MovieChat Forums > Office Space (1999) Discussion > This movie .... kinda sucks

This movie .... kinda sucks


Let's start with the "music" in it. Just god awful.

People talk like this movie is funny because office/cubicle life is just like this. It's *nothing* like this. It never was. The movie has some kinda funny parts, but meh, not that funny.

Why would a fire at the office have anything to do with whether they get caught? It just makes no sense.

Getting frustrated with the copiers or whatever? Meh, kinda cute but - just meh.

I didn't like this movie much the first time I saw it right when it came out. I just rewatched it because I felt sure I must have just missed something or whatever. Nope, it was worse this time. It's just very mundane and, well, anyone who thinks it's some great movie is just a moron.

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It's a cult movie. It might suck but it's cult status

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I don't think the movie sucks, it just doesn't realize its full potential.

It's one of those movies that have an absolutely brilliant first half, that gives you so much promise - and then falls flat on its face without properly delivering that promise.

It's like they ran out of ideas and then just had to end it 'somehow', and that was that.

This movie would've been better without the typical injected romance (Jennifer's unrealistic 'Kung-Fu loving, easy-to-pick-up waitress that doesn't get the 'flare' thing (not that many in the audience seems to get it, either) was so unnecessary - the 'flare' thing that underlines the sneaky, infuriating, passive-aggressive manipulation bosses do to employees is the only saving grace, but this could've been done without injected romance).

This movie would've been better without the protagonists unrealistically becoming criminals (this is where the movie went from 'surprisingly good and realistic depictions of many people's dreary office work life experiences' to 'silly, unrealistic, movielike stuff'.

It basically jumped the shark at that point.

The 'beating up the copier' to thug rap scene is absolutely sublime, and extremely funny - no wonder it has been parodied and memed to death. What office worker HASN'T ever wanted to do exactly that?

(Although to be fair, the fault lies not in the innocent copier machine that's just trying its best, but in the management and financing departments for not giving the employees proper equipment to do their jobs effectively)

The hypnosis scene is weird with so many people there (WHO ARE all those people anyway?? Why doesn't Peter address or acknowledge them AT ALL, or have any eye contact to them at any point?), and of course that is -not- how hypnotic suggestions work, but all in all, the scene is interesting and great, partially due to its rare realism in that the dying hypnotist's eyes actually point upwards when he dies.

Yes, it's a 'mundane' movie in many ways, making it great.

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What I dislike about it that although the idea is great and strong, it's like someone didn't have enough faith in it, and just HAD to make it more 'movielike' with the stupid things, like the criminal plot, the car accident, building on fire, and the disappointing and unrealistic ending.

I mean, HOW would Peter get the new job SO quickly that he's actually able to work on the Initech case? A programmer that instantly becomes a construction worker is assigned to work on a case of a burned building where he used to work instantly.. it's just so incredibly unrealistic, it boggles the mind.

It's also disappointing how the big goal is presented to us so clearly, and then we're not delivered on the promise. Peter should've reached a state where he can just 'do nothing' all day long every day for the rest of his incarnation.

But no, he doesn't even get two weeks vacation. Instantly going from a mentally demanding and emotionally damaging, psychologically destructive mental job to a physically demanding, well, physical job. Wouldn't that job require some kind of physical skills anyway? Or can just anyone be a construction worker, even with a weak, programmer's upper body?

BTW, HOW likely would it be that some 'supposedly hot' waitress 'loves Kung-Fu'? And they don't even specify 'Kung-Fu MOVIES', just 'Kung-Fu'. For all she knows, he could be talking about videos of Kung-Fu training or demonstrations or documentaries about Kung-Fu.

If they had had the guts to take the 'Office Space' idea and run with it and not make 'typical studio / producer compromises', this could've been the best movie ever made. Just show us irritating office work and what might realistically happen to the people that work there, slowly going mad and so on.

Milton wasn't even going mad, he was just 'unfairly pushed' and then burned the building. Movielike and stupid.

Think of Peter just slowly, slowly losing it more every day, until he goes all 'Falling Down' on the office..

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..or maybe becoming another 'Charlie Sheen meltdown', or whatnot.

Maybe after the hypnosis, he would just become 100% honest, just telling everyone, including 'Nina', what he thinks. There are so many interesting ideas and directions this movie could've taken, but instead of any of them, we get the injected romance, criminal plot, building on fire, car accident, 'romantic misunderstanding' and all that typical blah.

I am not a movie writer, so I don't know, but how about this idea; Peter slowly goes crazy by all the irritations until he has some kind of meltdown and as a consequence, has to see a shrink that then diagnoses him as (whatever label would be good for the story, they have zillions), and gives him 'disability', so in the end, Peter CAN spend his life without doing anything all day long.

Then we'd follow him just doing nothing at the end. That would be so satisfying.

Oh well, I guess this superficial, unrealistic, gimmicky plot that sounds like someone was forced to listen to the man with the money about 'what sells' instead of being allowed to follow his actual vision about the movie and the story is good, too.

Is it just me, or is so much potential wasted in this world? Is it a sickness to always be able to see the potential that wasn't realized?

