Office Space (1999)
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79% of critics liked it
(90 reviews) -
92% of users liked it
(293,616 ratings)
Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a computer programmer working for Initech in Houston. Every day, he and his friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman as not THAT Michael Bolton), suffer endless indignities and humiliations in their soulless workspace from their soulless boss,… More Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a computer programmer working for Initech in Houston. Every day, he and his friends Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael Bolton (David Herman as not THAT Michael Bolton), suffer endless indignities and humiliations in their soulless workspace from their soulless boss, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). For Peter, stuck in his cookie-cutter apartment with paper-thin walls and IKEA furniture, every day is worse than the one before it -- so every day is the worst of his life. To cap it off, Initech has hired a pair of "efficiency experts" to downsize the company. One Friday night, Peter's soon to be ex-girlfriend Anne (Alexandra Wentworth) forces him to go to an occupational hypnotherapist to relieve work stress. While Peter is under hypnosis, the therapist keels over and dies. As he never snaps out of his hypnotic state, Peter has a new outlook on life. If something annoys him, he just ignores it or walks away from it. He is completely relaxed and enjoying life for the first time in a long time. On Monday, Peter skips work and sleeps in. He gets up for lunch and drives down to a restaurant next to his office and asks the waitress he's had a crush on, Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), on a date. When Peter stops into the office to pick up his organizer, he's called in to talk to the efficiency experts. Relaxed and friendly, Peter charms them as he describes everything wrong with the office, including his boss. Even as Peter now appears at work only as the mood strikes him, the experts decide he's management material and give him a promotion even as they lay off the hardworking Samir and Michael. Peter then convinces his friends to exact revenge on Initech based upon an idea from Superman III. Not everything works out quite as planned. Office Space originated from writer/director Mike Judge's first animated short of the same name, created in 1991. The short was about Milton (reproduced in the film by Stephen Root), a damaged office drone whose complaints and threats about his sufferings go unheeded. ~ Ron Wells, Rovi
- Directed By
- Mike Judge
- Written By
- Mike Judge
- Genres
- Romance, Comedy, Special Interest
- In Theaters
- Feb 19, 1999 Wide
- On DVD
- Aug 31, 1999
- Studio
- 20th Century Fox
Critic Reviews
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Joe Leydon, Variety
Frequently uproarious.
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David Edelstein, Slate
A take-this-job-and-shove-it movie about the crushing malevolence of the corporate environment, it's on the verge of being really good.
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Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
Some horrible Monday, why not cut work to see it?
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Lisa Alspector, Chicago Reader
The gags about the daily grind and what happens when a drone forgets how to be submissive make for beautifully low-key satire.
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Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Judge's sense of the ridiculous serves him well.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Jennifer Aniston
as Joanna
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Ron Livingston
as Peter Gibbons
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Gary Cole
as Bill Lumbergh
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Stephen Root
as Milton
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David Herman
as Michael Bolton
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Ajay Naidu
as Samir
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Alexandra Wentworth
as Anne
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Diedrich Bader
as Lawrence
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Richard Riehle
as Tom Smykowski
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John C. McGinley
as Bob Slydell
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Todd Duffey
as Brian (waiter)
- Joe Bays
- Kinna McInroe
- Paul Willson
- Trey Parker
- William McGinley



