Office Space

Office Space is the first live-action feature written and directed by Mike Judge, who's been lord of the guilty pleasure since he first unleashed Beavis and Butt-head in 1993. (He also co-created the current King of the Hill.) Cultivating something of a Dilbert vibe, he riffs engagingly on numerous worker-bee fantasies in this lightweight satire, which follows the hapless exploits of corporate goof Peter Gibbons (Swingers' Ron Livingston) and his fellow cubicle-jailed drones, Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman). Inspired bits of business abound--Bolton's constant irritation at sharing his name with an embarrassingly schlocky pop star; Stephen Root, as a meek character muttering feverishly about "the ratio of people to cake"--but they don't quite compensate for the half-baked plot (which the film's own characters cheerfully admit is stolen from the abysmal Superman III--the boys try to embezzle funds a penny at a time) and go-nowhere romance (featuring Jennifer Aniston at her perkiest). It's entertaining, all right, but it looks a lot more like a long TV pilot than a movie. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)[DVD Review—Nov. 2, 2005—Fox, 89 min., R, $19.98—Making its second appearance on DVD, 1999's Office Space: Special Edition with Flair! boasts a fine widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital surround sound. DVD extras include “Out of the Office: An Office Space Retrospective with Mike Judge,” featuring interviews with the cast (27 min.), eight deleted scenes (6 min.), DVD-ROM content (including a game, audio clips, and screensavers), and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a film that has garnered a considerable cult following since its initial release.][Blu-ray Review—Feb. 19, 2009—Fox, 89 min., R, $34.98—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1999's Office Space (Special Edition with Flair!) boasts an excellent transfer and a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Blu-ray extras include the retrospective featurette “Out of the Office” (27-min.) and eight deleted scenes (6 min.) from the previous standard DVD release, as well as a “Post-It Pandemonium—The Apathy on Men” trivia track, several games (“Grab the Stapler,” “Printer Beat-Down,” “Wack-a-Drone,” and “Jump to Conclusions 2.0”), and trailers. Bottom line: a solid Blu-ray debut for an uneven but popular satire.]