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Rethinking this point a bit further..

How about Peter GETTING his wish of 'doing nothing' - his bills would somehow be paid, for example by the 'disability' idea I had, or something else. Perhaps he could find a community that can live off-the-grid (or he can just establish that kind of lifestyle), so he doesn't HAVE to be tied to money.

He could spend a long time in meditation, contemplation, relaxation, just sitting and doing nothing, until he starts to realize, THAT is not the key to happiness.

Simply removing annoying, exhausting busywork and hellish corporate office life from his life is not enough. Simply removing BAD stuff from his life is not enough - he has to add GOOD stuff.

So he starts learning more about not only 'being in the moment', admiring the nature, and so on, he starts to realize that computers are not bad per se, they're just used for boring stuff at work, and he can use them for entertainment instead.

He can also start learning his own creativity, maybe painting at first, then starting to make sound effects, composing music, creating animations and all kinds of things, until soon his life is just as busy and full as it ever was, but this time, he's enjoying every moment of it, as this time, he CHOSE all those 'busy things' in his life.

He could start taking trips to faraway places, learning of ancient and modern cultures and lifestyles, viewpoints to existence, different ways of thinking about life and everything, until he would eventually become enlightened and he would be able to naturally go back to 'doing nothing', but this time, every second would be euphoric bliss, until he leaves this world (and even afterwards).

Of course at some point he would be come a spiritual teacher, but not like the charlatans we usually see in movies and even in real life, he could teach Kung-Fu from the spiritual viewpoint and Tai Chi and Qigong as well, and after pondering about the 'meaning of all existence',.. meh, crappy idea, that.

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Why would a fire at the office have anything to do with whether they get caught?


If that building was all there was to Initech, and there were no corporate offices with computer backups, I think a fire destroying the building (and all records) would be sufficient to eliminate all evidence of wrongdoing. Considering this was the late 90's, that's not so far-fetched. Not so believable in today's era.

Also, it's pretty obvious that Milton took the money (hence, being at the expensive resort), so even if there was suspicion of theft, it would be aimed in his direction.

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"If that building was all there was to Initech, and there were no corporate offices with computer backups, I think a fire destroying the building (and all records) would be sufficient to eliminate all evidence of wrongdoing. Considering this was the late 90's, that's not so far-fetched. Not so believable in today's era."

Not far-fetched? Do you know how the internet works (even in 1999)?

Think about servers. They'd have traces and backups and bits and pieces of information of what's been happening.

Think about banks and bank servers. They would know about all the transactions, and moving 305 thousand (forgot the exat sum) would definitel be NOTICED by someone. The bank account with all its transactions are still there, completely traceable.

Initech as a corporation doesn't disappear just because a building is destroyed. Not all computers / hard drives are necessarily 100% beyond repair after that (if a stapler can survive that well, think of at least SOME hard drive somewhere in the basement or something).

It's impossible for a corporation that big to have only one building - they'd definitely have some kind of offsite backup and contracts with other companies about all kinds of things, maybe even finances. Someone would sort through all the debris, data, hard drives, interactions, emails, bank records and such to piece together what exactly happened, and where that money went.

Lumbergh was told about the problem before the building was scorched, so multiple people knew about something fishy being going on. There's no way the building on fire would've cleared everything, there'd have been so many traces and pieces of evidence pointing to Peter and his nerd gang, it boggles the mind how this movie implies they got away scott-free.

And nothing was solved in the end - that's the most disappointing thing of all. I guess hollyweird wasn't brave enough to give a message "You don't need a job".

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All of you suck. Office space was amazing. Duh!!

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Every so often an "I don't get office space" pops up.

Well I "get" Office Space and give it a 10/10

I don't get Lord of the Rings, I don't get Hunger Games

The English Patient was the worst movie ever to get an Academy Award

And I certainly did not appreciate the Revenant

SO THERE

~~the coins in the jar are for charity,~~
~~the coins in the tray are for sharing~~

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No, Sage. Anyone who thinks it's not a great movie is just a moron....like you!





Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

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It really is a great film. And to say the music is bad just shows that you don't have much of a sense of humor. It's not whether the music is good or not, it's the fact that it's hilarious when you mix it with needy white guys

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Jump off a cliff please

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It didn't "kind of sucked"

It TOTALLY SUCKED.

They were a bunch of total pussies who pissed themselves constantly. And the money files would not have been stored in one place. Just fix the glitch, retire to islands. OH and give the guy some backbone. Hell give all of them some backbone.

Does anyone believe that idiot would have been happy sweating, getting filthy, and over heating in the summer and freezing in the winter working outside for not much above minimum?

All losers and the movie bit the big one. I cannot believe it got as a ratings as it did. Started out as nothing and ended up even less.

OH well its long gone and hopefully eventually will fade into obscurity.

They who give up liberty to
obtain a temporary safety deserve
neither liberty or safety

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Whaaaat's happenin' Bob? Now with that attitude, I'm gonna have to have you come in on Saturday. And oh yeah, I'm gonna have to have you come in on Sunday also.

And you might just get your ass kicked for that post.





Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

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