Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

Just saw this one today. It's funny to see people in the movie who resemble to a tee people in your own work environment. mike judge can be annoying at times with his overplaying of some characterizations, but this one was on target. Most people don't really see a plot in this movie. That's not the point of the movie. Like Beavis and Butthead, this story is more non-linear plots that manage to intersect by virtue of logistics. Namely, that people's lives intersects which influence on occasion the vague remnants of a plot. But if you think about it, this movie was more about the realism of an office and the lives of people revolving in it. The drudgery of being in an office and how that environment drives one mad are more key factors than some silly love escapade. But that's the artwork of this type of movie. It shows incidents that are quite real at times. For instance, the layoff scene with the two Bills discussing with the consultant Lumbergh (sounds strangely Jewish, huh?) and talking about how one guy in particular was "useless" reminds me a lot of what goes on in the offices. You have two situations there: the useless person who eats in the company's bottom line, and the greedy upper management looking to increase the bottom line through squeezing human resources. Or the part where they announce they are going to layoff the two best software engineers, hire an intern, and outsource part of their deal to Singapore. Now when has that not happened? On some message boards, there were complaints about the middle portion going into fantasy land. It's the part where you get a Dilbert-like character who basically tells his company to fuck off. (Ironically though, he's rewarded with a raise and promotion (reminds me of a quote from my old boss) while his two coworkers who do "real" work get their asses handed to them with a pink slip). This part differs from Dilbert (although that generally borders on fantasy with talking cats, dogs, etc.) since the protagonist is able to escape from Hell (i.e. the office) and do what most people want to do: nothing and relax. Instead, he goes and does his fantasy of asking Jennifer Aniston (who plays a waitress at one of his favorite restaurants, strangely resembling TGIF) for a date. That works out which defies normal expectation because 1) he just admits to losing his job; and 2) she's hot. But I think it's partly because of guts on his part and the fact that she's really not that much which makes the relationship click at this point. Still, the climax ends with the office burning down by Milton, who's your stereotypical disgruntled employee who keeps getting shafted at every turn. While the events are a bit extreme, I've heard and seen more than one person lose it at a job and do something drastic. Obviously, this part is fantasy too but I'm sure people relish this scene. Obviously, one of the more interesting and despised characters in this ensemble is Bill Lumbergh, the prototypical pointy haired manager (although his hair obviously isn't pointy here). This guy is the political warhorse in the office and the guy you'd love to see a crane drop several tons of bricks on. This guy is simply annoying from his lines of "Okay...." or "Great now..." which reminds me a bit of South Park's Mr Mackey. Still, we've all scene this type at least once if you worked in an office before. Doesn't care about anyone except himself and pulls tons of power plays, to the point of being the one who has to know every little detail of your job (for instance, where Peter reveals that he has a meeting with the Bobs and Bill revealing he wasn't aware of it). He isn't the complete boss from Hell though (Kevin Spacey takes that award in Swimming with Sharks), but he makes his presence felt. The best scene is the surreal part where Peter has a nightmare of the guy screwing his girlfriend. You see this guy with his cheesy lines, drinking coffee while boning with Aniston. Just a well crafted scene! My only regret was not seeing this earlier. Although most of my jobs were never this bad, my last job definitely resembled Office Space. In my case, I had the pointy haired manager breathing down my back with his cheesy lines while being forced to report to a thousand other managers. Or the part where they want you to come in the office on the weekend, even though you don't get an extra cent. Or watching your coworkers get canned because some fat fuck is outsourcing his buddies at another company and getting kickbacks. I can go on. Funny thing in my case is that I did exactly what Peter did. Down in the second floor of my past building, there was this little Starbucks shop. Three lovelies hung around there so I'd often go down just to see them on occasion. One in particular was cute. Later, when my shift started in the late portion, I started noticing one was cheerfully talking to the foreigners every morning, I decided to tuck my nerve in and speak to her. Now, she's going to come with me to LA to study English. Funny how things work right? Probably the only thing I don't see myself is Peter being a construction worker in the end. I'm too small and too much of a nerd. But I certainly agree with the fact that it's better than being in that stinking hole.