that I just bought without having seen it first, and it’s worth every hard-earned penny!
Video: How does it look?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…Fox puts out some of the best non-anamorphic transfers around. This was a new movie, so it’s understandable why it’s a better than normal picture. This is excellent, and looks better than a lot of my discs that are 16:9 enhanced.
Audio: How does it sound?
A suprisingly loud soundtrack that has mostly rap songs on it. Channel seperation is good and dialogue is clear as well. A good mix. That’s good too, that way you can hear Lawrence all the more!
Supplements: What are the extras?
Not much here. You get the cast, not bios, but just their picture, a trailer is also included. Not much for your $35…I would love to hear a Mike Judge commentary track on this! Maybe, we’ll seee…
