Office Space review

 Number 430 on the top 1000 films of all time is the comedy 'Office Space.'

Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a lowly-paid software engineer who works in a cubicle. Hiss boss Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole) is a micromanager, and Peter's wife is cheating on him. Aiming to retake control of his life, he hatches a scheme, along with his two colleagues Michael Bolton (David Herman) and Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu,) to defraud the company, while also impressing waitress Joanna (Jennifer Aniston. A subplot sees the mousey, oddball employee Milton Waddams (Stephen Root) try and fail to win respect from those around him.

This was an entertaining if not excellent comedy which has since gained cult status. Sure it made me chuckle a few times, but it wasn't pant-wettingly funny. What it did do was use its small $10 million budget to great effect. Out of the cast, Jennifer Aniston was the only A-lister. The rest were either complete unknowns or up-and-comers.

Of course, Ron Livingston and Stephen Root have both gone onto star in the critically acclaimed series Boardwalk Empire. Livingston was good as our protagonist Peter. Through him, we vicariously fulfil a common fantasy of upturning our hum-drum office lives. Have any of us never wished to tell our manager to shut up? Thankfully, my time of working in a corporate office was only short, but I still still had my fair share of annoying micro-managing bosses. Gary Cole filled the role to a tee.

Although a box-office disappointment at the time, Office Space has gone onto garner a big reputation in no small part to the numerous memes of it that now circulate around the internet. Most of these either centre on micro-manager Bill or the timid doormat Milton. Despite only having a small role, Root was one of the best parts of the film.

I understand why Office Space is now a cult comedy. I also understand why it never had any mainstream success. It just wasn't funny enough for that.