As you may or may not already know, I love the movie "Office Space." I saw it around the time a temp assignment of mine was ending and it reminded me so much of all the crazy office politics and shenanigans that went on there. I was laughing so hard. I just kept watching it all the time and eventually remembering the great lines. I thought about this movie again this week, as I was reading "Confessions of a Call Center Gal" by Lisa Lim. In my review of the book, I called it the chick lit version of "Office Space" for a new generation. In honor of this movie, I want to share my top 5 favorite things about it. (Spoiler alert for those of you who haven't seen it. And if you admit this to me, I shall send home with an assignment to watch it immediately!)
1. Milton! He is what makes "Office Space" the comic genius that it still is over 10 years later! He was originated from an animated short on MTV's "Liquid TV" and the live personification in this movie was even better than I ever thought possible. From guarding his stapler to not getting a slice of cake, Milton is just a classic movie character. And my husband does a fabulous impersonation of him.2. Pieces of flair. I used to work at a certain pancake restaurant that I have now been boycotting for 15 years. I wanted to work at TGI Fridays or Ed Debevic's at the time because then I could express my individuality. Instead, I had to wear this ugly dress that did not cover my arms enough to keep me from sustaining burns from hot plates. So I would dress up my outfit with decorative buttons and stylish scrunchies in my hair (this was the 90's, after all). This display was frowned upon by restaurant management, but it was a stupid summer job that I hated and I was going to wear my flair for as long as I could get away with it! Eventually, one of the managers said he liked one of the buttons I was wearing. Anyway, I loved the whole flair concept in this movie and how Jen Aniston's character, Joanna, eventually got fed up with the bureaucracy of Chotchkie's and gave him the two finger salute to show her opinion of "flair." Classic!
3. Peter getting a new attitude. Until the last time I saw this movie, I did not know that Peter actually fell under some sort of hypnosis (prior to the hypnotist having a heart attack) that changed his attitude about work and life. I love how he become all outspoken and told the job auditor guys how it really was, only to be rewarded for his candidness. I love when they have the whole "Damn, it feels good to be a gangster" montage.
4. "Jumping to Conclusions" mat. The brainchild of Tom Smykowski who is dismissed from his job for not being relevant enough to the company and then tries to kill himself but gets a large settlement from an accident instead and uses it to fund his "invention.""It was a "Jump to Conclusions" mat. You see, it would be this mat that you would put on the floor... and would have different CONCLUSIONS written on it that you could JUMP TO. "
5. The Lumbergh dream. Someone tells Peter that Joanna used to go out with Lumbergh. He is disgusted by this and even confronts her about it, getting them even further into a big fight that started after he told her about his money laundering scheme. He has a dream where Lumbergh is holding a woman's leg up while getting intimate with her and saying his usual shtick ("yeah...that would be great..."), then stopping midway to ask Peter if he put a cover sheet on the TPS report. Hilarious!
There are so many other funny things about this movie that I would need at least five more "top five" posts to cover them all!
This is an interesting article about the actors in "Office Space." Enjoy! And don't forget to shut down your computers before you get caught by your boss and requested to work on your days off. Have a great weekend!
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