Office Space: Special Edition with Flair: Movie & DVD Review (2005)

(Originally published 2005)

Playing like a live-action version of the “Dilbert” comic strip, Mike Judge's smart, funny “Office Space” will remind some of “Clockwatchers,” a film about the hell of temporary employment in a full-time world.

But “Office Space” suggests that full-time employees have it even worse: Their sentence isn't temporary--it's for life.

From the creator of “Beavis and Butt-head” and “King of the Hill,” this solid satire focuses on white-collar slavery, which--as anyone friendly with middle-management knows--can not only be ugly, but also charged with comic possibilities.

This is the kind of film that finds Jennifer Aniston being criticized for not wearing enough “flair” at her restaurant job, one character having to bear the humiliation of being named Michael Bolton, and three corporate computer grunts exacting revenge on a system that loves to deliver pink slips --but no respect.

As one character puts it, “Since I started working here, every single day has been worse than the day before, so that every day you see me is the worst day of my life.”

When he and his officemates destroy a fax machine midway through, the vindication and the glory is not only theirs, but ours.

Grade: B


DVD Features:

• Available Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Out of the Office: An Office Space retrospective with Mike Judge
• Deleted scenes: Peter Lies to Lumbergh, Happy Hour and Chotchkies, Peter Goes off on Nina, & Tom's Mixed Heritage Called into Question
• Theatrical trailer
• DVD-ROM audio