OFFICE SPACE

REVIEWED BY SHANNON H.

Our rating: 3 out of 5

Because of: sexual content, language

Rated:

We've either had them or know people who have had them. You know, those boring, dead-end cubicle jobs that everyone hates. Sitting in front of a computer all day working for more than one boss who makes twice as much as the employees is not fun. At least not for the characters in this film.

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is the typical, disgruntled employee. He works at a big corporation called Initech and spends his workday stuck in a cubicle behind a computer all day processing information. Every workday is the worst day of his life. His boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole), is the ultimate jerk who annoys Peter with having him do mundane tasks. He is so frustrated with his job that he sees a hypnotherapist to help him with his problems. After one session Peter feels so relaxed and carefree that he doesn't bother to show up for work for the weekend (his boss made him work the weekend to cover for some employees that were recently fired). He also gets the courage to ask out Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), the waitress at the local diner. 

Everything seems to be going well for Peter who hardly ever shows up to work (and when he does, he's wearing his street clothes). He feels happy and carefree, knowing that he's getting paid for hardly ever going to work (his boss doesn't feel too bothered by Peter's tardiness for some reason). Initech now hired a consultant to weed out workers that they felt were not productive in order to boost their stock and business. They do this by firing some of the most valuable employees after doing "interviews" of all the workers at Initech. They include Peter's friends and co-workers Samir Nagheenanajar and Michael Bolton (who gets a lot of flack for his name and his hatred of the singer of the same name) who have been some of the hardest workers. However, Peter Gibbons was awarded a promotion to upper managment despite his record of being late to or not showing up for work.

Peter, Samir, and Michael find out about Initech's dirty work and decide to get payback, literally. The three of them came up with a computer virus that would mess up the payroll records and give them the "hard-earned" money they feel they deserve. After their plan went into effect, Peter goes to a local ATM machine to check the balance in his savings account. After realizing that he has more than $300,000 in his bank account, he panics and chastizes his friends for goofing up and the three worry about being sent to federal prison for money laundering.

The film is rated R primarily for language. There are 3 or 4 f-words as well as several s-words, a-words, d-words, etc. Joanna flips off her boss after an argument over self-expression at work. The sexual content is mild but concerning. Peter and his neighbor Lawrence watch TV and get a glimpse of a woman's bare breasts (it's brief). After being in a relationship with Joanna, Peter falsely accuses her of sleeping with his boss, whom he hates, and in a dream sequence sees his boss with his girlfriend (nothing is shown except his boss's bare chest and a woman's leg). Lawrence talks about sleeping with two women at the same time. Peter and Joanna are seen cuddling in bed together, watching a martial arts film (both are clothed and nothing happens). There's no violence but the Initech building goes up in flames, destroying all their records, including Peter's little "glitch." If the editors filtered out the f-words, it would've easily been a PG-13.

Despite the fact that Peter doesn't get caught for what he does he is still unrepentant of his misdeeds to his company. Bill shows little concern for his employees. The consultants hired by Initech fire the most valuable employees and keeping those whom they feel will bring better business (in relations to business stock). This film is not a moral example because both employer and employee have no respect for each other. The movie was made to satirize big business and the stereotypical, disgruntled employee, which is understandable, but it still needs to weed out the profanity and sexual content. I enjoyed it and thought it was funny but the objectionable content can be filtered out. I rented this film because mainly it's a cult classic. The DVD had no features except for language and scene selection. Instead of renting the film, I'd recommend reading Scott Adams' comic strip "Dilbert" instead.