May 6th, 2005

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Movies
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Why Do You Like Office Space?

As you may know, Office Space is something of a cult favourite. Despite several recommendations at the time, I only got around to watching it a couple of months ago.

I found it wholly unremarkable. First, it wasn’t very funny. Yes, the corporate satire was well-observed, but it was painfully obvious. The overly-suave boss, the efficiency experts, the reticent Indian sidekick–they’re all pretty standard stereotypes. So to is the notion that under-performance might be highly rewarded. Compared to the remarkable BBC show The Office, Office Space pales.

My memory of the film are pretty vague, which generally indicates mediocrity. It did occur to me that the movie might be funnier if I was high (but I imagine that’s true of all movies).

Yet, lots of people really dig this film. Would some of you come forward and tell me why?

Comments: 21 Responses so far

Marc Vandersluys
May 6th, 2005
11:36 pm

I’ve only seen it once, but I’m with you. Aside from a few funny moments, I found it rather unremarkable. Of course, I thought that about So I Married an Axe Murderer and Napoleon Dynamite the first time I watched them, too, but they have since grown on my and are now among my favourites.

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Andrea
May 6th, 2005
11:49 pm

I’ve only seen it once, but I liked it at the time. In 1999, Fast Company was all the rage, telling us we were part of the work revolution. You couldn’t read the magazine or turn on CNN without hearing how fun work is or how Google employees take a slide to get to the bottom floor or how sock monkeys could run dot-coms. Office Space cut through all the lies and told it like it was.

Still, I thought WayDownTown was more creative. It deals with a group of Calgary office workers who compete to live within the Plus 15 system. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0219405/

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Jason Clarke
May 7th, 2005
3:17 am

If you’re looking for a quality film with great cinematography, a wonderfully developed story, and top-notch acting, Office Space isn’t for you. I’d also venture to guess that if you’ve never worked in a cube farm, or for a large enough company that you need to use a numeric employee ID on a regular basis, you probably won’t enjoy Office Space.

This movie has a certain charm about it. I think in many ways the humour is akin to Napoleon Dynamite, in that you likely remember a handful of scenes that really hit home for you. For a lot of people it’s the scene where the photocopier is dumped in a lot and systematically pummelled into dust. For me, it’s when the efficiency expert says “Peter, I see you’ve been missing a lot of work lately,” and Peter replies “Oh, I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob”. Pedestrian, cliche, obvious? Maybe. But I laughed for a long time at that silly joke. Oh, and I can watch the traffic scene at the beginning over and over again. As Homer (Simpson) might say, “It’s funny ’cause it’s true.” (yes, it’s late and I’m quoting the Simpsons. Sorry.)

The state of mind you are in can heavily impact your impression of a movie, as can the hype. Would many people have enjoyed the second and third Matrix movies despite their obvious shortcomings had there not been such a huge amount of hype surrounding them? I believe so.

Office Space generates “geek hype” from fans like me. It took you so long to see it, that you likely had extremely elevated expectations.

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Elle Wiz
May 7th, 2005
5:28 am

When I first watched it, I thought, “My God, someone sat outside my window and wrote a movie about my life!” There’s nothing specific that’s exactly like my work experience — well, except for getting shocked daily on the door handle and myself having an unpronounceable surname — but overall they got the right tone. I have suffered through my equivalent of TPS reports and “Yeah, we’re gonna need you to come in on Saaaaaaaaaturday.”

Plus it’s just so damn quotable. (Ron Livingston) “I want to take you to dinner. And then I want to take you home and watch KUNG FU. Do you like KUNG FU?” (Jennifer Aniston, with awestruck expression) “I love Kung Fu.”

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Brian Jones
May 7th, 2005
6:59 am

Red Swingline Stapler.

Brian.

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Vero
May 7th, 2005
6:59 am

I think Office Space amuses people because everyone can relate and recognize a touch of their work environment in it.

As Andrea (the lifesaver who reminded me of the title of a film I’ve been looking for since last year!) says, Way Downtown is much funnier and still haunts me when I visit underground shopping centres in Toronto and see office people walking around.

Dilbert still seems to be the most appropriate way to describe my current work environment though. “Not too webbish”, he says.

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Vero
May 7th, 2005
7:02 am

…And to Brian:

No stapler is a good stapler unless it’s entombed in a mound of jello!

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Jeff
May 7th, 2005
8:03 am

3 reasons I can think of off the top of my head:

“I admit it. I am a Michael Bolton fan. I celebrate the guy’s entire collection.”

“Federal ‘pound me in the ass’ Prison”

“I’m a free man and I haven’t had a conjugal visit in 6 months”

While I do enjoy The Office (brit or yank versions) I find the endless sequence of uber-awkward moments tiresome. The basic joke in every episode of The Office is the same: The boss is a self-absorbed ass with delusions of grandeur. Office Space goes beyond that, fractions of a penny beyond that, but a couple of million times.

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Derek
May 7th, 2005
10:01 am

I agree that “The Office” is perhaps too pointed—I get some bad-memory heebie-jeebies when I watch it, so I don’t find it as funny as I should.

“Office Space,” on the other hand, has a gentler heart, and some more keenly observed moments. Jennifer Aniston’s dead-end Applebee’s-like job taught me about “flair,” which I hadn’t considered before. The throwaway Michael Bolton running joke works because it’s not overdone. And while the characters in “The Office” are essentially focused stereotypes, many of those in “Office Space” have a quirkier resonance to them.

