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The
Movie:
"So I was sitting in my cubicle today, and I realized, ever
since I started working, every single day of my life has been worse
than the
day before it. So that means that every single day that you see me,
that's on
the worst day of my life." - Peter Gibbons
It is the textbook example of a cult film; one that does
horrible at the box office and then gains a legion of die-hard fans
once it
hits DVD (or video or the midnight movie circuit.)
Mike Judge's Office Space
came and went so
quickly it barely broke even during its theatrical release. Once it hit DVD however, word got around this
marvelous send up of dead-end jobs and office bureaucracy gained a new
lease on
life. Now you'd be hard put to find
anyone who hasn't seen the movie.
Happily fans of the film didn't have to wait long for a high
definition
release. Fox has put the movie out on
Blu-ray, ported over all of the Special Edition extras, and included a
few new
ones.
Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a low level office
employee at Initech, a soulless corporation much like many in the real
world. Peter's life seems to be going
nowhere and fast. He hates his job, his
girlfriend is cheating on him, and the walls of his apartment are so
thin his
neighbor can hear everything he's doing.
One Friday afternoon he discovers he has to work all day
Saturday and to
make matters worse, he gets roped in to seeing a hypnotherapist that
evening. At the group session, Peter
reluctantly lets the hypnotist put him under and is instructed to enter
a state
of total bliss. Peter finally is able to
relax, but the doctor dies of a heart attack before he can bring him
out.
Still totally relaxed, Peter blows off work on Saturday, and
shows up late on Monday. The office is
buzzing with worry because a set of efficiency experts have been called
in and
layoffs are eminent. While everyone else
panics, especially Peter's best friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael
(David Herman), he slips out to
an early lunch and for the first time has the nerve to talk to the
beautiful
waitress he's lusted after for years, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), and
convinces
her to come over to his place to watch "Kung Fu" that evening.
Going back to work Peter cuts off his interview with the
efficiency consultants early "Listen, I'm gonna go. It's been really
nice
talking to both of you guys" only to discover that it might have been
the best
course of action. When he discovers that
Samir and Michael have been laid off however, the trio comes up with a
scheme
to get back at the company. One that
goes horribly, and hilariously, wrong.
Parody is hard to do well, but this movie hits the mark with
laser accuracy. From several higher-up
reminding Peter to use the new covers for the TPS reports to the
cheerful
secretary who accuses anyone that's grumpy at the beginning of the week
of
having "a case of the Mondays" the script hilariously skewers the
overly
bureaucratic office and the people work there.
Mike Judge's script does go for some cheap punches (being
aggravated at
the office copier for example) but it does so with such a 'take no
prisoners'
attitude that it's easy to overlook and just laugh along with the film.
The cool and hip chain restaurant where Joanna works is just
as just as accurately skewered as the work place. The
fact that the wait-staff have to
'personalize' their uniforms to show their individuality with corporate
provided buttons or "flair" is just as outrageous as the appetizers
with trendy
names that are constantly being pushed on customers.
"Can I get you gentlemen something to nibble
on? Some Pizza Shooters, Shrimp Poppers, or Extreme Fajitas?"
Ron Livingston does a great job in the lead role. He
could have easily delivered his lines in a
Jackie Gleason fashion, ranting and raving about the idiocy that
surrounds
him. The laid back attitude he gives
Peter however works wonderfully and is a constant source of comedy. Jennifer Aniston is actually good in her part
too, but Stephen Root steals every scene he's in playing Milton, a
socially
maladjusted man who mumbles a lot.
Bringing belly laughs with every scene he's in, Root's
performance is
the icing on the cake.
Blu-ray
Disc:
Video:
Fox presents this classic film with its original 1.85:1
aspect ratio and a nice looking MPEG-4 AVC 1080p encode.
The film has never been eye candy, but this
HD disc does improve on the SD DVD with brighter more solid colors and
an
enhanced level of detail. Compared to
other Blu-ray discs this one looks fine but isn't in the top tier. The image rarely pops like the best Blu-rays
do, but that's largely because of the flat, sterile look of the offices
that
the DP was undoubtedly going for.
On the digital side things look very good. There
isn't any mosquito noise or aliasing,
and only some minor banding is a couple of scenes that most people
won't
notice. When all is said and done, this
is a solid looking disc.
Audio:
The movie comes with a 5.1 DTS-HD soundtrack that does the
job well. This is a dialog based comedy
and so the movie never shows off the audio format's potential. There is a scene or two backed by heavy rap
music and that sounds strong and tight, but besides that there really
isn't
anything here to show off your system.
Extras:
Most of the extras from the SE "with Flair!" DVD are
included on this Blu-ray. There's a nice
talk with Mike Judge that runs 25 minutes where he talks about the
origin of
the film and how Milton
was based on someone he briefly worked with.
There are also 8 deleted scenes that run about 5 minutes, and a
theatrical trailer.
Some new bonus items are presented for the first time on
this disc, but none of them are too exciting.
There's a new pop-up trivia track, "Post-it Pandemonium" which
is mildly
interesting and the four games, none of which could be considered fun.
Final Thoughts:
One of the classic films from the late 90's, Mike Judge's
merciless send up of office life is a must-see.
The film looks very good here and sounds just fine.
The new extras are mainly lame, but the
featurette ported from the SD DVD is excellent.
If you don't have a copy of this already, buying this Blu-ray is
Highly
Recommended. If you have the earlier SE
edition, it's a tougher call. The image
is a definite improvement, but it's not the difference between night
and day.
Note: The
images in this review are not from the Blu-ray disc and do not
necessarily
represent the image quality on the disc. |
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