Office Space

DB
5 hours ago
2 min read

TPS reports, performance reviews and a printer getting what it deserves.

Bob (John C. McGinley) and Bob (Paul Willson) - from Office Space

Here's what I've been watching and playing over the last seven days...

MOVIES

Office Space

Movie summary: Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss. (IMDb)

While I might not have been a fan of Idiocracy, Mike Judge's first big screen directorial effort, Office Space, is a movie I've watched quite a few times and enjoyed it every single time.

I haven't worked in the US and I'm aware that things are generally better when it comes to how employers treat employees in the UK, but there's still plenty of highly recognisable moments for anyone who's ever worked in an office.

I'll admit that Office Space doesn't look particularly great, but I can also recognise that it's always going to be really difficult to make an office where people are treated like mindless drones look cinematic.

Fortunately, how the movie looks doesn't really matter and it's Peter's (Ron Livingston) relationship with his two co-workers, Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir (Ajay Naidu) that is the core of the film.

And yes, Michael does not enjoy the fact that he shares his name with a certain singer-songwriter.

Everything kicks into high gear when Peter basically refuses to do his job and gets promoted for it, while the other two find out they're going to lose theirs.

Then it's time for them to borrow an idea from Superman III which goes very wrong and the ensuing freakout is a lot of fun to watch.

Despite the laughs in the main plot, a the majority of the humour does come from seeing just how shitty a lot of bosses can be in entirely different workplaces, or other workplace issues like the printer not working and providing an incomprehensible error message.

Happily, the printer being stolen and then viciously beaten and destroyed is very, very satisfying and funny - and a little bit alarming when one of the guys starts using his fists!

There's also a romance sub-plot featuring Jennifer Aniston as Joanna, a waitress who has a bad boss and terrible co-workers of her own, so there's even elements of a romantic comedy here too.

Office Space is a very, very good film and, being about workplaces and the problems that can exist in them, will never really go out of date, so I'd definitely recommend giving it a go. [8/10]

GAMES

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Still inching my way through this and somehow still not finished Act II yet.

I would normally turn down the difficulty to just blast through a game I wasn't overly fond of, but I'm already smashing through fights anyway, but - having paid close to full price - I want to get my money's worth.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

A slight uptick in my appreciation of this game as the last two main story missions have both been excellent - and I know I'm roughly three-quarters of the way through so there's not long left either.

Also currently playing: Batman: Arkham City, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)