Plus, in “Office Space,” for once, the computers behave like real computers (not Windows or Mac particularly, but realistic), rather than bleeping, blooping Hollywood versions. I’ve only seen it once, but I remember quite a bit, which is saying something.

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Véro
May 7th, 2005
1:45 pm

How is The Office UK version received in Canada? And how about the american one?

I loved the UK one (it was a coffee break discussion every week so we couldn’t help but know about it) but the American one, I saw the pilot online and personally, I found it cringingly bad in every possible way!

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Jeff
May 7th, 2005
4:10 pm

The pilot of the American one was awful, but I came to really like the rest of the season. If you can, check a few of them out. ‘Diversity Day’ almost had me in tears, it was that funny.

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harp
May 7th, 2005
4:29 pm

The Office is 10000x what Office Space was. The first 10 minutes of Office Space was ok, then it just kind of died. I agree on the US version, it’s about half of the UK version (other than the pilot) which means it’s pretty good. If only there was a decent Gareth character on the US version it’d be a lot better.

But I’d say the UK Office is the best thing since Fawlty Towers, can’t think of anything on TV that is even in the same ballbark of funny.

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Devon
May 7th, 2005
11:24 pm

The “Diversity Day” episode of The Office made me pee my pants, literally.

So so so funny.

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TJ
May 8th, 2005
6:35 am

I also think Office Space served up timely relief in 1999, mocking the trappings of the corporate work environment. Another film that did it well in 2001 is Haiku Tunnel. The office comedy has by now worn pretty thin, which is perhaps why you’ve got no laughs left for Office Space. Then again, maybe you just aren’t wearing enough flair.

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Rog
May 8th, 2005
1:10 pm

I’m not a gigantic fan of the film, but I’m also not a big fan of reviews of dated material that has since been redone. Truth is, we’ve now had six years of other films & media to build upon Office Space. I’m not saying it was the first, but it definitely sparked something.

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Jeff
May 8th, 2005
5:40 pm

Agreed Rog - slamming it against things that came out years after is not altogether fair - Office Space did, as you said, spark something.

PC Load Letter? What the f* does that mean?

/will stop quoting now

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Chris
May 8th, 2005
6:45 pm

I agree with Rog with respect to reviewing dated material. I saw Office Space when it came out, and loved it. I still love it now, because it’s a classic. Someone who watched Monty Python’s Flying Circus for the first time today might not think it’s that great, because they’ve seen other examples of non-sequitor comedy. Someone watching the Simpsons for the first time, even the really good episodes, might think it pales in comparison to something like Family Guy or Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Personally, I haven’t seen a lot of classics. Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, even the Wizard of Oz, haven’t seen any of them. I’m sure if I watched them today I’d be underwhelmed, but I don’t doubt that they were excellent movies in the context in which they were released.

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Declan
May 9th, 2005
11:30 am

First Harry Potter, now Office Space? Looks like the Rebel Sell has your soul is making you criticize stuff you feel is ‘too’ popular.

Jason Clarke above is pretty dead on in his comments, but I’ll add my 2 cents.

‘The Office’ is funny, but it’s just your typical (albeit unusally well executed) TV comedy with TV situations and TV characters.

Watching Office Space you feel like they abanodoned all the usual slick production values, writing and acting and just went and filmed your typical dysfunctional office for a few days. Like Derek said, the characters have a resonance to them, which made them seem more believable to me than the usual, obviously made for TV, characters.

The bottome line is that it felt authentic to me, in a way no other movie/show about big corporate offices (which I know so well) ever has.

The storyline was just a frame used to hang the various gags on but I thought the message that if you really do hate the office you have to quit and do something else for a living and that most people are too scared to do so was actually pretty profound (and unusually subversive) by filmmaking standards.

Also, the soundtrack is quite good - esp. the Geto Boys.

—
‘Why should I change my name? He’s the one who sucks!’

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Darren
May 9th, 2005
11:40 am

Declan: My dislike for those movies aren’t because they’re popular–it’s because I didn’t think they were very good. I’m as much of a populist as the next guy. For example, I’m constantly defending Steven King.

As for “The Office”, are we talking about the same show? The BBC production breaks nearly every convention of traditional North America television:

* Speaking directly to the camera
* Naturalistic lighting
* Unattractive actors
* Bizarre, provocative and unexpected storylines
* Shot ‘on location’ (in terms of the set feeling like it has a fourth wall) with a handheld camera

I think it’s unfair to characterize the BBC’s production as ‘typical’.

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Declan
May 9th, 2005
4:31 pm

Yes you’re right - ‘typical’ was a really poor choice of words on my part.

What I was trying to get across, not too articulately, is that even though I like ‘The Office’, it feels not like an actual office like the ones I’ve worked in, but more like something being orchestrated/staged for the audience’s benefit / comedic effect.

Which is fine, but I was trying to contrast it with the kind of amateurish ‘Office Space’ where I didn’t get that same feeling (even though obviously it was filmed for the benefit of an audience as well).

Yes, I’m sure that’s much clearer now (sarcasm directed at self).

As for the Rebel Sell, I was just giving you a hard time, probably because I’m a big Harry Potter / Office Space fan (although the first two HP movies were certainly pretty average). Notice I didn’t even mention your ‘40 reasons why Star Wars sucks’ post.

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Darren
May 9th, 2005
6:01 pm

Thanks for that. Actually, liking ‘Office Space’ would be more of a Rebel Sell. After all, its appeal trades partially on its cult status and liking what the other cool kids like. It is, as you’ve described, somewhat of an anti-movie. As a rule, ‘anti-anything’ is often a Rebel Sell.

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